Police: British TV presenter probably died shortly after falling ill

British TV presenter and health guru Michael Mosley may have died shortly after falling ill while walking alone on the Greek island of Symi, local police told CNN on Monday (10).

Mosley, a television doctor who popularized a type of intermittent fasting known as the 5:2 diet, was on vacation when he disappeared on Wednesday, triggering a massive, days-long search involving police, firefighters, the Coast Guard and volunteers. .

His body was found on Sunday (9) about a two-hour walk from Agios Nikolaos beach, where he started his walk. Police believe he died at around 4pm local time on Wednesday, the day he disappeared, Greek police spokeswoman Konstantia Dimoglidou told CNN .

An initial autopsy concluded that Mosley died of natural causes and that there were no injuries to his body that could have caused his death, the BBC reported.

Dimoglidou told CNN that police do not believe Mosley sat for long before he died, as the time of death was similar to the time it would have taken to get to the scene.

Mosley’s body was found when a boat carrying the island’s mayor, Lefteris Papakalodoukas, and some journalists spotted him lying face down next to a fence about 20 meters above Agia Marina beach, Papakalodoukas told the Associated Press.

The position in which his body was found suggests he was sitting at the time of his death, Dimoglidou said.

Mosley’s wife, Dr Clare Bailey, paid tribute to her “wonderful, funny, kind and brilliant” husband after his body was found, saying he “made an incredible climb, took a wrong turn and collapsed where he couldn’t have been easily seen by the extensive search team.”

The family identified the body to police, but formal identification using DNA samples has not yet been carried out, Dimoglidou added.

The television doctor was known for British documentaries such as Channel 4’s “Michael Mosley: Who Made Britain Fat?” and the BBC’s “Trust Me, I’m A Doctor.”

The 67-year-old broadcaster was also a regular on talk shows including BBC’s “The One Show” and ITV’s “This Morning” and was a columnist for the Daily Mail.

He was the author of a book on the Fast 800 diet, which focuses on time-restricted eating for rapid weight loss. His wife wrote a cookbook as part of “The Fast 800” book series.

In 2002, Mosley was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for outstanding nonfiction special (informational) after executive producing the 2001 BBC miniseries “The Human Face,” which examined the science behind facial beauty, expression and fame.

The father of four deliberately infested himself with parasites to learn more about them in the 2014 BBC program “Infested! Living with Parasites.”

Mosley’s impact on public health, especially in Britain, was evident in the tributes paid to him. Former lawmaker Tom Watson wrote on social media that Mosley “was a hero to me” and that he “helped thousands of people get well and healthy. I’m one of them.”

A spokesman for British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that Mosley “will be known as an extraordinary broadcaster who used his platform to influence and change the way we think about many public health issues”, according to PA Media.