Charles Darwin consults a dermatologist

Sauer, Gordon C.

doi:10.1046/j.1365-4362.2000.00814.x

Cited by 11 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…CD suffered from caries and tooth decay, possibly due to his high sugar diet (he was fond of pudding) but possibly also for his cyclic vomiting. He also suffered from recurrent episodes of boils, and skin abscesses due to staphylococcus infection 72. CD’s death was associated with chest pain and dyspnea during one of his episodes, most likely from myocardial infarction or acute heart failure, but it cannot be excluded that chest pain was due to esophagitis, gastroesophageal reflux, Barrett’s esophagus, or a perforating peptic ulcer 47…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mitochondrial disorder caused Charles Darwin's cyclic vomiting syndrome

Finsterer

Hayman

2014

IJGM

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BackgroundCharles Darwin (CD), “father of modern biology,” suffered from multisystem illness from early adulthood. The most disabling manifestation was cyclic vomiting syndrome (CVS). This study aims at finding the possible cause of CVS in CD.MethodsA literature search using the PubMed database was carried out, and CD’s complaints, as reported in his personal writings and those of his relatives, friends, colleagues, biographers, were compared with various manifestations of mitochondrial disorders (MIDs), known to cause CVS, described in the literature.ResultsOrgan tissues involved in CD’s disease were brain, nerves, muscles, vestibular apparatus, heart, gut, and skin. Cerebral manifestations included episodic headache, visual disturbance, episodic memory loss, periodic paralysis, hysterical crying, panic attacks, and episodes of depression. Manifestations of polyneuropathy included numbness, paresthesias, increased sweating, temperature sensitivity, and arterial hypotension. Muscular manifestations included periods of exhaustion, easy fatigability, myalgia, and muscle twitching. Cardiac manifestations included episodes of palpitations and chest pain. Gastrointestinal manifestations were CVS, dental problems, abnormal seasickness, eructation, belching, and flatulence. Dermatological manifestations included painful lips, dermatitis, eczema, and facial edema. Treatments with beneficial effects to his complaints were rest, relaxation, heat, and hydrotherapy.ConclusionCVS in CD was most likely due to a multisystem, nonsyndromic MID. This diagnosis is based upon the multisystem nature of his disease, the fact that CVS is most frequently the manifestation of a MID, the family history, the variable phenotypic expression between affected family members, the fact that symptoms were triggered by stress, and that only few symptoms could not be explained by a MID.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mitochondrial disorder caused Charles Darwin's cyclic vomiting syndrome

Finsterer

Hayman

2014

IJGM

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“…Cyclic vomiting syndrome (Hayman, 2009b(Hayman, , 2013 Various skin problems including boils and eczema (Sauer, 2000;Hayman, 2011) Psychosomatic Reaction to birth trauma (Hayman, 2013) First psychoanalytical theory (Kemf, 1918) Hypochondria (Hubble, 1943) Psychoneurosis (Hubble, 1943) Bereavement syndrome (Bowlby, 1956(Bowlby, , 1984(Bowlby, , 1990…”

Section: Proposed Diagnosis Referencementioning

confidence: 99%

Darwin diagnosed?

Campbell

Matthews

2015

Biol. J. Linn. Soc.

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While waiting in lodgings to join H.M.S. Beagle just before Christmas 1831, Charles Darwin suffered chest pain and heart palpitations. On his return to England he began to suffer from a range of gut problems and systemic symptoms around the body, which were to plague him for the rest of his life. At least 40 conditions have been proposed to explain Darwin's illness, which left him disabled, sometimes for weeks on end. Here we show that lactose and food intolerance is the only condition that explains all his symptoms. Furthermore, there is now a molecular basis to account for these, based on metabolic toxins produced by microbes in the intestine. This mechanism has important implications in several other diseases, including diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, Parkinson's disease and some cancers. Lactose intolerance also has fascinating things to tell us about molecular evolution -the origin of lactose, the unique sugar in milk; why white humans were able to invade the plains of Europe after the last ice thaw, some 10 000 years ago; and one of the most intriguing problems in evolution -the origin of a new enzyme such as lactase, the enzyme responsible for cleaving lactose into its constituents monosaccharides, galactose and glucose.

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“…He suffered with nausea, retching, vomiting, flatulence, episodes of abdominal pain, “lumbago” or backache, and symptoms of asthma. His “eczema,” diagnosed as atopic dermatitis (Sauer 2000), was at times severe and was complicated by frequent boils. He complained of numbness in his fingers (peripheral neuropathy), together with shivering, sweating, and giddy turns (dysautonomia).…”

Section: Charles Darwin’s Illnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Charles Darwin’s Mitochondria

Hayman

2013

Genetics

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Charles Darwin’s long-term illness has been the subject of much speculation. His numerous symptoms have led to conclusions that his illness was essentially psychogenic in nature. These diagnoses have never been fully convincing, however, particularly in regard to the proposed underlying psychological background causes of the illness. Similarly, two proposed somatic causes of illness, Chagas disease and arsenic poisoning, lack credibility and appear inconsistent with the lifetime history of the illness. Other physical explanations are simply too incomplete to explain the range of symptoms. Here, a very different sort of explanation will be offered. We now know that mitochondrial mutations producing impaired mitochondrial function may result in a wide range of differing symptoms, including symptoms thought to be primarily psychological. Examination of Darwin’s maternal family history supports the contention that his illness was mitochondrial in nature; his mother and one maternal uncle had strange illnesses and the youngest maternal sibling died of an infirmity with symptoms characteristic of mitochondrial encephalomyopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes (MELAS syndrome), a condition rooted in mitochondrial dysfunction. Darwin’s own symptoms are described here and are in accord with the hypothesis that he had the mtDNA mutation commonly associated with the MELAS syndrome.

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Charles Darwin consults a dermatologist

Cited by 11 publications

References 7 publications

Mitochondrial disorder caused Charles Darwin's cyclic vomiting syndrome

Mitochondrial disorder caused Charles Darwin's cyclic vomiting syndrome

Darwin diagnosed?

Charles Darwin’s Mitochondria

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Charles Darwin consults a dermatologist

Cited by 11 publications

References 7 publications

Mitochondrial disorder caused Charles Darwin&#39;s cyclic vomiting syndrome

Mitochondrial disorder caused Charles Darwin&#39;s cyclic vomiting syndrome

Darwin diagnosed?

Charles Darwin’s Mitochondria

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Mitochondrial disorder caused Charles Darwin's cyclic vomiting syndrome

Mitochondrial disorder caused Charles Darwin's cyclic vomiting syndrome