 I'm no doctor, but having read Ran Fiennes book 'Fit for Life' it seems he was almost obsessed by avoiding heart disease, and was often decribed as being a very, very fit person... just does not add up to me... I suppose it happens to the best of us...
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Sorry Alex Ford, didn't see your thread...
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 I don't know anything about his family history, but as I understand it, there's a strong hereditary element in many cases of heart disease, which may be why he was so concerned about it - if you look at the Times article linked from the news story it goes into some of his beliefs / practices.
Reminiscent of Jim Fixx, the bloke who invented jogging who keeled over with a heart attack providing a lot of ammo for people who like sitting around on couches eating ice cream and chips, but in his case it was a hereditary problem.
To put it in perspective, I used to work with a very nice bloke who ignored all the dietary principles, ate badly, drank loads, took almost no exercise and had the classic spindly legs / beer belly body. He keeled over and died in front of his kids when he was 41... Who knows how long he'd have lasted if he'd had a healthy lifestyle?
My worry is that the mass media look at someone like Fiennes and come up with the classic 'exercise is bad / does nowt' line to console themselves and their sedentary readers. And if you've ever met a few national journos you'll know what I'm saying...
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Interesting Jon, because in 'Fit for Life' he often made reference to this but made an effort to make the point that although diseases can be hereditory, people can do a lot to avoid them. Ironic really.
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 A famous darts player died yesterday, aged just 63. He was very, er, 'large'. But what has happened to poor Fiennes will give the 'sod exercise' types ammunition for years...
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...which is exactly what Jon said.
I'm off for a McDonalds, incidentally
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What the people who say 'sod excercise' don't realise is that people who do have a much higher standard of living and enjoy life, and I think I'd rather live as a reasonalbly fit young man who eats sensibly than some slob who sits around all day eating crisps, even if they did live longer...
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another person like this is james hunt (sorry was). ex racing driver stupidly fit, jogging, cycling running the usual stuff that F1 drivers get up to. and he just keeled over, heart attack, dead. just goes to show it can happen to the best of ya.
look at the old grannies out in china, most of them smoke like chimnies(sp) and are about 100 years old!
hmm, it makes you think
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ahhhhh, but wasn't James Huntthe on ewho did loads of drugs & partyed hard? IIRC he even left the commentry box for a spliff, & Murray Walker said "and James has gone outside to have a look at whats happening in the pits"
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I was wondering about this earlier today. Obviously this is wild speculation, but I wonder if his HA is due to the large quantity of pemmican he's eaten in his life.
That stuff is 50% lard, which can't be good.
Anyone out there know more about this?
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james hunt did party, rather, erm, hard. he had a reputation of something of a playboy within the paddock. very much into drugs, alcohol and parties.
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Mike, I dunno really, but looking at the Appendix of 'Mind over matter', he ate a diet containing 56.6% fat, whilst a normal diet would contain approx. 35%
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 In the end, we've all got to die sometime, so we may as well have a great time whilst we're here. If someone's idea of a good time is chips, drugs, cigarettes and alcohol, then good luck to them. Personally I'd rather have loads of excitement in the mountains and I get a buzz out of the element of risk in our sport. I'm worried that the risk thing may be legislated away.
Most of us will either die of old age or in a car crash whatever we do.
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Perhaps there's a market for low fat pemmican, or whatever it's called. You know, Sainsbury 'Be Good To Yourself Pemmican', or Pemmican Lite, though I suppose that kind of defeats the purpose of it a little...
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 incidently is smoking related in anyway to heart disease? i know u can smoke n still be fit but can never remember whether it leads to heart trouple as well as lung cancer n various other embarrising problems.
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 I expect smoking doesn't help though. I just wonder if doing extreme things such as polar expeditions is simply so strenous that even ultra-fit people would experience problems later in life. Who knows.
Either way let's hope he gets well soon and gets back to what he enjoys the most.
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 Ben - smoking is very much related to heart disease, peripheral vascular disease (which leads to gangrene and amputations) and cerebral haemorrhages (strokes) due to hardening or blocking of arteries.
I have lost several close relatives due to the preceding smoking-related ilnesses/diseases.
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 One of my brother's close friends died of a heart attack just over a month ago.
Early thirties, ran marathons, collapsed after a half marathon he was using a building block in his training programme.
To echo John: turns out it was hereditary. Could have gone at any time. So not really a reason not to run marathons or take up smoking.
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