Rembrandt--aging and sickness: a combined look by plastic surgeons, an art researcher and an internal medicine specialist.
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Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) left behind the largest collection of self-portraits in the history of art. These portraits were painted over a period of 41 years, using a realistic technique. To evaluate Rembrandt's aging process we studied 25 uncontested Rembrandt oil self-portraits by means of objective and descriptive techniques. By measuring brow position changes through the years, we demonstrated that brow descent started in the second half of the third decade and began to level out in the fourth decade. Based on Rembrandts' aging physiognomy, from age 22 to 63, we believe that Rembrandt did not suffer from temporal arteritis, hypothyroidism, rosacea, or rhynophima and that no other facial signs of systemic diseases are evident, contrary to the opinions expressed by other medical professionals. We suggest that Rembrandt suffered from melancholia or mild depression, and propose the possibility of chronic lead poisoning as a theoretical illness that he might have had. (+info)
Race and the politics of polio: Warm Springs, Tuskegee, and the March of Dimes.
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The Tuskegee Institute opened a polio center in 1941, funded by the March of Dimes. The center's founding was the result of a new visibility of Black polio survivors and the growing political embarrassment around the policy of the Georgia Warm Springs polio rehabilitation center, which Franklin Roosevelt had founded in the 1920s before he became president and which had maintained a Whites-only policy of admission. This policy, reflecting the ubiquitous norm of race-segregated health facilities of the era, was also sustained by a persuasive scientific argument about polio itself: that Blacks were not susceptible to the disease. After a decade of civil rights activism, this notion of polio as a White disease was challenged, and Black health professionals, emboldened by a new integrationist epidemiology, demanded that in polio, as in American medicine at large, health care should be provided regardless of race, color, or creed. (+info)
Long-term impact of celebrity suicide on suicidal ideation: results from a population-based study.
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BACKGROUND: The short-term effect of celebrity suicide on the overall suicide rate is widely known, but long-term effects remain unclear. OBJECTIVE: To examine whether celebrity suicide is associated with suicidal ideation over a longer period. DESIGN: This is a study on the effect of the suicide of a famous Hong Kong entertainment celebrity, who committed suicide on 1 April 2003, on suicide thoughts of the community. A population-based survey was conducted between December 2003 and July 2004. Respondents were asked about their suicidal ideation, psychological well-being, life events, and whether or not they had been affected by celebrity suicide. SETTING: Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the People's Republic of China. PARTICIPANTS: 2016 respondents aged between 20 and 59 years. RESULTS: After controlling for some known suicide risk factors, celebrity suicide was shown to be independently associated with suicidal ideation. People who had indicated to have been affected by celebrity suicide were 5.93 times (95% CI 2.56% to 13.72%, p = 0) more likely to have severe level of suicidal ideation (Adult Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire score > or = 31) than people who had not been affected. Respondents having greater anxiety symptoms, less reason for living and more focus on irrational values were also found to have had their suicide ideation affected by celebrity suicide. CONCLUSIONS: Celebrity suicide is a risk factor for suicidal ideation over a short term as well as over a long term. Raising awareness of the possible negative effect of celebrity suicide through suicide prevention programmes in the community is needed. (+info)
Sir Henry Halford, president of the Royal College of Physicians, with a note on his involvement in the exhumation of King Charles I.
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Henry Halford (formerly Vaughan) (1766-1844) was president of the Royal College of Physicians for an unprecedented 24 years. A successful physician, he had to resign his post at the Middlesex Hospital because of his growing private practice. He was physician to four reigning monarchs and had many famous patients including Geogiana Duchess of Devonshire in whom he correctly diagnosed a liver abscess when other physicians had failed. He was also involved in the exhumation of King Charles I, and the fourth cervical vertebra, through which the King had been executed, came into his possession. (+info)
Did Catherine the Great of Russia have syphilis?
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Catherine the Great (1729-96) ruled Russia for the last 34 years of her life. She pursued many reforms with energy, intelligence and political shrewdness. Not least amongst her activities was a serious interest in matters of public health which extended to personal involvement in the care of the venereally infected. This paper suggests that perhaps her zeal in this last was based on more than social awareness. (+info)
Dom Pedro I of Brazil and IV of Portugal: epilepsy and peculiar behavior.
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We present medical issues related to Dom Pedro de Alcantara Braganca e Bourbon (1798-1834), first Emperor of Brazil. This is made by means of narrative revision on historical facts starting from primary and secondary sources. Dom Pedro presented familiar incidence of epilepsy. His seizures were relatively benign and scattered, supposedly started at the age of 13: idiophatic epilepsy with generalized tonic-clonic seizures only or juvenile myoclonic epilepsy. He also had behavioral disorder characterized by hypersexuality, agitation and impulsiveness. It could have facilitated his opportunistic behavior necessary for daring to transgress the conservatism of the Portuguese crown, to create the constitutional monarchism in Brazil and in Portugal. (+info)
The influence of media reporting of the suicide of a celebrity on suicide rates: a population-based study.
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BACKGROUND: The impact of media reporting of suicides of entertainment celebrities may affect suicide rates due to an imitation effect. We investigated the impact on suicides of the media reporting of the suicide of a male television celebrity. METHODS: All suicides during 2003-2005 in Taiwan (n = 10,945) were included in this study. A Poisson time series autoregression analysis was conducted to examine whether there was an increase in suicides during the 4-week period after extensive media reporting of the celebrity suicide. RESULTS: After controlling for seasonal variation, calendar year, temperature, humidity and unemployment rate, there was a marked increase in the number of suicides during the 4-week period after media reporting (relative risk = 1.17, 95% CI 1.04-1.31). The increase was in men (relative risk = 1.30, 95% CI 1.14-1.50) and for the individuals using the same highly lethal method (hanging) as the TV actor did (relative risk = 1.51, 95% CI 1.25-1.83). However, the age groups in which the increase occurred were younger than the age of the celebrity. CONCLUSIONS: The extensive media reporting of the celebrity suicide was followed by an increase in suicides with a strong implication of a modelling effect. The results provide further support for the need for more restrained reporting of suicides as part of suicide prevention strategies to decrease the imitation effect. (+info)
Famous faces activate contextual associations in the parahippocampal cortex.
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The parahippocampal cortex (PHC) has been traditionally implicated both in place processing and in episodic memory. How could the same cortical region mediate these cognitive functions that seem quite different? We have recently proposed that the PHC should be seen as more generally mediating contextual associative processing, which is required for both navigation and memory. We therefore predicted that any associative objects should activate the PHC. To test this generalization, we investigated the extent to which common stimuli that are nonspatial by nature, namely faces, activate the PHC, although their perception is typically associated with other cortical structures. Specifically, we compared the activation elicited by famous faces, which are highly associated with rich pictorial and contextual information (e.g., Tom Cruise) and are not associated with a specific place, with activation elicited by unfamiliar faces. Consistent with our prediction, contrasting famous with unfamiliar faces revealed significant activation within the PHC. Taken collectively, these findings indicate that the PHC should be regarded as mediating contextual associations in general and not necessarily spatial or episodic information. (+info)