By now, you've probably heard of the neurodegenerative disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), most popularly linked to football players who receive multiple sub-concussive blows to the head.
Briefly, CTE is a type of traumatic brain injury. The disease can be spurred on by symptomatic concussions as well as sub-concussive hits to the head that do not cause immediate symptoms. CTE is characterized by degradation of brain tissue and the accumulation of tau protein, causing symptoms such as memory loss, aggression, confusion and deep depression that can appear years after initial brain trauma.
Dr. Bennet Omalu is often credited with discovering and naming CTE in 2002 during the autopsy of a former NFL player. But while the words "chronic traumatic encephalopathy" are fairly new in scientific literature, the disease may not be.
In a recent study, Yale researchers suggest Henry VIII -- the eccentric English monarch -- may have suffered from traumatic brain injury (TBI), even CTE specifically.
Published in the Journal of Clinical Neuroscience, the researchers analyzed volumes of Henry's letters and other historical sources to document his known medical history and events that may have contributed to his ailments.
Henry suffered two major head injuries during his 30s. In 1524, a lance penetrated the visor of his helmet during a jousting tournament and dazed him. A year later, he was knocked out when he fell head first into a brook he was trying to vault across with a pole. However, the English monarch's increasingly unpredictable behavior may have been triggered by an accident during a jousting match in January 1536 when a horse fell on him, causing Henry to lose consciousness for two hours.
Traumatic brain injury could explain the memory problems, explosive anger, inability to control impulses, headaches and insomnia Henry dealt with in the 10 years prior to his 1547 death. TBI seems even more likely given that historians generally agree that Henry's behavior changed after 1536, explained paper author Arash Salardini, a behavioral neurologist at Yale University. Descriptions of Henry during his youth portrayed an intelligent and even-tempered young man -- in stark contrast to the man who would eventually order the execution of his own wife after she failed to produce a male heir to the throne.
While obviously not concrete evidence, it is intriguing to think about just how drastically different modern European history would be if Henry VIII had avoided blows to his head. He was best known for his dispute with the Catholic Church over divorce, and subsequent creation of the Church of England. If Henry VIII avoided horses, would today's establishment of marriage be completely different? What other windfall effects would there had been if Henry VIII had remained the wise, jovial boy he once was after the year 1536?
Regardless of could-have-beens, it's fascinating to sit and really think about just how much science has influenced history -- for better or worse.
A version of this article originally appeared on LabEquipment.
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