Is inbreeding responsible for heart attacks in Elvis’s family? His grandparents were cousins

The death of Elvis Presley’s daughter from cardiac arrest at age 54 may have bolstered recent research suggesting that genetic defects born of inbreeding were responsible for a large number of early deaths in her family.

Lisa Marie Presley, who suffered a fatal cardiac arrest on Thursday, was far from the first Elvis member to die of heart problems. Rey himself died of cardiac arrest when he was just 42, and his mother Gladys died of heart failure at 46. Gladys had three siblings, each of whom also died in their forties from heart failure or pulmonary complications. .

In the recently published biography Elvis: Destined to Die Young, author Sally Hoedel argued that the deaths of Elvis, his mother, and his uncles were likely caused by a genetic defect brought on by the incestuous marriage of Elvis’s maternal grandparents, who became They married despite being first cousins.

Their early deaths were all foregone conclusions, Hoedel argued, saying that “it stops being a coincidence when it gets to Elvis” in an interview last summer. The death of Elvis’s only son under undeniably similar circumstances seems to say the same thing.

Lisa Marie Presley as a child with her father, Elvis. Both died in similar circumstances.

Hoedel suggested that the deaths in Elvis’s family were caused by alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, a genetic disorder that damages the lungs and liver and causes other health complications.

“We know Elvis had it because he was found to be a carrier of Alpha-1 after he died, so it had to come from somewhere,” he said. the united states sun.

That place was Elvis’s maternal lineage, probably going back to his grandmother, Doll Mansell, who suffered from tuberculosis for decades. However, Hoedel argued that it was a misdiagnosis and that Mansell really did suffer from some kind of genetic defect.

“Something that doesn’t make sense, but it continued to be passed down the family tree and then also throughout Elvis’ recorded history,” he said, “This book explains how Tuberculosis was undoubtedly a misdiagnosis in the early 20th century.” .

A two-year-old Elvis Presley with his parents, Gladys and Vernon, in 1937

Elvis Presley with his parents, Vernon and Gladys. Elvis and his mother had similar deaths.

A young Elvis Presley in the 1940s. He died in 1977 at his home of cardiac arrest.

When Mansell married his first cousin, a common practice in ancient times, and had children, that inbreeding could have exacerbated the genetic problems he already had and passed them on to his children.

“From there, with the first-cousin marriage, we can see that Gladys likely inherited two damaged genes and a more severe version of the disease,” Hoedel said.

Not only three of Mansell’s children died young from heart, lung, and liver ailments, but also Gladys, dying 19 years almost to the day her son died at Graceland in remarkably similar circumstances.

Gladys’s health deteriorated suddenly and rapidly at the age of 40. Like her son later, she developed a substance abuse problem and died as an alcoholic on August 14, 1958, days before her son began his military service in Germany.

“Gladys has always been portrayed as this woman whose son became famous, bought her a big house, and she struggled to deal with it all and essentially died of a broken heart,” Hoedel said, “but that’s not how it works.” I think Elvis and Vernon [Elvis’s father] they both knew how sick she was before he left for the army.

Elvis Presley with his parents before being sent to Germany for military service.

Elvis with his parents just before joining the army. Gladys died the day before boarding

Elvis also suffered from substance abuse and serious weight gain until his death in 1977.

He was known to have become addicted to numerous prescription drugs throughout the 1970s while trying to cope with the demands of a decade of grueling, famous touring.

But in his book, Hoedel argued that Elvis’s decline was not caused by overindulgence or reckless drug use, but rather that he was overprescribed medication to mitigate the worsening ailments he had already developed and that the lawsuits of his tour exasperated.

“Elvis had various health problems, but he hid them so well that over-medication is what we remember now,” Hoedel said. pills first.

Lisa Maries Presley holds her hand during her father’s funeral in Memphis in 1977

Lisa Marie Presley with her four children in 2019. She died of cardiac arrest on Thursday.

Lisa Marie Presley died of cardiac arrest after having drug problems in recent years

Forty-six years after Elvis’s death, Lisa Marie also died of cardiac arrest after suffering a period of substance abuse.

“The Presleys were incredibly secretive about their health,” Hoedel said, “but I did manage to interview people like Nancy Clarke, the daughter of Gladys’ cardiologist, who used to make house calls with her father at the Presley house.”

“And she told me before her father passed away, he said there was more to Gladys’s death than I understood because he’s been quoted for a long time as saying it looked like hepatitis, but it wasn’t, and he couldn’t figure out what.” . he was wrong with her.

It all goes back to Gladys’s parents.