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High lead levels detected in authenticated Ludwig van locks BeethovenThe composer’s hair suggests that the composer suffered lead poisoning, which may have contributed to illnesses he suffered throughout his life, including deafness, according to new research.
In addition to hearing loss, the famous classical composer had recurring gastrointestinal complaints throughout his life, had two bouts of jaundice and faced serious liver disease.
Beethoven is believed to have died of liver and kidney disease at the age of 56. But the process of understanding the cause of his many health problems has been a much more complicated puzzle, one that even Beethoven himself hoped doctors could eventually solve.
The composer expressed the desire that his illnesses be studied and shared so that “as far as possible, at least the world will be reconciled with me after my death.”
An international team of researchers decided to fulfill Beethoven’s wish almost a decade ago by studying strands of his hair. Using DNA analysis, the team determined which ones actually belonged to the composer and which were fraudulent, and sequenced Beethoven’s genome by analyzing his authenticated locks.
The findings, published in a March 2023 report, revealed that Beethoven had significant genetic risk factors for liver disease and a hepatitis B infection before his death. But the results did not provide any information about the underlying causes of his deafness, which began in his 20s, or about his gastrointestinal problems.
Beethoven’s genome has been made publicly available, inviting researchers around the world to investigate lingering questions about Beethoven’s health.
Meanwhile, scientists continue to figuratively examine authenticated locks of Beethoven’s hair with a fine-toothed comb, revealing surprising discoveries.
In addition to high concentrations of lead, the latest findings show arsenic and mercury remain trapped in the composer’s hair nearly 200 years after his death, according to a new letter published Monday in the magazine. Clinical Chemistry. And the insights could provide new windows not only into understanding Beethoven’s chronic health problems, but also into the complicated nuances of his life as a composer.
A tangled web reveals leadership
Christian Reiter, now retired deputy director of the Center for Forensic Medicine at the Medical University of Vienna, had previously studied the Hiller Lock, a hair sample long attributed to Beethoven. He wrote and published an article in 2007 after determining that there were high levels of lead in the hair, and suggested that the lead may have contributed to the composer’s deafness and, potentially, his death.
In a twist, the 2023 Genomic Sequencing Study discovered that the Hiller Lock did not belong to Beethoven and was actually a sample of a woman’s hair. But at the time researchers did not test Beethoven’s newly authenticated hair samples for lead.
So the question remained: Was Beethoven poisoned by lead?
A separate research team used two different methods to look for evidence of lead in two authenticated locks of Beethoven’s hair: the Bermann lock, estimated to have been cut between the end of 1820 and March 1827, and the Halm-Thayer lock, which Beethoven handed over. to pianist Anton Halm in April 1826.
It was very common during Beethoven’s lifetime for people to collect and save locks of hair from loved ones or famous people, said William Meredith, a Beethoven scholar and co-author of the 2023 genomic analysis study and the more recent study.
The most recent research detected incredibly high levels of lead in both samples: 64 times the expected level at the Bermann Lock and 95 times the expected level at the Halm-Thayer Lock.
“These levels are considered lead poisoning,” said the study’s lead author, Nader Rifai, professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School and director of clinical chemistry at Boston Children’s Hospital. “If you walk into any emergency room in the United States with these levels, you will be admitted immediately and placed on chelation therapy.”
Diagnosing Beethoven
Elevated lead levels, like those detected in Beethoven’s hair, “are commonly associated with gastrointestinal and kidney disease and decreased hearing, but are not considered high enough to be the sole cause of death,” the study authors wrote. Because researchers don’t have hair samples from Beethoven’s early life, it’s impossible to understand when the lead poisoning began, Meredith said.
The study authors do not believe that lead poisoning was solely responsible for Beethoven’s death or deafness. But he had lifelong symptoms of lead poisoning, including hearing loss, muscle cramps and kidney abnormalities, Rifai said.
Both locks also contained increased levels of arsenic and mercury, about 13 to 14 times the expected amount, according to the study.
Study co-author Paul Jannetto, associate professor in the department of laboratory medicine and pathology and director of the Mayo Clinic laboratory, performed the analysis of the samples and said he had never seen lead levels this high.
But Rifai said he saw comparable lead levels when he conducted research in two villages in Ecuador, where the main trade is glaze tiles containing lead from batteries. Residents suffered mental retardation, hearing loss and hematological abnormalities, which are common in liver disease, he said.
Lead exposure during Beethoven’s lifetime
There is currently no understanding of the average amount of lead in the bodies of people like Beethoven, who lived in Vienna during the 19th century, Rifai said.
He said he hopes to access old locks of hair that people have from their families to determine the population base level at the time, since there is no documentation.
But how did Beethoven end up with so much lead, as well as arsenic and mercury, in his body? The substances likely accumulated over decades of the composer’s life through food and drink, Rifai said.
Beethoven was known to prefer wine, sometimes drinking a bottle a day, and he drank bottled wine. A common practice dating back at least 2,000 years, creating piped wine involves adding lead acetate as a sweetener and preservative, Rifai said. At the time, lead was also used in glassmaking to give glass a clearer, more attractive appearance.
Beethoven also loved to eat fish, and at the time the Danube River was a major source of industry, meaning waste ended up in the same river that was a source of fish caught for consumption – and that fish likely contained arsenic and mercury, Rifai he said.
The report marks the first time lead levels were established for Beethoven and points to another possible cause for Beethoven’s kidney failure in the months before his death and the liver failure he suffered late in life, Meredith said.
Lead poisoning appears to be the fourth contributing factor to his liver failure, in addition to the genes that predisposed Beethoven to liver disease, his hepatitis B infection and his propensity for drinking alcohol, Meredith said.
Linking health and Beethoven’s music
The composer wrote a letter to his brothers in 1802 asking that his doctor, Johann Adam Schmidt, determine and share the nature of his “illness” after Beethoven’s death. The letter is known as the Heiligenstadt Testament.
But documents kept by Beethoven’s favorite doctor, who died 18 years before his patient, were lost.
In his 1802 letter to his brothers, Beethoven admitted how desperate he felt as a music composer struggling with hearing loss, but his work prevented him from taking his own life. He said he didn’t want to leave “before I had produced all the works I felt like composing.”
“People say, ‘music is music, why do we need to know about this stuff?’ But in Beethoven’s life there is a connection between his suffering and the music,” said Meredith.
May 7th marked the 200th anniversary of the first performance of Beethoven’s famous Ninth Symphony, widely considered to be his greatest work and final symphony. Completely deaf at the time, Beethoven was on stage as one of the conductors, but the orchestra was instructed to follow the conducting of Beethoven’s friend, who was also on stage. The concert marked one of the most triumphant moments in Beethoven’s life, and the singers turned him to face the crowd as they clapped and waved their handkerchiefs at the beloved musician, Meredith said.
But at the end of the night, Beethoven met with three friends who helped him organize the concert. What initially seemed like a dinner to reward his friends actually resulted in Beethoven screaming and accusing them of cheating him for money.
The outburst was ironic considering Beethoven was inspired, while working on the Ninth Symphony, in part by Friedrich Schiller’s poem “Ode to Joy,” and the symphony’s final themes include living in peace and harmony with one another, Meredith said. But above a sketch Beethoven made for the Ninth Symphony, he included the French word for despair.
“When you look back at his life, it was a life so full of despair. He became deaf. He never found a woman he could love. He had terrible abdominal problems since he was a child. He really had a hard time maintaining relationships with people,” Meredith said. “If you understand how much pain he was in and the paranoia he felt because of his deafness, it makes the whole story of the Ninth Symphony much more complex.”
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