Elvis Presley died of chronic constipation, reveals his doctor
For years Elvis Presley’s death has been the subject of ever more far-fetched conspiracy theories.
But it seems that the real mystery may have been missed – the cause of his death.
Rather than an irregular heartbeat, as had previously been reported, his personal doctor has revealed Elvis died of chronic constipation.
The debilitating problem caused the singer severe problems, according to Dr George Nichopoulos, Elvis’s doctor for the last 12 years of his life.
The doctor, who attempted to resuscitate Elvis on the day of his death, said that it wasn’t until the autopsy that he realised had severe the constipation had been.
According to Dr Nichopoulos, the autopsy found Elvis’s colon to be five to six inches in diameter, compared to an average of two to three inches. And rather than the standard four to five feet long, Elvis’s colon was eight to nine feet.
‘After he died we weren’t sure [of his cause of death] so I continued to do some research and I had some doctors call me from different places and different med schools that were doing research on constipation and different problems you can get into with it.
‘I just want to get the story straight – it all made sense with the new research that was done,’ he told Pop Tarts.
He said that although he offered Elvis a colostomy, to remove part of his bowel, his pride meant he rejected the treatment.
And Dr Nichopoulos thinks that if Elvis had undergone the treatment he might still be alive today.
‘He would get embarrassed, he’d have accidents onstage,’ said Dr Nichopoulos.
‘He’d have to change clothes and come back because of the way we were trying to treat his constipation.
‘So if they had done the colostomy then, he’d probably still be here. But it wasn’t acceptable treatment at that time. Now the treatment is short.’
Dr Nichopoulos also says that Elvis’s weight gain in the years before his death was at least partly due to his constipation.
‘During the last few years we were going back and comparing pictures, some of them were taken just two weeks a part but he looked like he’d gained 20 pounds when the only difference was that he had a good healthy bowel movement and then lost a lot of weight from that,’ he said.
Elvis died on August 16, 1977, at the age of just 42. His body was found in the bathroom at his home Graceland.
The Doctor recently released his book The King And Dr Nick, about his time with Elvis.
