{"id":6606,"date":"2024-05-15T08:01:50","date_gmt":"2024-05-15T13:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/?p=6606"},"modified":"2024-05-15T08:01:54","modified_gmt":"2024-05-15T13:01:54","slug":"locks-of-beethovens-hair-are-unraveling-the-mysteries-of-his-deafness-and-illnesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/2024\/05\/15\/locks-of-beethovens-hair-are-unraveling-the-mysteries-of-his-deafness-and-illnesses\/","title":{"rendered":"Locks of Beethoven\u2019s Hair Are Unraveling the Mysteries of His Deafness and Illnesses"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"panel body-content\"><div class=\"panel__container\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/smart-news\/locks-of-beethovens-hair-are-unraveling-the-mysteries-of-his-deafness-and-illnesses-180984332\/\">Smithsonian Magazine<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Researchers found high levels of lead, mercury and arsenic in the German composer\u2019s hair, which may help explain some of his many ailments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>German composer&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Ludwig-van-Beethoven\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Ludwig van Beethoven<\/a>&nbsp;began losing his hearing in his 20s, a fact that deeply upset and embarrassed him. Over the years, his hearing loss worsened, and by the time he died at age 56 in 1827, the composer was totally deaf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But the cause of Beethoven\u2019s deafness has always been a mystery, along with the slew of other health problems he suffered, including diarrhea and abdominal cramps. Now, nearly 200 years after his death, researchers may finally have an answer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An analysis of Beethoven\u2019s hair has revealed high levels of lead, arsenic and mercury, researchers report this week in a letter to the editor of the journal&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/clinchem\/advance-article\/doi\/10.1093\/clinchem\/hvae054\/7651113\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Clinical Chemistry<\/em><\/a>. The heavy metals alone probably weren\u2019t enough to kill him, but they do offer a possible explanation for some of his symptoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Researchers tested two authenticated locks of Beethoven\u2019s hair. One had 380 micrograms of lead per gram of hair, while the other had 258 micrograms. For reference, a normal level of lead in a gram of hair is around 4 micrograms or less. His hair also had 13 times the normal level of arsenic, and four times the normal level of mercury.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Smithsonian Magazine Researchers found high levels of lead, mercury and arsenic in the German composer\u2019s hair, which may help explain some of his many ailments. German composer&nbsp;Ludwig van Beethoven&nbsp;began losing his hearing in his 20s, a fact that deeply upset and embarrassed him. Over the years, his hearing loss worsened, and by the time he [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":6607,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-coping-with-covid"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-15-at-09.01.04.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6606"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6608,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6606\/revisions\/6608"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}