what was causing the build up of fat on your arteries ‘flap jack’

No idea. Wish I knew as I’m a proper ticking time bomb.

Healthy diet, strong, fit, keen on vigorous exercise.

I had rheumatic fever as a kid and did 6 straight years of antibiotics as a result. Could be an artifact of that (no gut bacteria = no vitamin K2 = calcification) but that’s a guess and could never be proved.

Not just hibernating animals, bears and hedgehogs being examples of this, but our cave-dwelling ancestors?

The trouble with this, is that it assumes our ancestors had one diet. Or at the very least had access to ripening fruit. The spread of humans (even Homo Erectus over 2mya) must mean that different populations ate wildly different foods, and in fact as we such a successful generalist species, that you could probably make a decent argument to show that we thrived because we didn’t always have access to easily gathered and digestible sugar sources.

Well good luck FJ hope its sorted. Yup you can do all the right things but there could always be something lurking to get you.

Last Oct, driving to sportive on M5 was hit from behind in my car in the slow lane at 0640 in the morning. No other cars on the road. I was doing about 60 when I hit the crash barrier. Some tit in a BMW 525i asleep I guess rear ended me. Walked away with nothing but whiplash. Could have been so very different.

All you can do is make the best of it and try and cut out the self imposed own goals like life style where you have a choice.

just received my test results back from the fuller breakdown test:

Total Cholesterol = 6.7 (target <5) not great
HDL = 1.87 (Target >1) good
LDL = 4.47 (Target <3) not good
Triglycerides = 0.8 (Target <1.7) good
LDL to HDL ratio 3.6 (Target <3.5) ok

So all in all: not dead, yet. But illustrative of how unhelpful a statistical forecast for cholesterol is (mine was 4.5) and I dont think it should be used for individual guidance.

my BP of 140/90 is a bit more of concern as it’s higher than the last time I got tested 10yrs ago.

How do people get these letters asking them to come to the Doc’s?

I’ve been once in the last 10 years (the snip); do you think they’ve forgotten me?

the red LED in my palm started flashing. I made a run for it but….

How do people get these letters asking them to come to the Doc’s?

I get emails / SMSes from the GP asking me to come along for a MOT, blood pressure check etc. Never bother as it’s a waste of their time and money:

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/sep/21/nhs-wasting-450m-on-mid-life-mot-health-checks-doctors-say