Posted on 02/06/2016 1:17:28 PM PST by beaversmom
Did Henry VIII suffer same brain injury as some NFL players?
February 3, 2016 by Bill Hathaway
Henry VIII may have suffered repeated traumatic brain injuries similar to those experienced by football players and others who receive repeated blows to the head, according to research by a Yale University expert in cognitive neurology.
Traumatic brain injury explains the memory problems, explosive anger, inability to control impulses, headaches, insomnia—and maybe even impotence--that afflicted Henry during the decade before his death in 1547, according to a paper published online the week of Feb. 1.
"It is intriguing to think that modern European history may have changed forever because of a blow to the head," said Arash Salardini, behavioral neurologist, co-director of the Yale Memory Clinic and senior author of the study.
The English monarch is best known for his dispute with the Catholic Church over his desire to annul his first marriage to Catherine of Aragon and marry Ann Boleyn. The affair led to the English Reformation and the creation of the Church of England. Henry would marry six times--and execute two of his wives.
Research assistants Muhammad Qaiser Ikram and Fazle Hakim Saijad analyzed volumes of Henry's letters and other historical sources to document his known medical history and events that may have contributed to his ailments. Their findings confirm conjecture by some historians that jousting injuries caused later health and behavioral problems.
Henry suffered two major head injuries during his 30s. In 1524, a lance penetrated the visor of his helmet during a jousting tournament and dazed him. A year later, he was knocked out when he fell head-first into a brook he was trying to vault across with a pole. However, said the researchers, the English monarch's increasingly unpredictable behavior may have been triggered by an accident during a jousting match in January of 1536 when a horse fell on Henry, causing him to lose consciousness for two hours.
"Historians agree his behavior changed after 1536,'' said Salardini, noting that descriptions of Henry during his youth portrayed an intelligent and even-tempered young man who made wise military and policy decisions. His behavior in the later years of his life became notoriously erratic: He was forgetful and prone to rages and impulsive decisions.
In 1546, for instance, he was assuring his sixth, wife Catherine Parr, that he would not send her to the Tower of London when soldiers arrived to arrest her. He launched into a tirade against the soldiers, having forgotten that he had given that order the day before.
Other occasional side effects of traumatic brain injury are growth hormone deficiency and hypogonadism, which may lead to metabolic syndrome and impotence, respectively. Despite the womanizing reputation of his youth, Henry had difficulty completing sexual intercourse as far back as his marriage to his second wife, Ann Boleyn, in 1533, some evidence suggests.
Other ailments attributed to Henry--such as syphilis, diabetes, or Cushing Syndrome, a condition marked by weight gain and obesity--seem less likely in light of the available evidence, said the study's authors, noting that traumatic brain injury best explains most of his behavioral abnormalities.
Yale.
That used to be a good college.
Was it the asbestos?
An alien virus?
Hillary?
lol.
The inevitable Dainbramage reference.....
Quite interesting. Thanks for that link.
I have heard of other people changing because of brain injury. Some people develop super powers...like a savant.
Read here:
From mullet to math genius after a concussion
And people such as Daniel Tammet (Brain Man) and this man:
Link to Video
Other people have personality changes.
After Brain Injury: The Dark Side of Personality Change Part I
Emotional Problems After Traumatic Brain Injury
I'm sure there are many factors. How hard the person is hit. Where they are hit. How old the person is.
The brain is incredible in what it can do, but also what damage can be done to it, and how that effects each individual person can vary.
Why do we try to create excuses for bad men?
Thanks for posting the link. I’ll have to read that later.
Interesting article.
Other perspectives:
Physical decline
Late in life, Henry became obese, with a waist measurement of 54 inches (140 cm), and had to be moved about with the help of mechanical inventions. He was covered with painful, pus-filled boils and possibly suffered from gout. His obesity and other medical problems can be traced from the jousting accident in 1536, in which he suffered a leg wound. The accident re-opened and aggravated a previous injury he had sustained years earlier, to the extent that his doctors found it difficult to treat. The wound festered for the remainder of his life and became ulcerated, thus preventing him from maintaining the level of physical activity he had previously enjoyed. The jousting accident is also believed to have caused Henry’s mood swings, which may have had a dramatic effect on his personality and temperament.[138][139]
The theory that Henry suffered from syphilis has been dismissed by most historians.[140] A more recent theory suggests that Henry’s medical symptoms are characteristic of untreated type 2 diabetes.[139] Alternatively, his wives’ pattern of pregnancies and his mental deterioration have led some to suggest that the king may have been Kell positive and suffered from McLeod syndrome.[141] According to another study, Henry VIII’s history and body morphology may have been the result of traumatic brain injury after his 1536 jousting accident, which in turn led to a neuroendocrine cause of his obesity. This analysis identifies growth hormone deficiency (GHD) as the source for his increased adiposity but also significant
behavioural changes noted in his later years, including his multiple marriages.[142]
Source: Wikipedia
“Research assistants Muhammad Qaiser Ikram and Fazle Hakim Saijad”
I’m sure these thoroughly British Mohammedans were looking for some way to make Henry look good. Sheesh! They couldn’t have found a Scottsman or two to do this?
Didn’t he play on the Rams in the 1950’s???
Not long after his accident in 1536, his queen Anne Boleyn went into shock & miscarried. Their marriage was already on the rocks, but following the death of the unborn child, a boy, Henry turned totally against her. This pretty much sealed Anne’s fate; in May her enemies successfully made up charges of adultery against her & send her to the executioner block - freeing up Henry to marry Jane Seymour.
Note: this topic is from . Thanks beaversmom for the ping, sorry I missed it. Just doing some housekeeping, but I think I will ping this one.
He is wearing crocks in that painting.
tennis elbow
Yale suffered a traumatic brain injury.
He’s actually a time traveler.
Exactly. He ascended the throne at a very young age (early 20s, I think) and had his way in all things, surrounded by sycophants, for many years. Being told no by anyone must have been intolerable to him.
Apply Occam's Razor. The future of a Tudor dynasty was precarious given the background of the Wars of the Roses, the attenuated claim of Henry VII and therefore VIII on the throne, and the lack of a male heir. He decided he needed to put Catherine aside so the hot young Miss Boleyn could provide him an heir. Henry would have been perfectly content to remain in the Catholic Church to do this, but the influence of Catherine's Spanish relatives on the Pope left him no choice but to leave the Church to get what he wanted. Looting the monasteries was a bonus, to be sure. It isn't complicated.
I suppose 21st Century people with nothing better to do could psychoanalyze his subsequent marital history, but once the English Reformation began the game was already afoot.
Oh wow. An oldie. :)
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