Late Breaking News. Darwin Not Lactose Intolerant

You may not remember the kerfluffle in the news a couple of years ago when some researchers announced that they had determined that the cause of Charles Darwin's chronic illness was lactose intolerance. It was one of the first items I posted on the blog.

In a recent issue of Notes and records of the Royal Society of London, which I keep on the coffee table right next to US magazine, a pair of Chilean doctors [I'm not making any of this up] have concluded that he suffered from Crohn's Disease.

This explains his upper abdominal pain, his flatulence and vomiting, as well as his articular and neurological symptoms, his 'extreme fatigue', low fever and especially the chronic, relapsing course of his illness that evolved in bouts, did not affect his life expectancy and decreased with old age, and also the time of life at which it started. It apparently does not explain, however, many of his cutaneous symptoms.

They rule out lactose intolerance as a cause.

I'm so relieved.

The reference is Notes Rec R Soc Lond. 2007 Jan 22;61(1):23-9.