[TADSLOS]

Funny, I thought PBS killed her.

[Hoosier Catholic Momma]

Jane Austen bump...she rocks :)

[x]

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.

JFK had that.

It's a good thing she died when she did ...

... this would have killed her.

[SMCC1]

The bbc version of Pride and Prejudice is great.

[JRochelle]

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.

[Fenhalls555]

Byzantine sentences.

[JoeProBono]

Jane Austin Died Of Paper Cut

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

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.