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.
Henry VIII’s problem was not a brain injury. It was his need to ply his will no matter what it cost others.
Now that stupid song's going through my head, won't go away.
I got married to the widow next door
She's been married seven times before
Rugby!
I saw a very good program on NeT Flix a few weeks back about Henry VIII. At the end of it, a historian said without Henry VIII, there would probably be no United States...at least not as we know it. Of course, Henry was doing things for his own personal ends, but he got the ball rolling for great change.
I found it on You Tube...
The summation of his life and legacy starts about here...just a few minutes long:
Inside The Court Of Henry VIII Documentary 2015
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zn9wZI-KjY&t=53m0s
“explosive anger, inability to control impulses, headaches, insomnia - and maybe even impotence”
Maybe he had traumatic gluttony and traumatic lust resulting in traumatic health problems when he was no longer a young man. A gluttonous lusthound is incredibly selfish, and is capable of murderous violence when his WILL is crossed.
I’m Henery the Eighth I am
Henery the Eighth I am I am
Henery the Eighth I am
Herman’s Hermits
we used to do the Stomp to that song
:)
That is my summation as well.
I don’t think his behavior was the result of injury...just ego and selfishness. Of course that would probably be true of most royalty at the time.
So all we need now is an ex-pro-football player to run for and get elected president. I’m trying to figure out which one would be most likely to start lopping off the heads of liberals...
hey hey ho ho western civ has got to go.
Agenda-driven fabrication.
I thought it was syphillis??
I can attest to the memory issues and insomnia, and some other issues, but have not had the rage or unstable behavior (anymore than before lol).
but i do get a little nasty when the sensory overload of light, tv and talking gets to me. then i need a dark quiet room
This certainly throws a monkey wrench in our plan to replace football as our national sport with jousting.
It is still the official sport of Maryland, though.
Sadly, The Wire was cancelled before it could expose the seedy underbelly of the state's official pastime.
There can be only one!
For Yale to do this is really irresponsible.
They are essentially saying that if you have a brain injury you will be given an excuse for bad behavior.
Divorced, beheaded, died. Divorced, beheaded, lived.
He wasn’t gay?
Instead of trying a different angle to try & take down an American pastime such as the NFL, perhaps these 2 could've done a study to see if a head injury to the "prophet" Muhammed contributed to his starting the death cult better known as Islam.
I wonder if Yale would've provided the research funding for that?!
My daughter learned that one in school a few weeks back and shared it with me:
Horrible Histories Prom 2011 | Henry VIII: Divorced, Beheaded, Died
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NRUWUPvSyA
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