The exact cause of Ludwig van Beethoven's death has remained a mystery for centuries. While the specific cause of death has remained unconfirmed for some time, what's certain is that the composer had...
The exact cause of Ludwig van Beethoven’s death has remained a mystery for centuries. While the specific cause of death has remained unconfirmed for some time, what’s certain is that the composer had gone completely deaf by the time he reached 45 years old. Recently, researchers attempted to uncover the root causes of Beethoven’s hearing loss and stomach issues by extracting DNA from strands of his hair almost 200 years after his passing.
While the study failed to uncover the root cause of his deafness, their testing revealed that the composer had a genetic predisposition to liver disease and was also infected with hepatitis B. These conditions likely severely damaged his liver in the last days of his life., published in the journal Current Biology, suggests that these factors, combined with his excessive alcohol consumption, were likely responsible for Beethoven’s liver failure, which was the cause of his death.
In addition to these findings, the study yielded an unexpected revelation: DNA samples obtained from five male living relatives of Beethoven produced inconsistent results in the Y chromosomes inherited through the paternal line. While the men’s Y chromosomes matched each other, they did not match Beethoven’s Y chromosome.
“Honestly, I think we just have to be grateful for what we got,” team leader Tristan Begg at the University of Cambridge told the
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