Wayne
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Just ran across this relatively short article. It sure sounds like he suffered from it for many years.
Did Darwin have ME/CFS?
Did Darwin have ME/CFS?
Charles Darwin lived in miserable health and debilitating fatigue until his death at the age of 73. It is quite ironic that one of the most recognizable names in the history of science, famed for his theory on “the origin of species,” was baffled by the origin of his own affliction.
Darwin’s physical dysfunction was at times so incapacitating that it caused him extreme depression as well as a dying sensation. In his 50s, Darwin also experienced transient, yet immobilizing, paralysis with exertion in addition to frequent memory loss and difficulties in verbal expression—not unlike what is referred to as post-exertional malaise and “brain fog” in ME/CFS vernacular.
... An English psychiatrist, Dr. John Bowldy, concluded that Darwin’s illness must be psychosomatic! Bowldy argued that Charles was still grieving the loss of his mother, who passed away when he was 8. Yet historians never described a grief-stricken Darwin, nor did he in his own autobiography.
Instead, what was verifiably documented is a slew of physiological and biochemical abnormalities like dysotonomia, visual disturbance, gastric dismotility, abdominal pain, muscle wasting, lactic acidosis, peripheral neuropathy, tachycardia, dizziness, seasickness, nausea and severe headaches. All clinical manifestations that bear striking resemblance to the spectrum of ME/CFS symptoms and associated morbidities including POTS....
Darwin’s physical dysfunction was at times so incapacitating that it caused him extreme depression as well as a dying sensation. In his 50s, Darwin also experienced transient, yet immobilizing, paralysis with exertion in addition to frequent memory loss and difficulties in verbal expression—not unlike what is referred to as post-exertional malaise and “brain fog” in ME/CFS vernacular.
... An English psychiatrist, Dr. John Bowldy, concluded that Darwin’s illness must be psychosomatic! Bowldy argued that Charles was still grieving the loss of his mother, who passed away when he was 8. Yet historians never described a grief-stricken Darwin, nor did he in his own autobiography.
Instead, what was verifiably documented is a slew of physiological and biochemical abnormalities like dysotonomia, visual disturbance, gastric dismotility, abdominal pain, muscle wasting, lactic acidosis, peripheral neuropathy, tachycardia, dizziness, seasickness, nausea and severe headaches. All clinical manifestations that bear striking resemblance to the spectrum of ME/CFS symptoms and associated morbidities including POTS....
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