New Year is typically a time when we make promises to look after our health better — take more exercise, eat more healthily.
The good news is overall we’re living longer, with average life expectancy for British men now 78.05 years and for women 82.4 — up from the early 1980s when women’s life expectancy was 77 and a man’s 71.
This is down to several factors, including better nutrition and medical advances. Yet our individual lifespans are also influenced by genetics, personal medical history and lifestyle, as these seven brave souls discovered.
We asked them to talk frankly about their health; Dr Gideon Paul, a physician and consultant cardiologist from University Hospitals of North Staffordshire NHS Trust, then predicted their life expectancy. For some it was a real health wake-up call . . .
Dangerous passion: Danny Clarke, 58, has had two heart attacks while having sex
REFORMED SMOKER
Danny Clarke, 58, a retired technical sales executive, lives in Essex with wife, Reta, 58, a retired hospital sister. They have three grown-up sons and one 18-month-old grandson. Danny is 5ft 7 and weighs 15 stone (his body mass index, or BMI, is 32.89, officially ‘obese’).
Seven years ago I had an angina attack and my GP prescribed a nitro spray (it dilates blood vessels so the heart pumps more easily). Then three weeks later I had a heart attack.
Bizarrely, both incidents happened when my wife and I were making love.
On reflection, it wasn’t surprising. I wasn’t exercising, ate junk food and worked 11-hour days. I’d also smoked 60 a day for around 20 years, and my father died of a heart attack aged 57.
I’d stopped smoking after the angina, but only retired in March this year when I realised I
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