Did vitamin D deficiency contribute to Mozart’s untimely demise?
All work and no play (outside), it seems, made Wolfgang a sick boy.
Mozart passed away at the tender age of 35 having suffered from a list of infectious diseases throughout his lifetime, including pneumonia and sepsis, heart disease, and kidney disease, all of which have a link to vitamin D deficiency, according to a letter to the journal Medical Problems of Performing Artists.
William Grant from the Sunlight, Nutrition, and Health Research Center in San Francisco and Stefan Pilz from the Medical University of Graz in Austria reported that weak sunlight for six months of the year in Salzburg and Vienna would have made it impossible for a person to make vitamin D from sun exposure. Add to this that Mozart did the majority of his composing at night – and therefore slept during the day – and you have a new hypothesis to explain Mozart’s death...
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