I actually started drafting this week’s blog quite a few days ago, as had family plans this weekend and therefore less time. I wanted to write about an inspirational patient from this week, which I have done, but given a tragic accident will start with that. As readers will know I’m a big football fan, and the whole football world was shocked on Thursday at the sudden death in a car crash of Portugal and Liverpool footballer Diogo Jota, and his brother Andre Silva. 28 is no age to die, and the story is all the more heartbreaking in that he only married his long term partner 11 days prior, and he leaves behind 3 young children. He had an annoying knack of scoring against my team Arsenal (I just googled it – he scored 6 goals and an assist in 12 appearances against us, pretty impressive). I guess for me it just highlights again the unpredictability of life, and the need for us to make the most of the time we have. We never know what is around the corner. Yes it is often sensible to plan for the future, but that should not come at the expense of living in the present. My thoughts are with his family.
It’s not uncommon that I’m taken aback by stories my patients tell me, and this week was one such occasion. I was really inspired by a chap nearing his 90th birthday who came to see me with worsening breathlessness. He had a significant cardiac history, and been getting more breathless for a few months, especially on a recent holiday. Now usually patients of that age in my experience keep their holidays fairly local; perhaps a cruise from Southampton if they are well off. Not this man. Have a guess where he went? You’ll never guess.
Antartica.
What a legend. There was something he wanted to see there, and wasn’t about to let a silly thing like being nearly 90 with a heart condition get in the way! I absolutely love that attitude, and is a great demonstration of what is possible if you put your mind to it. On a similar note, have you heard of Hiromu Inada? Nor had I. A couple of weeks ago, 92 year young Mr Inada completed the Cairns 70.3 mile IRONMAN in just over 10 hours. He already holds a Guinness World Record, when at 85 he became the oldest person ever to cross the finish line at the brutal IRONMAN World Championship in Kona, Hawaii. For those who are not triathlon experts – that is a total of 140.6miles in incredible heat – a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and the small matter of a marathon run to finish (26.2 miles). You could be forgiven for thinking he is a lifelong athlete, so maybe it comes naturally to him, even to have completed this amazing feat at his age. Not so. He was apparently rather overweight when he took up triathlon at age 60 when he retired, in a bid to shed some pounds and get fit!
We will all decline with age, whether that is eye-sight, strength, fitness. It is inevitable. The rate of decline can be dramatically lessoned however. In an ideal world, we would be at peak strength and fitness in our late 20s, giving ourselves the absolute best base from which to decline. Often this just isn’t feasible though. Life gets in the way, and people wake up at 40/50/60/70/80 and wonder where the time went. It is never too late to start exercising. It is so hard often to take that first step, but take it we must to maximise the chances of leading fulfilling healthy happy lives as we age. I mentioned at the outset having family plans, and that included seeing some very old friends from University. The mum is 45 and has been in daily back pain for a year now. She has put on weight as can’t exercise as easily as she used to, and generally seemed pretty fed up. She couldn’t join the Dads and our children on the inflatables in the lake at the New Forest Water Park (super fun!!). Not being able to do the things we want to do because our bodies let us down is awful, and something I confront every week at work.
As you might tell, all of this has left me rather reflective this week. There are lots of thoughts swimming around, and I’m not quite sure yet how to order or process them! I do however feel a real sense of gratitude for my own body, in particular its ability to move (even if my legs are screaming at me today after a crazy lower body workout yesterday – i’ve had to take painkillers myself which is most unusual!). A ‘gratitude practice’ is a key component of many meditation practices, and fundamentally good for mental health. Perhaps that then is the feeling to leave you with today. Gratitude for what we have.
In this week’s research video, I discuss a trial of bio-impedance scale (weighing scales that use electrodes to calculate your body fat percentage) data on body fat, and how that relates to BMI with respect to the risk of heart disease, and all-cause death risk. By coincidence a patient showed me her home scale app data this week, so when I saw the journal article I thought it would be an interesting thing to talk about.