The endocrinologist did not confirm the diagnosis made by colleagues the day before.
Mona Lisa did not suffer from hypothyroidism, - said Dr. Michael Yafi of the University of Texas (Division of Paediatric Endocrinology, The University of Texas) in an article published the other day in the specialized medical journal Hormones-International Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism. Thus, the endocrinologist questioned the diagnosis made by his colleagues last year - Mandeep R. Mehra, director of the Heart & Vascular Center at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Hilary Capbell (Hilary Campbell) of the University of California (University of California, Santa Barbara).
The doctors examined the Mona Lisa - not herself, of course, but the one that Leonardo da Vinci depicted in the legendary portrait. We saw that her face was puffy, her hands were swollen, her skin tone was yellowish, the hair on her head was thin, and below, where her eyebrows should be, they seemed to have fallen out. The neck is swollen, the thyroid gland is enlarged.
One word hypothyroidism is a disease caused by a lack of thyroid hormone. And even with complications, as some believe, in the form of heart failure, muscle weakness and lipid metabolism disorders.
The symptoms are, as they say, on the face. Hence the smile - not at all mysterious, but rather silly, according to Mehra and Campbell. After all, those suffering from hypothyroidism often show signs of mild mental breakdown.
A portrait by Leonardo da Vinci * went to see the doctors.
Doctors admired the skill of Leonardo da Vinci, who painted the portrait in an incredibly realistic way - accurately reproducing the symptoms of a hormonal disease that the woman posing for him suffered from. Reproduced so that they were able to recognize after almost 500 years.
To Dr. Yafi, who examined the Mona Lisa using the same portrait, the patient did not seem so painful. He saw only a slightly swollen neck. The yellow skin was explained not by the state of health, but by the fact that the paint in the picture faded. He considered the eyebrows not dropped out, but plucked out in the fashion of that time. The hair on the head is quite healthy.
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Yafi assures: if the woman really suffered from everything that his colleagues attributed to her, she would not be able to pose for the painter - she would have fallen off the chair in 15 minutes. And I certainly wouldn't have lived to be 63
People with hypothyroidism have a rough voice, sluggishness, sluggishness, often chill, tire quickly, are constipated, and tend to be overweight.
No, Mona Lisa was not like that, says the Texas physician. Although she does not exclude that she still had problems with the thyroid gland. But small - in the form of a barely noticeable goiter.
According to Yafi, the most that Mona Lisa could suffer was peripheral thyroiditis - an enlargement of the thyroid gland while maintaining its normal functioning. What was provoked by iodine deficiency. According to the historical chronicle, it was just not enough for the Italian population in the 16th century.
Thyroid: Not bad for the woman with the cryptic smile. Mehra and Campbell aggravated the iodine deficiency to hypothyroidism, Yafi only to thyroiditis. And the doctor rehabilitated Mona Lisa's smile - again to a mysterious one.
VLADIMIR LAGOVSKY