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I'll never forget going on a sales call about 10 years ago and being told to wait in the lobby for a while because the person I was to see had just died that a.m. Uncomfortably I waited for a bit, and a guy came out to tell me that the death of the person I was to see caught everyone by surprise because the dead guy was in the best of health, in his early 40s, had NO body fat, and exercised every morning before work. In fact, he had dropped dead while working out on an exercise bike that morning at the "Y".

The guy they sent to tell me this bad news was wheezing, had a cigarette and cup of black coffee in one hand, a big cream-filled donut in the other hand, powdered sugar all over his tie, and had to be 50 pounds overweight, and appeared to be in his late 50s. Coulda' been a good Seinfield episode! ROTFLMAS (but not then of course!)

...caught everyone by surprise because the dead guy was in the best of health, in his early 40s, had NO body fat, and exercised every morning before work.

Everyone needs some body fat, so that sounds like a bad problem right there. And if he was overexercising, he was likely putting quite a strain on his heart. So he couldn't have been in the BEST of health.

I just lost a friend and co-worker in April. We had worked together since 1983. He was the fittest person you could imagine. He ran and rode his bike daily. His daily running journal showed just 16 days short of 6000 consecutive days of running over 10 miles per day in 1997. A volleyball game caused a sprained ankle that broke his consecutive running days. He was 44 years old. The day he died, he had just whipped an opposing team in "walleyball". The people who played with him on a regular basis said he was in fine form, good attitude, no complaints. At 2 AM on July 16th, his wife heard him gasping for breath. Thinking it was a bad dream, she tried to wake him. No success. She called 911. He died of a massive heart attack between his bed and the ambulance. Not what you would expect of a guy who was a top competitor on the corporate running team.

Since diet is the topic on this thread, I'll make note that my friend consistently chose breads, fruits and candies as staples in his diet. Guinness was a big favorite too. He could always burn off what he ate. I wonder if his dietary choice led to high levels of insulin. That could have been doing silent damage while he looked just fine on the outside. His father was a heavy smoker and died of cancer at age 53 in 1986.