Strictly Come Dancing: The serious health risk that could be dangerous for Angela Rippon

Angela Rippon is making history! The TV presenter has been announced as part of the line up for the new season of Strictly Come Dancing. This is a full circle moment for Rippon as she hosted Come Dancing for three years starting in 1988. Come Dancing had the same concept as Strictly except that the contestants weren’t celebrities.

Now at the age of 79, Rippon is set to join the dance floor and wow viewers with her performances. However, being the oldest contestant does come with a certain price. Indeed, extra precautions need to be taken especially considering the previous health scares Ripponhas gone through...

Angela Rippon’s health scares

Angela Rippon is an icon of British television. She started appearing on our small screens over fifty years ago. Her career has taken her on many adventures and the newest one is Strictly Come Dancing.

However, while she has already be seen dancing on TV one thing has drastically changed: her age, she is now 79. Angela Rippon claims to be in tip top shape thanks to her ‘eating sensibly, playing tennis and doing pilates.’ On top of that, Rippon has always been a very active person as she a trained dancer.

Read more:Strictly Come Dancing 2023: Here are all the confirmed stars that will dance on the show

Being active throughout her life has gifted her with good health but in recent years age seems to have caught up with her. In June 2022, an article from Express came out while Rippon was promoting Dementia Awareness Week. In the article we learn that Rippon’s mother struggled with Alzeihmer’s disease and that she worries that the condition could also affect her.

On top of this fear, it was revealed, once again through an interview with Rippon in Express, that she suffers from ‘significant visceral fat.’ In 2016, Angela Rippon presented BBC’s How to Stay Young and it's during that series that doctors discovered that something wasn’t quite right with her. Indeed, as part of the series she undertook an MRI scan which uncovered the visceral fat around major organs.

Professor Bell on the programme said:

If we have a look around the liver, all the white bits are what we call visceral fat.

Later on the professor continued:

We are going to zoom into the heart and the yellow bits around it. Again, surprisingly you have a large amount of fat accumulated around your heart

This presence of that fat around her heart could have consequences in the long run. Professor Bell warned her saying ‘that physical constraint of (her) heart pumping against that fat, might be a problem in the long-term.’

What to expect from Angela Rippon

While most people would be worried about the health scares mentioned above, Angela Rippon is ready for a new challenge. Indeed, in a video she shared on X she said:

Now this could be the craziest thing I have ever done. (...) I tell you, this is going to be in a class of its own. It’s gonna be a challenge. But I think it’s gonna be a lot of fun too.

Read more:Dame Judi Dench: What is the eye condition the actress suffers from?

Moreover, The Telegraph revealed that Angela Rippon will write ‘an exclusive weekly diary about her experiences on Strictly Come Dancing.’The Telegraph also spoke with Rippon about what to expect from her on the show and fans are not going to be disappointed. The publication teases the return of Rippon’s famous ‘high kick.’

Reportedly, Rippon is quite confident in her physical ability.

She shared:

I can still do the splits and high-kick because I do it every day as part of my Pilates stretching wake-up routine

We cannot wait to see what Angela Rippon will do but we are sure to be glued to our screen!

Sources:

Express: Angela Rippon health: Star's 'significant' visceral fat led to 'serious' dietary changes

Express: Angela Rippon, 77, on health fears despite fitness 'Never know what's around the corner'

The Telegraph: Angela Rippon set to wow Strictly with likely return of high-kick dance