Stephen Hawking's weight: mild CR?

[KHashmi317]

It's hard to dig up reliable data on celebs. Here's what Google suggests:

https://healthyceleb.com/stephen-hawking-height-weight-body-statistics/57756

 

Height: 5 ft 6½ in or 169 cm

 

Weight: 61 kg or 134.5 pounds

 

Given Hawking's emaciated appearance (from photos and videos), I wonder if the dude was mildly CR'd? Inadvertently, of course ;)

 

The guy is certainly an outlier in many human-achievement categories. Undoubtedly (esp. given his wealth and celeb states), he received superb health care and nutrition -- and for decades. A tribute to modern medicine, and hospice.

 

Still, I wonder about that weight and optimized nutrition.

Maybe some entrepreneurial author will one day market:

 

The Stephen Hawking Diet: How To Live An Extra 50 Years

 

[Todd Allen]

I expect Stephen Hawking's caloric intake was quite modest, he undoubtedly wasn't eating for pleasure.  But his energy needs were modest too.  At 134 lbs and 5'6", I expect Stephen Hawking was obese in body fat % terms.  Probably something like 40% bodyfat maybe quite a bit higher unless he was successfully engaging in some form of muscle retaining therapy.  Myself, at 5'10" (and a lot more muscular than Stephen Hawking) at 136 lbs I dexa scanned as 26% bodyfat.  I'm aiming for a weight of 120 lbs though if I don't put on more muscle somewhat lower might be better.  The challenge for me is a good fraction of my remaining body fat is intramuscular fat and with compromised muscle function it is hard to lose and I increasingly suspect that long term accumulation of intramuscular fat is not just a sign of muscle dysfunction but an active contributor to muscular degeneration.

[KHashmi317]

Not sure how reliable this is, but someone from the lowcarber.org forum noted:

 

 

I just finished reading the memoir of famous physicist Stephen Hawking's first wife, Jane Hawking, called Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen. It's a good read, and it especially resonated with me as a wife who deals with her husband's chronic illness.

 

He was diagnosed with motor-neuron disease in 1963, and his incredible longevity (he was only expected to live two more years at that time) has been attributed to any number of factors, from having a mutated form of the illness to the good care of Britain's NIH (a theory which Jane demolishes pretty thoroughly.)

 

But no one has ever discussed his diet as a factor. She reveals, as his full-time cook and caretaker for twenty five years, that in the early 70's they discovered his disease-related choking issues would be reduced greatly if he ate gluten- and sugar-free. A meal strategy that continues to this day, as she revealed that a recent banquet in his honor had not been planned with his input, and "all he could eat was the salmon."

 

I'm astounded that no one seems to pay any attention to this radical difference in how he eats compared to other Lou Gehrig sufferers. If a Paleo/low carb approach is a factor in keeping him alive... that's awfully big to ignore.

 

 

Later in that thread, another member noted:

 

 

 

 

I've read that mouse models of ALS are made worse with calorie restriction. The founder of the Calorie Restriction Society died from ALS, I've always wondered if that were a coincidence, or if at least the calorie restriction hurried things along.

===========

Quote:

 

Patients with elevated triglyceride and cholesterol serum levels have a prolonged survival in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Dorst J1, Kühnlein P, Hendrich C, Kassubek J, Sperfeld AD, Ludolph AC.

Author information

 

Abstract

 

Weight loss is a common phenomenon and an independent prognostic factor in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Several potential causal mechanisms, including intrinsic hypermetabolism and deficient food intake, have been discussed. We investigated the influence of fasting serum glucose, cholesterol, and triglyceride levels at time of diagnosis on survival in ALS. Serum cholesterol (LDL, HDL, and LDL/HDL ratio), triglycerides, and glucose were investigated in 488 patients (age of onset = 57.6 ± 12.6 years) in relation to survival and revised Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Functional Rating Scale (ALS-FRS) data. High serum levels of both fasting cholesterol and triglycerides had a significantly positive effect on survival (p < 0.05). We found a median prolonged life expectancy by 14 months for patients with serum triglyceride levels above the median of 1.47 mmol/l. The results suggest that the lipid metabolism and the nutritional status of ALS patients are important prognostic factors. These parameters should be thoroughly monitored during the clinical management of these patients. In case of progressive loss of body weight, a diet rich in lipids and calories should be considered. However, the final decision whether a lipid-rich diet should be recommended to ALS patients can only be based on a double-blind placebo-controlled interventional trial. Our results further imply that lipid-lowering drugs, e.g., statins, should be applied carefully in ALS patients although individual risk considerations must be made.

 

==========

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21128082

 

Ridiculous final sentence. 

 

Statins in ALS patients. What the results imply  is that they should never be on statins, ever. A study to show safety of these drugs in ALS shouldn't even get past an ethics review board.

 

If someone in SH's specific condition could comfortably feed via a liquid diet, methinks CR would be beneficial. Especially in light of improved immunity from common illness and infections. 

 

Finally, some info on SH's supps -- and other things -- from a 2002 BMJ article:

 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1123440/

 

 

Professor Hawking supplements his diet with daily mineral and vitamin tablets, and zinc, cod liver oil capsules, folic acid, vitamin B complex, vitamin B-12, vitamin C and vitamin E are said to have been particularly helpful. He also follows a diet free of gluten and vegetable oil and avoids convenience foods; quite recently he started to include a small amount of dairy produce.

 

As far as medical care is concerned, he receives passive chest physiotherapy and passive and active physiotherapy to all limbs and muscle groups.

[Mechanism]

Edited