JFK had that.
It's a good thing she died when she did ...
... this would have killed her.
Posted on 12/02/2009 2:29:15 PM PST by Borges
London, England (CNN) -- It is a truth universally acknowledged -- or nearly so -- that Jane Austen, the author of "Pride and Prejudice," died of a rare illness called Addison's disease, which robs the body of the ability to make critical hormones.
Katherine White doesn't believe it.
White, herself a sufferer of Addison's disease, has studied Austen's own letters and those of her family and friends, and concluded that key symptoms just don't match what's known about the illness.
The disease -- a failure of the adrenal glands -- was unknown in Austen's day, first having been identified nearly 40 years after she died in 1817 at the age of 41.
It was a doctor named Zachary Cope who first proposed that Addison's disease had killed Austen -- a much beloved novelist whose social comedies continue to sell briskly and inspire movies starring the likes of Keira Knightley, Donald Sutherland, Kate Winslet and Hugh Grant. (That's not to mention homages like the Bollywood-inspired "Bride and Prejudice" and this year's unlikely bestseller "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.")
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Funny, I thought PBS killed her.
Jane Austen bump...she rocks :)
JFK had that.
It's a good thing she died when she did ...
... this would have killed her.
Yes she does!
She was a great author.
Today most of what is written is trash.
The bbc version of Pride and Prejudice is great.
I saw a clip of that “Lost in Austen” and there was some lesbo scene and I quickly changed the channel.
This is quite vexing!
I am quite a fan of that author.
Pride and Prejudice, the A&E version with Colin Firth is the all time best movie ever on the telly.
Agreed (See post 7). I also just watched the recent BBC version of Emma. That’s pretty good too.
Byzantine sentences.
It was awful. Airheaded modern heroine goes back in time via a secret passage. She doesn't change into period costume so she really stands out. She also doesn't adapt her thinking to 1800s ways. You get a lot of cheap, cringe-inducing attempts at humor.
She pretends to be lesbian because Darcy is more interested in her than in Elizabeth Bennett, who he's "supposed" to marry. Nobody knows what she's talking about, but I guess sooner or later somebody takes her up on it. I stopped watching way before that.
The weird thing is that they left out the other, more interesting half of their own story. The Austen heroine goes through the passage the other way into the 21st century. There's some potential in that idea, but they ignore the possibilities and just show the obnoxious modern girl's adventure in the past.
Jane Austin Died Of Paper Cut
JFK also had Addison’s disease, and it may have been a contributing factor in his assassination.
When he was first diagnosed with the disease, he could afford the only treatment available at the time—cortisone, then a rare and very expensive drug. But in the 1950s, a means was invented to make cortisone at much lower cost, so it entered the market as a new “miracle drug”.
However, at the time it was mistakenly believed that large doses of cortisone could drive a person clinically and dangerously paranoid. Not true, but believed in the medical community.
Then, in 1956, a movie was produced called “Bigger Than Life”, starring the top actor James Mason, at the height of his career. In it, he played a man who takes cortisone pills, and they drive him violently and murderously insane. James Mason’s performance in the movie was described by critics of the time as “chilling”.
But how could someone know that JFK was taking cortisone?
Easily. One of the symptoms of Addison’s disease is a unique and distinctive appearance of the skin. It is even apparent on some of the surviving video of JFK. Any doctor familiar with Addison’s, who got within 20 feet of JFK would know that he had that disease. And that if he was being treated, that he was taking cortisone.
And that doctor would incorrectly suppose that JFK was at least at risk of mental illness because of taking cortisone.
Then add to that the Cuban Missile Crisis. An event that took America into a state of deep fear that a nuclear war could begin at almost any moment.
At the behest of a man taking cortisone. Who might be insane because of it.
Is it tolerable to have a president who is insane, with his finger on “the nuclear button”? What about a president who “might be” insane?
This says nothing about who might have drawn these conclusions, just that with minimal information they could have been drawn.
I have Lupus and can tell you that prednisone caused me to feel like I was losing my mind. I seriously considered going to the ER and telling them I was having a nervous breakdown. When I called my doctor the next day she said they would have asked what meds I was on and when I told them prednisone they would have assured me it was just caused by the drug. I will never take that much for that long again. My poor husband what he put up with!
I have two daughters (11 and 5). I am hoping in a matter of a few years to introduce the oldest to Miss Austen’s works. I myself didn’t ‘discover’ them until about 4 years ago (in my early thirties). I have a hard time picking a favorite, but if I HAD to, then it would be P&P.
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