Mike Stroud

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For Mike Stroud (musician), see Ratatat

Dr Mike Stroud (born 17 April 1955) is an expert on human health under extreme conditions. He became widely known when he partnered Ranulph Fiennes on his polar expeditions.

Stroud was educated at Trinity School of John Whitgift in the London Borough of Croydon. He obtained a degree in anthropology and genetics, before qualifying as a doctor in 1979, and specialising in nutrition and gastroenterology. He became a Member of the Royal College of Physicians in 1984, and a Fellow in 1995. He has studied human endurance under extreme conditions based on personal experience - running marathons in the Sahara, and trekking across polar ice. He has worked for the Ministry of Defence researching the nutritional needs of soldiers in action.

He was the doctor on the In the footsteps of Scott Antarctic expedition in 1984-1986. He joined Ranulph Fiennes in 1986 to attempt to journey on foot to the North Pole unsupported. In 1992/3 Stroud and Fiennes made the first unsupported crossing of the Antarctic continent, though they were unable to cross the Ross Ice Shelf to reach the coastline. Drinking isotope labelled water and collecting regular blood and urine samples, Stroud discovered that their energy expenditure exceeded 10,000 calories per day, significantly greater than the human digestive system is capable of absorbing.

In 2003 Stroud and Fiennes both completed seven marathons on seven continents in seven days - [BBC news report].

He was awarded the OBE in 1993.

Since 1998 he has been Senior Lecturer in Medicine, Gastroenterology and Nutrition, at Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust.

Bibliography

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