Julius Caesar: Ministrokes not Epilepsy

[guy]

 
A recent article suggesting Julius Caesar suffered mini-strokes, not epilepsy:
 
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3039158/Julius-Caesar-s-strange-behaviour-caused-MINI-STROKES-Military-leader-s-symptoms-misdiagnosed-says-study.html
 

Caesar, who lived from 100 to 44 BC, has long been the focus of medical debate, with the common assumption being that he suffered from epilepsy.

But medical experts from the London university have reexamined his symptoms, which included vertigo, dizziness and limb weakness, and concluded that he may have in fact suffered from a cardiovascular complaint.

I'm not sure if I agree with the conclusions, but it is an interesting article, nevertheless.
 
 
guy also known as gaius

Edited April 26, 2015 by guy

[indianasmith]

Making medical diagnoses some 2000 years after the fact, from chronicles written a century after the fact, is a very risky business.

He may have just had low blood sugar!

[GhostOfClayton]

 

 

I'm not sure if I agree with the conclusions, but it is an interesting article, nevertheless.

 

 

guy also known as gaius

 

 

It's the Daily Mail, Guy, so you're right to be skeptical, but I'm going to have to ask you, what are your grounds for not agreeing with the conclusions?

Edited April 24, 2015 by GhostOfClayton

[caldrail]

Odd. The symptoms sound exactly like epilepsy to me.I've seen people go through those experiences. Mini strokes... The difficulty I have here is that strokes cause damage. Other than losing his har, I don't read anything in the accounts of Caesars life that suggest he was on any sort of downward health spiral

[Maty]

'Possible cardiovascular explanations have always been ruled out on the grounds that until his death he was supposedly otherwise physically well during both private and stately affairs,' the researchers wrote in their study.' (From the Daily Mail article)

 

'Nevertheless, he did not make his feeble health an excuse for soft living, but rather his military service a cure for his feeble health' (Plutarch Life of Caesar 17)

 

'Caesar left in the minds of some of his friends the suspicion that he did not wish to live longer and had taken no precautions, because of his failing health' (Suetonius Caesar 86)

 

Incidentally, Caesar almost did not attend the senate meeting which killed him because he was in poor health that day.

 

Epilepsy was a well-known diease in antiquity, and Caesar's physicians would have known about the heart disease risk, since Caesar's dad dropped dead while lacing up his boots. The ancient docs still went with epilepsy, so I'd be inclined to agree. Especially in the light ofthe above quotes.

Edited April 24, 2015 by Maty

[GhostOfClayton]

This is pertinent:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transient_ischemic_attack#Prognosis

 

My Dad had one or two before he had a major stroke.  He described these episodes to us before his stroke (and so before we knew they were TIAs), and you could be forgiven for thinking they were connected with epilepsy.

[guy]

I guess the important fact to consider is when did these "mini-strokes" begin?

 

If these episodes began late in Caesar's life, it is possible that these were, in fact, mini-strokes as a result of cerebovascular disease.

 

If these episodes began earlier in life, however, it is doubtful that Caesar could have survived to live to beyond 50 years of age with such severe vascular disease.

 

 

guy also known as gaius