LAUSR

The French writer Jules Gabriel Verne (1828–1905) was affected by various illnesses. As a young man, he had five episodes of Bell’s palsy. He developed type 2 diabetes in his fifties, which, when his nephew Gaston shot him in the left ankle on March 9, 1886, complicated the healing of the wound. A secondary infection left him with a pronounced limp until his death. Verne’s health worsened around 1894. He complained of symptoms associated with diabetes and hypertension, such as incessant dizziness, tinnitus, scotomata, visual impairment due to a cataract in the right eye, and gastralgia with attacks of aerophagia. A few years later, he developed bilateral visual impairment, perhaps due to diabetic retinopathy. After having a hyperglycaemic crisis in 1904, Verne had a right hemiplegic stroke on March 17, 1905, followed by a left parietal stroke one week later. He died in Amiens, France, on March 24, 1905. Patients with Bell’s palsy are at higher risk of developing diabetes and hypertension, and a frequent association between prediabetes progressing to type 2 diabetes and facial palsy has been reported. Lifestyle is an important factor in developing hypertension and diabetes. These interrelated diseases are also related to microangiopathies and strongly predispose an individual to atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. It has been estimated that 35–75% of diabetic, cardiovascular, and renal complications can be attributed to hypertension, which also contributes to diabetic retinopathy. There is no evidence that Verne had diabetes in his early years; however, his lifestyle choices, such as his diet, might have favoured the occurrence of type 2 diabetes and hypertension later in life, which finally contributed to his death.