Dr Paddy Barrett Profile picture
Dec 17, 2023 8 tweets 3 min read Read on X
As a cardiologist, I've seen thousands of patients over the years.

Here are the 5 things I recommend to every patient I see.

📕Make Sure To Bookmark✅ Image
1. Make Fitness A Priority

High levels of fitness have the strongest associations with longevity.

The evidence is overwhelmingly clear.

If you are not prioritising fitness.

You are leaving the biggest opportunity for benefit on the table. Image
2. Understand That Lifetime Risk Is What You Should Focus On

Most people focus on 10 year risk estimations.

At younger ages, these calculations are as close to useless as makes no difference in my view.

Use Lifetime Risk calculators to determine risk/benefits. Image
3. Know Your Lp(a) Levels

There is about a 1 in 5 chance you have an elevated Lp(a)

Which significantly increases your risk of early heart disease.

It's easy to check.

Most people have no idea what their levels are. Image
4. Track Quantifiable Metrics

Use validated metrics to assess your risk and progress over time:

Blood Pressure
Muscle Mass
Visceral Fat
V02 Max
APOB

What isn't measured isn't managed. Image
5. You Are The One Driving The Ship

Your doctor really does care about you.

But YOU are the one in charge.

Don't be a passenger. Be the driver.

YOU have the most to GAIN and the most to LOSE.

Act accordingly. Image
That's a wrap!

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More from @Paddy_Barrett

Feb 3
The Math of Longevity: How Small Changes Today Can Add Decades to Your Life.

📕Make Sure To Bookmark✅

/1 Image
Let's be clear by what we mean by longevity.

It's not about living to 150.

It is not about living forever.

No matter what Bryan Johnson says.

It's about something different.

/2 Image
Longevity is about adding another 10-20 years to your life.

As a percentage of your life, that is a very big deal.

The key to setting the odds in your favour is more about lifestyle choices and getting the fundamentals right

Rather than slightly less extreme approaches.

/3 Image
Read 8 tweets
Feb 2
Psst...

Did you know there is an app on your phone that can tell you A LOT about your risk of dying prematurely?

Want to know what to look for?

🧵👇

/1 Image
Whether you have an iPhone or an Android phone, there is a 'Health' App that tracks many of your health biometrics continuously over time.

Your metrics today are useful, but the average over the last year is even more insightful.

Have a look at yours & see where you stand.

/2
Resting Heart Rate

Compared with a resting heart rate of 45 beats per min, the higher your resting heart rate, the greater the chance of dying from ANY cause.

The risk is most significant when resting heart rate is >90 bpm

Regular aerobic exercise ⬇️ resting heart rate

/3 Image
Read 8 tweets
Jan 19
Jeanne Calment died in 1997 age 122.

She is thought to be the oldest living person on record.

What can we learn from healthy centenarians to extend our lifespan?
🧵 Image
"All I Want To Know Is Where I'm Going To Die, So I'll Never Go There".

First off let’s see what most people die from.

That is, so we don’t go there.
/2 Image
In developed nations about 90% of people will die from an NCD. A non-communicable disease.

Think heart disease, cancer or dementia.

As opposed to a communicable disease such as malaria or an injury from a road traffic accident.
/3 Image
Read 14 tweets
Jan 11
Exercise is probably the single best way to extend lifespan.

You need to exercise like your life depends on it.

Because it does.

Here's why.

📕Make Sure To Bookmark✅

🧵👇
/1 Image
When someone says they ‘want to get fit’, I typically have no idea what they mean.

How you exercise if you want to be an Olympic-level sprinter compared to running 5 km at the weekends is vastly different.

So when you say you want to exercise to get fit, to what end?
/2
I base my goals on lifespan and health span:

to be an active and capable 90-year-old.

I want to win at the ‘game of life’.
/3
Read 23 tweets
Jan 5
Is it possible to reverse coronary artery disease?

As a cardiologist, I get this question all of the time.

🧵👇

/1 Image
Every time I tell a patient they have coronary artery disease, their first response is usually:

“Can you get rid of it?”

My response:

Get rid of it completely?

No.

But....

/2
Can you potentially get the plaque to reduce in size, become more stable and potentially less likely to cause a heart attack?

Yes.

And that is a big deal.

/3
Read 23 tweets
Jan 4
Why you need to measure your apoB

To fully understand your cardiovascular risk.

📕Make sure to bookmark ✅

🧵👇

/1 Image
Atherosclerosis occurs when a cholesterol particle becomes trapped in the artery wall.

It is the inflammatory response to this particle retention that causes the formation of atherosclerosis.

/2 Image
Many factors make the lipoprotein particle more likely to become retained in the artery wall

Such as high blood pressure, insulin resistance and smoking.

But fundamentally, there must be a particle to cross the artery wall.

Particle = Cause
Risk Factors = Amplifiers

/3
Read 18 tweets

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