Ludwig van Beethoven didn't just leave us a legacy of his incredible musical compositions. Since his death in 1827 at the age of 56, the mystery of his (relatively) early passing, and the many health problems he faced in life, has never been solved. It was the composer himself, it seems, who asked that doctors continue to investigate the causes of the deafness that accompanied him since he was less than 30 years old, and of the gastrointestinal problems from which he suffered for almost his entire life. Almost 200 years after his death, a study just published in the journal Clinical Chemistry believes it has the answer: the deafness, abdominal pain and vision problems from which Beethoven suffered were most likely caused by chronic lead poisoning, which was not however, it would have been the cause (or at least, not alone) of his early demise.
The study was carried out by researchers from the Mayo Clinic and Harvard, and exploited two locks of the master's hair made available by an Australian businessman passionate about Beethoven's life. By analyzing its chemical composition, the researchers were able to evaluate the levels of lead present in the composer's body, clarifying a hypothesis – that of lead poisoning – which had divided experts for about 20 years.
What lead does to our bodies
A 2007 study had in fact already analyzed the chemical composition of a lock of hair believed to have belonged to the composer, identifying levels of lead high enough to explain not only the health ailments he suffered during his life, but also his early death. . In January last year, however, came the twist: new genetic analyzes demonstrated that the lock in question did not come from Beethoven's head, but from that of a woman of unknown identity.
For this reason, the authors of the new study decided to repeat the analyses, using two strands of hair of certain provenance, authenticated at a genetic level and whose movements over the last two centuries are known in detail. Using a mass spectrometry instrument, American researchers again found very high levels of lead in the two strands: one had 258 micrograms of lead per gram of hair, the other 380, well above the 4 micrograms per gram considered safe today. The levels of arsenic and mercury that emerged from the analyses, although lower, were also particularly high.
Using the quantities present in the hair as a reference, the researchers then calculated how much lead the composer could have circulating in his blood, obtaining a level between 69 and 71 micrograms per deciliter, sufficient today to be urgently prescribed a chelation therapy, in order to eliminate the metal from the body.
Lead diacetate in wine
“Similar levels of lead are commonly associated with gastrointestinal and renal problems, and reduced hearing – write the authors of the study – but are not considered sufficiently high to represent, on their own, a possible cause of death”.
Explaining the presence of so much lead in Beethoven's system is not difficult: he was a great drinker of wine (about a bottle a day) which at the time was consumed from glasses contaminated by lead, and which the composer loved to sweeten, like many contemporaries, using lead diacetate (a sweetener used since ancient times, whose toxic effects are known today).
The cause of his death, however, is less clear. Some research in recent years has highlighted that Beethoven was most likely suffering from hepatitis B. A disease for which the musician had various genetic risk factors (emerged from analyzes carried out on other strands of hair) and which according to the authors of new study could have caused, aided by his alcohol abuse, the liver cirrhosis diagnosed by doctors at his death.