By Eric Hilton
That Elvis Presley died in his bathroom on August 16, 1977 is a widely known fact, but few people know that constipation was a contributing factor to his untimely demise.
Also little known at the time was a fact that adds to the poignancy of the tragedy: he was found by his fiance, a twenty-one-year-old actress named Ginger Alden whom Elvis was planning to marry on Christmas day of that same year. In an effort to avoid the appearance of impropriety, a story was concocted that Elvis' road manager, Joe Esposito, had found the King of Rock n Roll expired on the bathroom floor of his Graceland mansion.
In many ways, the circumstances of Elvis' death were sanitized for popular consumption. One of the facts covered up was the activity the King had been engaged in before he unceremoniously pitched head first off his throne: he had been straining to evacuate his bowels.
The Shelby County coroner gave the initial cause of death as having been, "cardiac arrhythmia [an irregular heartbeat] due to undetermined causes." Basically, Elvis Presley died of a heat attack. That much is true, but the question still remains, what exactly caused his heart to stop?
The common belief that he died from drug abuse is not in fact accurate. It is true that he had been abusing his body for years (one doctor commented that he "had the arteries of a an 80 year-old-man" at the time of his death) through a punishing work schedule and wildly unhealthy eating and sleeping habits. But as far as drugs go, he was taking a variety of medicines prescribed for the multitude of illnesses and complaints he suffered from, which included:
He was taking an array of medications, but he was taking them at the prescribed dosages to treat the various maladies he was afflicted with. Although he was just 42, his body was ready to give out on him at the slightest provocation. In fact, his autopsy revealed that he had had at least three heart attacks before the one that killed him.
Elvis' constipation was not only due to his famously prodigious appetite. He had been born with a deformed colon and suffered from chronic constipation for years. Add to that his legendary diet of bacon, peanut butter and strawberry sandwiches, and you have recipe for disaster.
On the last day of his life, as on most other days, he had trouble getting to sleep. At 9:30 a.m. he got up from the bed where he lay sleepless and made his way to the bathroom, a book called A Scientific Search for Jesus in his hand. Ginger called out after him, "Don't fall asleep in there." "Okay, I won't," he answered. Those were his last words. Ginger woke up about four hours later and went to check on him. She found him lying prone on the bathroom floor, in a pool of his own vomit. From the condition he was found in, we can surmise that Elvis Presley had a heart attack while straining to defecate, he then pitched forward and at some point before being discovered, gave up the ghost.
The moral of the story? Well, look after your health I suppose. That is the one thing that Elvis didn't have in the end. And if you or someone you know is suffering from constipation, take it seriously. If constipation is a concern in your life, click on the link for all you could ever want to know about the best constipation cures and treatments.
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