A new analysis of Beethoven’s hair provides clues about the famous composer’s many health problems—and maybe his hearing loss
Lesson summary
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Coming up today: Beethoven, the famous composer, suffered from hearing loss, starting in his twenties. Now, a new study of his hair samples sheds light on one reason he might have lost his hearing. Wait until you hear the reason.
In the second half of the lesson, I’ll show you how to use the English expression “suffer from .” And if you think you know what it means from the word “suffer,” just listen. There are some important differences.
The audio is only the beginning. There’s a lot more to Plain English than just the audio. Today’s full lesson set is available online at PlainEnglish.com/683. When you get there, you’ll see the lessons are on two different pages on the website: the story is on one page, the expression is on the other page. Click around and you’ll see the transcripts, quizzes, exercises, and other features. PlainEnglish.com/683.
Beethoven’s hair provides clues to his deafness
Ludwig van Beethoven was not a healthy man.
He suffered from liver disease and had two bouts of jaundice —a condition that turns your skin yellow. He complained of gastrointestinal issues throughout his life.
The most tragic thing for the gifted composer , though, was his deafness . In his twenties, he started losing his hearing . When he was just 28, he stopped going to social functions , embarrassed by his inability to follow conversations . He worried what people would say about him—the famous musical composer, unable to hear?
By age 32, he had lost the ability to hear a flute . His hearing loss progressed until he was completely deaf . When he debuted his Ninth Symphony, his last and most famous symphony, he couldn’t hear the applause of the crowd behind him. The musicians had to tell him to turn around to see the crowd clapping .
Beethoven died young. He was just 56. The latest studies suggest that he died of liver disease—brought on by a hepatitis infection , his heavy drinking , and genetic factors . His wish , as he died, was that scientists would be able to study his body to prevent others from suffering as he had suffered.
Nineteenth century medicine had not been good to Beethoven. At one point, he had been taking 75 medications . Doctors didn’t know what had caused his deafness. The composer complained, “doctors know little. One tires of them .”
Doctors know a lot more now. Using a lock of Beethoven’s hair, scientists were able to sequence the famous composer’s genes . They also performed a detailed analysis on the hair samples . Their analysis found that he had genetic risk factors for liver disease and that he had a hepatitis infection when he died. That helps explain the conditions of his death, but not of his deafness.
A new study on two different samples of Beethoven’s hair sheds light on possible causes of his deafness. The new hair samples contained elevated levels of lead , arsenic , and mercury .
A normal sample of human hair contains about four micrograms of lead per gram of hair. Four. One of Beethoven’s locks had 258 micrograms per gram of hair; another had 380 micrograms—in other words , they were 64 and 95 times higher than normal.
A person with that level of lead today would be immediately treated for lead poisoning . Some of the scientists involved in the study had never seen lead levels that high.
How could Beethoven have gotten so much lead in his system? Lead is a naturally occurring element , but it’s dangerous to humans. It’s not in any type of food product today. But that hasn’t always been so.
In the 1800s, lead could be found in a lot of places: in ointments , in medicines, and in wine. Remember the 75 medications Beethoven was on at one time? It’s likely that some of those contained lead. Beethoven was also using ointments, also, probably with lead in them.
And Beethoven was a big wine drinker . He drank a bottle a day, sometimes more. And cheap wine in Vienna at that time was often made with lead acetate , a sweetener and preservative .
Beethoven’s hair also had high levels of arsenic and mercury. He ate a lot of seafood —and a lot of fish in Vienna came from the Danube River, which was also an industrial dumping ground .
The two hair samples that scientists tested were taken at the end of Beethoven’s life, so it’s not clear when he developed such high levels of lead.
But scientists say that the high levels of lead probably exacerbated Beethoven’s medical problems. Gastrointestinal issues, muscle cramps , kidney disease , and, yes, hearing loss are all possible symptoms of lead poisoning—and all ailments that Beethoven suffered from.
Jeff’s take
Now, if you were wondering , as I was, how and why so much of Beethoven’s hair is available for testing now two hundred years after his death…it was common at the time to keep locks of hair from friends, family, and famous people. And it was common for people to give locks of their own hair to others.
So these have been saved, cherished , passed down over the years…and also sold at auction . There are enough samples of Beethoven’s hair floating around to sequence his DNA and to send multiple samples to specialized labs for heavy metal testing .
By the way, if you’re interested in this topic, Lesson 320 was about the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth. PlainEnglish.com/320 for that one.
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