Nashville, Tenn. — Historians have long believed that Andrew Jackson slowly died of mercury and lead poisoning from two bullets in his body and the 19th–century medications he took for intestinal problems.
Now, two strands of the seventh president's hair appear to have proven otherwise 154 years after Jackson's death. Instead, researchers said, Old Hickory died of kidney failure at age 78.
The researchers analyzed hair clipped from Jackson in 1815 and 1839 and preserved by The Hermitage, his Tennessee plantation.
While the mercury and lead levels found in the hair samples were "significantly elevated," they were not toxic, said Dr. Ludwag M. Deppisch, a pathologist with Northeastern Ohio University College of Medicine and Forum Health.
The research is published in today's edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Jackson, who served from 1829–37, was among the sickest of all presidents. Many of his symptoms were consistent with mercury, and lead poisoning, including excessive salivation, rapid tooth loss, colic, diarrhea, hand tremors, irritability, mood swings and paranoia.
Some historians believed Jackson's frequent ingestion of calomel ( mercurous chloride ) and sugar of lead ( lead acetate – "rat poison" ) — caused the symptoms and led to his death.
Not all research is being carried out at university labs. Many doctors frustrated with the current medical establishment have set up practices using the latest technological test equipment and modern day chemistry. Their ability to study the human body in greater detail than ever before has allowed them to gain new insights into health issues such as heavy metal intoxication.
Mercury can be tested for through a blood sample, a urine sample, a hair sample, or a combination of the three. But, because mercury is so good at binding with your body's important chemical resources, it is not easily thrown off into the system, or detected in (these) tests. In some cases, mercury may show up in only minute quantities or not at all, camouflaging the fact that it is indeed at toxic levels in your body. A special test is required to show the true amount of mercury that is in the body.
Mercury is a neurotoxin. Exposure to high levels can cause permanent damage to the brain and kidneys, as well as causing harm to the developing fetus. Mercury accumulates in the brain and kidneys. Exposure to mercury can cause personality changes, tremors, changes in vision, loss of sensation and memory ...
People with chronic mercury poisoning often have wide swings of mood, becoming irritable, frightened, depressed or excited very quickly for no apparent reason. Such people may become extremely upset at any criticism, lose all self–confidence, and become apathetic. Hallucinations, memory loss and inability to concentrate can occur.
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