Allegedly health problems from obesity and stomach bleeding killed him. Questionably related to the fast,probably related to the health problems that got him to do the fast in the forst place.
> It's not a surprise that his lifespan was shorter than average.
Given all of the purported health benefits of fasting I see touted on HN, and given how long he fasted, if anything I'd expect him to have lived to 100.
That was 25 years after his fast, but there have been other cases with complications
E.g. one lady (1st case in the lnk below) who fasted for 4 months ended up in the hospital for 3 weeks with cardiac arrhythmias and they also found her heart tissue muscles were scared and filled with holes (I believe thats what vacuolated means)
Without any cause listed dying at 50-51 is not rare at all and should not be assumed to be related to a particular cause. In fact, life expectancy of those born on 1940 was 60.8 years, making it within 10 year of the average, something totally normal IMHO (it's like today, with a 78-year life expectancy, someone dying at 68 years old, totally not surprising).
Life expectancy is a tricky stat. One of those cases where mean vs median vs mode is really important. Especially when talking about a period anchored in a global conflict with vast civilian casualties.
Odd how this part often gets ignored when his example is cited.