Jeremy Clarkson talked about stenting and said: “A few days away from death? Maybe.”
Old Top Gear The presenter said he had written a lot about the “exhausting effects of ageing” and found a “sudden deterioration” in his health after returning from a holiday in the Indian Ocean.
His symptoms included “clammy” hands and “tightness” in his chest; he ignored them both until pins and needles appeared on his left arm. In his latest column for The Sunday Times, he wrote that he heard the news of Scottish first minister Alex Salmond’s fatal heart attack, which caused him to go to the doctor.
A heart attack was ruled out after an ECG, blood tests and x-rays taken at John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. He wrote: “One of the arteries that supplied my heart with nourishing blood was completely blocked, and the second of the three was heading that way.”
Clarkson was taken to the operating room and then doctors inserted a stent, a short, wire-mesh tube that helps keep your artery open, according to the NHS. Stents can save lives. Clarkson said he thought: “Crikey, that was close.”
Over the years, the star admitted that he has enjoyed a life of eating red meat, drinking beer, smoking and preferring to drive fast rather than walk to the shops.
The Who Wants to Be a Millionaire host openly discussed the health challenges he’s faced.
hearing loss
The Grand Tour star has been struggling with hearing loss for 12 years and complains that people are not understanding when he has difficulty hearing.
Clarkson complained: “I put my hand to my ear and said, ‘I’m sorry, what did you say?’ Why does a spit-filled anger arise when I say this?
He announced that he was hospitalized in June this year after completely losing his hearing in one ear.
He explained: “There was no pop or trauma. One minute it was working normally but then there was nothing left. I stuck my finger in my right ear and was instantly enveloped in a blanket of absolute silence.”
But now the TV star has sought medical help to become the proud owner of a “stylish” new pair of hearing aids.
dementia fears
Clarkson decided to seek medical help for her hearing loss after being warned that struggling in this way could increase her risk of dementia.
He explained: “After my last health check I was told that hearing loss would double my chances of developing dementia. Maybe it’s already happening. That explains why I can never find my glasses.”
The car enthusiast explained that without a hearing aid, it puts extra strain on his brain because it “has to use large amounts of computing power to fill in the parts of speech it can’t hear.”
cigarette addiction
The Clarkson’s Farm star was a die-hard smoker and admitted to having a habit of smoking 40 cigarettes a day for 43 years of his life.
He said about cigarettes: “There hasn’t been a single cigarette that I didn’t enjoy except the first one.”
However, a health problem he experienced in 2017 led Clarkson to quit smoking.
The journalist told The Guardian that he was hospitalized in Spain while on holiday and was diagnosed with pneumonia.
He has since explained: “For most of my adult life, stern-faced doctors warned me that I would face a painful and early death if I did not quit smoking.
“But then, as you may have heard, I caught pneumonia while on holiday and everyone told me I had to stop.”
Clarkson said a medical examination revealed his habit was seriously affecting his lungs.
“I had to climb some stairs and then the doctor was horrified. I had 96 per cent of the lung capacity you would expect in someone my age,” he wrote in his 2018 autobiography.
He was able to quit smoking with the help of nicotine gum.
Hypertension
For someone so devoted to thrill-seeking speed and angry ranting, it may come as no surprise that Clarkson’s blood pressure was higher than it should have been.
The publisher announced that he was advised to quit nicotine gum in the summer of 2023.
He said: “This week a doctor told me it was causing a worrying rise in my blood pressure and if I didn’t treat it immediately I would face a painful and early death.”
aging joints
Clarkson admitted that her body is not as reliable as it used to be.
He wrote in The Sun in 2021: “My knees don’t give me confidence when going down the stairs.
“If I try to go up a hill my back will lock up.”
And his weak knees mean he has to be careful while working on his farm.
He admitted in May 2023: “There’s a lot of jumping around in farming… But like almost every farmer in Britain these days, I’m in my early sixties and so are my knees.
“This means that although I can handle everything, I can no longer jump off them because I am afraid my legs will bend in the wrong direction, and this will be the case for six months.”