Alexander's death

[kate]

Hi everyone,
A few days ago in the UK a young Marine died after scratching his leg on a bush while out on a training run. He died from blood poisoning from a rare toxin produced by MRSA, but what I found interesting in a medical report in the "Times" newspaper was the assertation that being so fit and doing so much exercise might have actually contributed to his death because excessive exercise reduces the body's capacity to overcome infection.
It made me wonder whether this also happened to Alexander. Did all that heavy physical work take a toll on his immune system and reduce his white-cell count so that he was more prone to whatever infection killed him? (I don't want to open up a debate again on what actually did kill him!)
The article also claimed that emotionally trying circumstances can adversely stress the immune system and certainly Alexander had been through a tough period what with Hephaistion's death and the refusal of his troops to continue east so who knows?
Maybe there could be something in it.
Cheers
Kate

[amyntoros]

GÇ£. . . what I found interesting in a medical report in the "Times" newspaper was the assertation that being so fit and doing so much exercise might have actually contributed to his death because excessive exercise reduces the body's capacity to overcome infection.GÇ¥Do they mean this applies in isolated cases, because I canGÇÖt imagine it always being true? Take AlexanderGÇÖs men for instance, especially the foot soldiers. They marched through the whole of Asia, often carrying heavy equipment and/or their own supplies, constantly fighting battles in between marches. I canGÇÖt imagine how anyone could get *more* exercise, yet some of these men were in their sixties, I believe, and still the best fighters you could find. Of course, some of them did die outside of battle and weGÇÖre not told why GÇô Coenus is a very good example GÇô but I canGÇÖt see how we could prove excessive exercise as a contributing factor.There *are* other examples though GÇô Bruce Lee comes to mind immediately - and the theory that AlexanderGÇÖs immune system was suppressed because of emotional and/or physical stress has been bandied around before. IGÇÖve never been quite convinced one way or the other. I mean, there are some illnesses that will kill you whether you over-exercise or sit on the couch all day! For example, the influenza epidemic in the early 1900GÇÖs took the young, the old, the physically fit, the weak, and the healthy without any discrimination whatsoever. Until (if) we find out what Alexander died of, we will never know if there were contributing factors.Interesting question though. . .ATBAmyntoros

[lucian]

I'm not so sure that exercise and the ability of infections to heal has much to do with one another. Although it's not the same thing, I just read that the medical profession suggests that women who are overcoming breast cancer, should start exercising, because a study suggests that the healing process actually speeds up with exercise. So, again, although not the same thing, I'm not so sure. In the end its hygiene that helped.I read that most soldiers actually died of tetanus after a wound was supposedly "cleaned" and good to go, that even a scratch from a rusted spear could do you in.

[xxx]

Good catch. Athletes and those under extreme stress experience illnesses more often than their non-exercising couterparts do. There has been quite a lot of study on this particular topic.

[marcus]

Hi Kate,I don't see any reason why this shouldn't be the case. I've always worked on the basis (and have expressed the view on this forum more than once) that Alexander, after all his wounds, the stress of all the years of campaigning, etc. etc. etc. can hardly have been in the best of shape - physically he might have seemed it, but something had to give, surely.Of course, Amyntoros is right to be cautious, where she cites the fitness level of all the soldiers. I suggest that, unsympathetic though it might sound, the 'common' soldiers didn't have anything like the mental stress that Alexander had - he was, after all, in complete charge of the whole shebang, including the administration and rule of the empire as it grew behind him. It's been noted by a number of people that he wasn't really that good at delegation (if we're getting into management speak here) ... and it certainly isn't unknown for top business people to end up suffering heart attacks on the job (as it were), however many rounds of golf they play at the weekends.All the bestMarcus