Jeremy Clarkson shares candid health update following lifestyle overhaul after revealing he was 'days away from death' before heart surgery

Jeremy Clarkson has shared a health update after his major heart surgery forced him to overhaul his life.

The presenter, 64, revealed he was 'days away from death' before his live-saving heart operation last year, but has since returned to work and has drastically changed his lifestyle.

While filming ITV show Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, Jeremy commented on his new routine.

He said: 'My phone flashed up this morning saying: 'you are taking far fewer steps this week than last'. 

'I thought, "yeah I would be as I am sitting here". It also says you are eating far fewer sausages.

'I just sit here and eat celery. I am feeling better on it. I do feel very well.'

Jeremy Clarkson has shared a health update after his major heart surgery forced him to overhaul his life

Jeremy Clarkson has shared a health update after his major heart surgery forced him to overhaul his life

The presenter, 64, revealed he was 'days away from death' before his live-saving heart operation last year, but has since returned to work and has drastically changed his lifestyle

The presenter, 64, revealed he was 'days away from death' before his live-saving heart operation last year, but has since returned to work and has drastically changed his lifestyle

Jeremy added that he now has a dietician who advised him to avoid processed foods.

'I have been to see a dietician. The dietician has given me a pretty good list and said: "don't eat processed food."

'If it's got more than one ingredient in it, don't eat it. I feel great,' he said. 

It comes after he revealed in October last year he was 'days away from death' before undergoing an urgent heart operation recently.

The presenter had to have the procedure after a 'sudden deterioration' in his health, with the star admitting: 'Crikey, that was close.'

He started to feel unwell after swimming in the Indian Ocean while on a 'small island' on holiday and later found it difficult to climb a flight of stairs.

Jeremy returned to Britain and a 'sudden deterioration began to gather pace' with him feeling 'clammy', 'tightness in my chest', and 'pins and needles in my left arm'.

After sharing the news in his Sunday Times column on Sunday, he shared a further update about his health.

While filming ITV show Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, Jeremy commented on his new routine

While filming ITV show Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, Jeremy commented on his new routine

Jeremy added that he now has a dietician who advised him to avoid processed foods

Jeremy added that he now has a dietician who advised him to avoid processed foods

He told The Sun: 'I'm very grateful to everyone who sent supportive messages but I'm fine.

'I just have to not do any manual labour or dishwasher emptying for the next four years. At least I think that's what the doctor said.'

Alex Salmond's recent tragic death from a massive heart attack had sparked the motoring journalist to see his GP.

Clarkson wrote in his column in The Sunday Times how he felt 'mostly dead' after returning to the beach after a short swim.

He spent the rest of his break on a tropical island eating cheese and drinking wine.

It was only when he returned to Britain and he was loading 30 pigs onto a 'slaughterhouse school bus' that he noticed pins and needles in his left arm.

He then went to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford via an ambulance, where a heart attack was ruled out after he had an electrocardiogram (ECG), blood tests and X-rays.

He said he then went to an 'operating theatre' on Wednesday, after further checks, and doctors said he was perhaps 'days away' from death.

Once there he was fitted with a stent to his hold his arteries open, to improve blood flow to his heart and relieve his chest pain.

Clarkson has opened up about the scary warnings he received from his doctor, including being told him to stop working following a heart procedure

Clarkson has opened up about the scary warnings he received from his doctor, including being told him to stop working following a heart procedure

A stent is a wire mesh tube that props open arteries. To open the narrowed artery, the surgeon may perform what's known as an angioplasty.

This involves making a small incision in a patient's arm or leg, through which a wire with an attached deflated balloon is thread through up to the coronary arteries

Describing what he called the 'wearisome effects of growing old', Clarkson said: 'It seems that of the arteries feeding my heart with nourishing blood, one was completely blocked and the second of three was heading that way.'

He said a stent, which can save lives and stop future heart attacks through improving blood flow to the heart, was fitted in around two hours.

The motoring journalist said: 'It wasn't especially painful. Just odd,' and added that he has been thinking: 'Crikey, that was close.'