Darwin diagnosed?

Abstract

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.

The role of cultural heritage in visitor narratives of peatlands: analysis of online user-generated reviews from three peatland sites in England

“…References to the intangible heritage of Ilkley Moor mainly focus on the traditional song On Ilkla Moor Baht'at and the Brontës. Individual reviews mention a historical connection with Charles Darwin -who convalesced at one of the hydrotherapy houses in Ilkley (Campbell and Matthews 2015) -and the use of the moor in WW2 military manoeuvres.…”