To find what’s happened to Michael Mosley quite anxiety provoking

[Glasto73lover]

It’s that idea of never really knowing what’s going to happen- the idea that we walk such a fine line in life. If you think too much about it, you probably wouldn’t leave the house.!

A close family member died suddenly and tragically a decade ago - literally dropped dead at home age 48 - something went pop in their head. So you genuinely don’t know when your time is up.

It’s that idea of a chain of consequence that can go so horribly wrong too- people always say ‘oh but you could get hit by a bus’ - stuff like this actually makes me really anxious. So many what ifs.

For Michael Moseley - a chain of probably inconsequential decisions may have led to his death- not having a phone on him, choosing to undertake a walk that in the U.K. is nothing but in that heat, was devastating and probably caused his death.

It makes me anxious that I won’t know if I am making those decisions - am I making sense? I think as I have got older, I have become more anxious and risk averse (thanks menopause) and as a result, you could end up not leaving the house. How do you choose a sensible approach? Not too much risk but some!

But I also want to live my life too!! I guess I find incidents like this quite difficult!

I guess always having a phone, not undertaking walks in intense heat in an unfamiliar place etc are the common sense points that will come out of this tragedy.

Aibu to find it anxiety provoking tho?!

I think he would have enjoyed a lot of the wide ranging topics touched upon in this thread, and I can't help but think of a parallel universe where he's sitting in a hospital bed in Rhodes, writing notes for an article entitled something like: "A brush with death: what I learnt from my experience of heatstroke" 😪

I’m a physiotherapist and I’ve spent many years working in paediatrics and then the rest of my career in palliative care, so the beginning and ending of life . I have also been a bit of a health freak and ardent fan of Michael Mosley. My observations of over 30 years working in the health sector on either ends of the age spectrum, is that we are all so incredibly fragile. I treated children that had unusual, avoidable but life changing accidents ( falling on a pen, swallowing a lollipop, being hit by random golf ball , being run over on a zebra crossing, to name just a handful). It’s a miracle we are actually born never mind making it through childhood/ teen years.
Whilst working in palliative care, I witnessed the fittest most health conscious people succumb to cancer/ neurological diseases. It was truly heartbreaking.
A few months ago I got absolutely annihilated on a thread by the OP who insisted we could largely control our own destiny by taking certain health measures. I think we can adopt a sensible attitude and take responsibility for our own health but aging and deterioration of the body is inevitable. Our skeleton, the scaffolding of our bodies weakens and there is a decrease in bone density making us more likely to fracture bones if we fall. We lose muscle mass and joint flexibility with our advancing years. Our kidneys, heart, brain function decline and don’t get me started on lung capacity and falling VO2 max! It is very depressing.
I think people(me included) like to feel in control of the aging process and struggle with their mortality as it’s such a difficult concept to come to terms with. I religiously stand on one leg, do flexibly exercises, plank, walk daily etc but I’m not altogether convinced it’ll make much difference but I live in hope!
RIP Michael Mosley -you seemed a like you were beautiful soul and you will be missed

I’m sure cardio is very useful as we age - it keeps lungs and heart exercised and everything flushing through your system if you know what I mean. Weights/yoga only would feel a bit imbalanced to me.
Also being regular weight is a huge advantage as we age. I don’t understand people saying it’s not. Obesity is linked to so many diseases.

Can people diagnosed with pre diabetes control it with lifestyle changes or do they eventually end up on medication too?

That was the point of the fast 800 diet MM promoted and NHS has now (very slowly) started to adopt. As I understand the pre diabetes could be put into remission. There’s an MM old bbc program maybe on YouTube now, I think it included a very overweight man (lay preacher?) who had fatty liver and all sorts.

So women's fertility is comparable to men hunting? Who hunts these days?

So lifestyle choices are effective in some cases

But he was planning to go back to their holiday home in the opposite direction of this mountain range. In fact he was planning to get the bus from Pedi.

