March 23, 2023 – Nearly 200 years after his death, researchers are still trying to meet composer Ludwig van Beethoven's final wish and study his health problems. A progressive hearing loss that began in his early 20s left him deaf on the time of his death, and he complained of chronic stomach problems.
DNA evaluation of the composer's hair suggests he had a genetic predisposition to liver disease and in his final months of life he contracted a hepatitis B infection, which attacks the liver. These findings, together with Beethoven's alleged alcohol consumption, all point to severe liver problems, which were long considered the most certainly reason behind death at age 56.
“From Beethoven's 'conversation books', which he used in the last decade of his life, we can conclude that his alcohol consumption was very regular, although it is difficult to estimate the quantities consumed,” said researcher and doctoral student Tristan Begg of the University of Cambridge in a opinion. “Although most of his contemporaries claim that his consumption was moderate by Viennese standards in the early 19th century, there is no complete agreement between these sources, and it is likely that he nevertheless drank quantities of alcohol that are now known to be harmful to the liver.”
“If his alcohol consumption was high enough over a long enough period of time, the interaction with his genetic risk factors provides a possible explanation for his liver cirrhosis,” Begg said.
The results were published in Wednesday’s edition of Current Biology. Researchers have genetically sequenced five locks of hair attributed to Beethoven from the last seven years of his life. When the musical genius died at age 56, he left behind a letter asking doctors to analyze his health problems after his death. This weekend marks the anniversary of his death in 1827 in Vienna, Austria.
The researchers found no answer to his complaints about gastrointestinal problems, nor did they find the reason behind his deafness. They were capable of rule out celiac disease and lactose intolerance.
Another finding was an anomaly in his father's DNA that suggested there had been an extramarital affair in his family tree. However, researchers couldn't determine through which generation it had occurred.
For the evaluation, the researchers used almost three meters of Beethoven's hair, The Associated Press reported.
The hair for the study was provided by several sources: a personal American collector named Kevin Brown, the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies in San Jose, California, and the Beethoven-Haus Museum in Bonn, Germany.