Team cracks century-old mystery over the health struggles of explorer Ernest Shackleton

(Massachusetts General Hospital) Over the years, physicians and historians have attributed Shackleton's failing health during his Antarctic expeditions to scurvy or a congenital heart defect. By studying other explorers and learning they had symptoms comparable to those of Shackleton, researchers concluded that beriberi provided a sound scientific and medical explanation for the famed explorer's health struggles.
Source: EurekAlert! - Social and Behavioral Science - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: news