This month we begin a new Allergy Consumer Report series: Famous Allergy and
Asthma Sufferers. By spotlighting leaders, sports figures, artists, actors, and
other famous or historical figures who battled allergies and asthma yet achieved
tremendous success in life, we hope to encourage those who suffer from these often-debilitating conditions.
And who knows, perhaps there is something of the seed for greatness in the
experience of overcoming these illnesses, a seed that anyone with such a chronic condition has the potential to foster.
Beethoven’s Life
We begin the series with Ludwig van Beethoven, perhaps the most widely recognized composer of all time. He was born in 1770 in Germany
and died in 1827, having moved to Vienna, Austria in his early twenties and settled there. Studying under Joseph Haydn, Beethoven quickly
became a renowned piano virtuoso and composer.
Born into a line of musicians, it is popularly believed that Beethoven’s childhood was characterized by an abusive, alcoholic father who
taught him how to play the piano in a less-than-kind manner. While Beethoven’s immense talent was evident early on
in his life, personal circumstances, including the death of his beloved mother and the subsequent guardianship of his younger brothers,
overshadowed his early career.
It was not until he moved to Vienna that he became a well-established performer and composer. Contrary to the trend of composers
who came before him and worked for the church or in a noble court, Beethoven earned his living through yearly stipends, gifts from nobility,
sales of his compositions, and by giving concerts and lessons.
Beethoven’s personal life continued to be fraught with difficulties which
included failed romances and a complicated custody dispute over his nephew. Intermixed with these, Beethoven suffered incredibly from
health issues not the least of which was asthma.
Beethoven’s Health
According to Voices from the Past, Beethoven was
"tormented by chronic asthma and other debilitating diseases," and "composed unforgettable music while railing against ‘bumbling doctors’ –
the best physicians in Vienna – who were unable to give him relief from asthma."
 But asthma was not the only health matter with which Beethoven struggled. Heartbreakingly, he also suffered from severe tinnitus, a loud
ringing in the ears, and the associated loss of hearing. While it has been attributed to underlying conditions he may have had, such as lead
poisoning or syphilis, it is also interesting to note that, according to USA Today's
Health Encyclopedia, allergies are another common cause of
tinnitus.
As pointed out in a 2005
Washington Post
article, recent research seems to point to lead poisoning as the root of many of
Beethoven’s other ailments like severe abdominal pain. Although it is impossible
to pinpoint the source of his lead poisoning, lead was used indiscriminately in
Beethoven’s days in cups and plates, to sweeten wine, and even as a medical
treatment! Ironically, it is very likely that Beethoven’s doctors treated him
with medicines stored in leaded containers that leached the metal into the medicines he consumed.
Asthma Treatment in Beethoven’s Day
Though we can not be sure what Beethoven’s doctors prescribed to treat his asthma symptoms, we do know some general information about how
doctor’s viewed the human body and ailments during his life in the eighteenth century.
As outlined in Medicine Net, up until about the mid-eighteenth
century, European physicians viewed medicine from a philosophy derived from ancient Greco-Roman times. The body was seen as being made up of
four humors – blood, black bile, yellow bile, and phlegm. Excesses of one of the humors were believed to be the causes of medical disorders.
Because asthmatic individuals experienced coughing and increased congestion, asthma was seen as a phlegmatic disorder.
Common treatments for asthma during this time included bloodletting, herbs, and – hard as it is to believe in this day and age – tobacco
smoking. Even after the invention of the stethoscope helped doctors characterize asthma as a unique disease, patients often requested these
popular “remedies.”
 Another treatment that Beethoven may have tried was drinking coffee,
which was used to ease asthma symptoms beginning in the eighteenth century. Interestingly, coffee does actually have properties that aid in the
dilation of bronchial passages. Theobromine and theophylline, present in coffee, are natural anti-asthmatic compounds that help stop
bronchospasms and open constricted bronchial passages.
Other caffeinated products, such as tea, soda, and chocolate, contain these chemicals as well; however, on average, coffee delivers the most
concentration of caffeine.
Some recommend drinking several cups of coffee in an emergency if caught without your asthma medication.
Note: We are not advocating coffee consumption as an alternative to medication or the recommendations of your doctor.
From asthma and lead poisoning to deafness - that caused him to cut off piano legs and put his ear to the floor so he could hear his
compositions - and through the sadness and sickness that made up much of Beethoven’s life, a music came forth so beautiful that it has
withstood the test of time and the ever-shifting wave of public taste.
Stay tuned next month for the story of another famous allergy or asthma sufferer.
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