On the basis of the data available today, it cannot be decided whether Fryderyk Chopin died of tuberculosis or of cystic fibrosis. It is certain, however, that he suffered from more than one chronic disease, doctors said on Friday in Warsaw during a debate on the health of the genius composer.
Zdaniem prof. Wojciecha Cichego z Akademii Medycznej w Poznaniu, naturalny przebieg choroby Chopina sugeruje, że mogła to być gruźlica z towarzyszącą mukowiscydozą, bo poza objawami ze strony układu oddechowego artysta miał też zmiany dotyczące funkcjonowania jelit oraz zmiany w stawach (tzw. artropatie).
Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849) struggled with illness throughout his life. A friend and great love of the composer, George Sand, once said about him that he had lost his health in the cradle – mentioned Katarzyna Szymańska-Stułka from the Academy of Music in Warsaw during the debate. Even as a child, the artist was frail, thin and pale. During his lifetime, over 30 doctors dealt with it. He died prematurely at the age of 39.
As prof. Cichy, who is a co-founder of the Polish Cystic Fibrosis Working Group, in his early childhood Chopin not only had a tendency to respiratory system infections and a collapsed chest, but also suffered from recurrent diarrhea and was emaciated.
According to the specialist, problems with the absorption of nutrients from the gastrointestinal tract and the associated kilogram deficiency are – apart from recurrent bronchial and lung infections – the main symptoms of cystic fibrosis. The disease also manifests itself from early childhood with fatty, unformed stools due to an intolerance to fatty foods.
Cystic fibrosis, the most common genetic disease of Caucasians, is caused by a mutation in the CFTR gene that encodes the membrane chloride channel. People who suffer from it produce excessively sticky mucus, therefore they have disorders in the work of all organs and systems with mucous glands, such as the respiratory, digestive and reproductive systems. The disease is manifested by a tendency to bronchitis and pneumonia, disorders of the pancreas and, consequently, problems with digestion and absorption, increased concentration of chloride in sweat and tears, and – in many patients – infertility.
As emphasized by prof. Quiet, Chopin had a body weight deficiency all his life. As an adult male, he weighed 44 kg with a height of 170 cm. He was called a soldier’s skeleton covered in a woman’s skin. Nowadays, they would be treated in a hospital for this reason. As he had no children, it may be suspected that he was sterile.
According to the specialist, the fact that Chopin may have suffered from cystic fibrosis is also indicated by the fact that his close relatives – father Mikołaj and the youngest sister Emilia – had problems with the respiratory system. Emilia also had gastrointestinal symptoms – she died at the age of 14 from bleeding in her upper section.
Cystic fibrosis is an inherited disease that is detected today by genetic testing. But for this you need a blood or tissue sample – reminded prof. Quiet. Moreover, it is not certain whether if scientists had managed to obtain a fragment of Chopin’s heart for research (it is embedded in the wall of the Church of the Holy Cross in Warsaw), they would have been able to find the mutation responsible for the disease. Today, more than 1600 different mutations in the CFTR gene are known, most of which are family specific.
According to prof. Cichey, as of today it can be said that it is highly probable that Chopin suffered from tuberculosis with accompanying cystic fibrosis, but he certainly had more than one chronic disease.
According to Dr. Tadeusz Zielonka from the Medical University of Warsaw, Chopin could have died of cystic fibrosis, but it is unlikely. The hard facts indicate that it was most likely tuberculosis. Nowadays, causes such as emphysema, bronchospasm, chronic lung abscess or deficiency of alpha-1-antitrypsin are excluded – he explained.
Tuberculosis was a very common disease in Chopin’s time. In addition to the cough and shortness of breath that accompany dozens of respiratory diseases, its symptoms include chest pain, hemoptysis, fever, chills, night sweats, pallor, easy fatigue and weight loss (many of them also occur in cystic fibrosis). These symptoms were also observed in the composer. Tuberculosis is chronic and extremely debilitating – emphasized Dr. Zielonka.
In his opinion, Chopin lived too long for cystic fibrosis. In those days, people suffering from it probably did not live to adulthood. It can be explained that he had a mild form of the disease, but then the symptoms appear later in life, and the composer had intestinal problems since he was a child.
When it comes to the occurrence of the disease in the family, both Chopin’s father and mother, as well as one of his sisters, lived more than 70 years, so this is an unconvincing argument, noted Dr. Zielonka. Chopin could have contracted tuberculosis from Emilia, for example, but the disease became active at a later age. As the specialist recalled, the composer’s health deteriorated significantly in 1839, during his stay with George Sand in a sanatorium in Majorca.
Of course, tuberculosis does not explain all pathologies in Chopin, for example in the digestive system. The composer must have suffered from another disease as well. As of today, however, we are unable to confirm or rule out both tuberculosis and cystic fibrosis, said Dr. Zielonka.
In his opinion, it is certain, however, that in the years in which Chopin lived, it was impossible to diagnose his disease and treat it effectively. There were no appropriate diagnostic or therapeutic methods at that time. It was not until 1882, ie 43 years after the composer’s death, that the cause of tuberculosis was discovered – Koch’s Mycobacterium, and in 1895 Wilhelm Roentgen discovered a new type of radiation (called X-rays or X-rays), which was used to image changes in the lungs. Still later, almost one hundred years after Chopin’s death, Albert Schatz discovered streptomycin, an antibiotic effective in the treatment of tuberculosis. Cystic fibrosis was identified as a separate disease in 1938 by Dorothy Anderson.
Despite the interest of many researchers – biographers and doctors – in the health of the outstanding composer, the mystery of what Chopin suffered from remains unsolved – emphasized prof. Quiet.
Referring to the famous case in 2008, when scientists led by prof. Michał Witt from the Institute of Human Genetics of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Poznań, asked the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage for permission to examine a fragment of the composer’s heart (without success), the specialist said: was the cause of the death of our genius composer.
The debate entitled: Chopin’s Health was organized by Fundacja im. Dr. Maciej Hilgier on the occasion of the Chopin Year celebrations on the XNUMXth anniversary of the composer’s birth. (PAP)