People are talking like he planned a 3 hour hike through the mountains. He was planning on a half hour walk to Pedi and then the bus. Something happened at Pedi to cause him to start walking in the opposite direction of the holiday home and not to get the bus. I think it's quite possible he was already confused.

Happened to my mother, I am not sensitive to death anymore. Everyone is going to die, just hope you won't die painfully.

But he was planning to go back to their holiday home in the opposite direction of this mountain range. In fact he was planning to get the bus from Pedi.

No, these things haven’t been confirmed. We only know he was going for a walk.

Effective in doing what?

He was planning to walk somewhere, the walk from pedi to accommodation should have been 30 mins and the walk from pedi to the beach where he was found (and could have caught the families river taxi back to accommodation?) should also have been 30-40 mins.
Either way he took a wrong turn

Increasing your chances of living a healthier life

My MIL has managed to do this on the back of MM’s advice in his books. Also if you read and watch on Netflix the Blue Zone Diets, it is much more than just food m, it is lifestyle, emotional happiness. One man on the Netflix programme was from a Greek Island, moved to the U.S at 18, had a nice life but in his 60s diagnosed with Lung cancer they said he had a short time left so he decided to live out his last days back on the Island he was born on. He started to eat the diet that was not UP American, drink the local wine and dance in the evenings with local people and he lived another 20 years I think! Maybe he was lucky, who knows but maybe not.

"Dr Mosley's body was discovered four days after he went missing in a rocky area beside Agia Marina, around a 30-minutes walk from the village of Pedi where Dr Mosley was last seen on CCTV."

https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/dr-michael-mosley-police-had-cctv-four-days-before-found/

I don’t disagree- but I think hard cardio such as HIIT, Bodyattack or fast running probably isn’t necessary. You can get a cardio workout by walking up a steep hill or even with weights if you lift heavy enough!

Are you being deliberately perverse?

There also a big difference - healthwise - between morbid obesity and “overweight.”

Concepts of ideal weight have moved about over time.

A very balanced post. And yes “ hope” - and desire - play a big part in the results people expect from their attempts to control outcomes.

Temps in the Middle East are around 50°C in the summer, that is incomparable with 35° in Greece. In South Asia now we are generally 38-43°C and it's roasting hot but a 45 minute stroll in the hills wouldn't kill a westerner, with a parasol/hat. The locals are more used to it, but no one envies those digging roads (with picks and shovels), it is sweltering.

@Thebellofstclements The ME is a vast place, I lived there and literally said it was cooler than Qatar. It was 30-35c in the summer, but experienced 40c at the dead sea. So literally the same as Greece.

Other than ‘natural causes’, we don’t really know yet exactly what happened to him. Yes it’s possible that he was overcome by heat /dehydration, but it’s also possible that he suffered a devastating cerebral or cardiac event which led to his collapse. If this was the case, not having a phone or water with him wouldn’t have made any difference to the outcome. This is just so very sad, but it isn’t really helpful to speculate or lay blame until we know more.

This is a good short documentary about his death and his work/legacy

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0020jxw

But his plan was to get a bus from Pedi. Yes, his behaviour was extreme which suggests there was something wrong.

I personally found his plan very easy to follow. But obviously different things suit different people. His plan does have options though - you can just do 800kcals on 2 days per week.

I think there is a big difference between doing sensible things that can promote a longer, healthier life and seeing any of those things as guarantees, because they're really, really not.

My younger brother has always been very sporty and fully embraced the gym. He had to have a hip replacement in his 40s (too many marathons/road runs) when extremely tall and rangey, quite different to the small wiry people who tend to excel at these. He pointed out "Well, Nan had a hip problem". Yes, Bro, she was 88 (in the early 1980s when that was really old) and fell over. She was one of the scone loving old ladies mentioned by a PP who thought lard was a healthy cooking medium and "gym" was a misspelling of "Jim".

There is no telling, sometimes.