Elvis Presley experienced significant physical pain due to severe arthritis, chronic stomach issues (Crohn's disease), and potential complications from multiple head injuries, leading to chronic pain, insomnia, and reliance on prescription drugs, with doctors attributing his ailments to spinal degeneration, autoimmune disorders, and even genetic predispositions, causing intense discomfort in his back, legs, eyes, and overall body.
Elvis's decline in health and increase in drug abuse may be attributed in large part to having suffered a TBI. Similarly, some of the health issues Elvis suffered, including infections and pain, may have stemmed from Autoimmune Inflammatory Disease that developed or was accelerated as a result of his head traumas.
1,2 He suffered for years from debilitating stomach pain resulting from Crohn's disease. He was prescribed chronic steroids for this inflammatory disease, and this was the only treatment that offered him some relief. Elvis gained a significant amount of weight from the steroids. He broke bones because of them.
Elvis Presley suffered from severe, chronic constipation for years, with autopsy reports indicating his colon contained stool that had been impacted for four to five months, possibly longer, due to poor bowel motility, a condition worsened by prescription medications, leading to a severely enlarged colon (megacolon) that likely contributed to his fatal heart attack while straining on the toilet.
Presley had hypertension and arteriosclerosis independent of his autoimmune disease, but his autoimmune disorder undoubtedly accelerated the inflammatory process. It is noteworthy that Elvis could not do his usual gyrations on stage in the last couple years of his life as a result of rigidity and spasticity.
Elvis Presley wiggled because his strong connection to the music naturally made him move his hips and legs, influenced by gospel and blues, combined with stage fright that he channeled into his movements, and amplified by the overwhelmingly positive, screaming reaction from his young female fans. He initially didn't intend it but leaned into it as audiences clearly desired the "sexual" and "primitive" display, making it his iconic, rebellious signature style.
After that, he was on his own. Elvis was given 1 option as an adult in the 70s-a colostomy bag to which he said hell no to.
He never thought he had a problem because he was taking "prescription drugs". Lab reports indicated that 14 drugs were found in Presley's blood at the time of his death, including "near toxic levels" of codeine, morphine, Placidyl and other prescription drugs.
It was so indulgent it became part of his public image—decadent, Southern, over-the-top. But his last meal was quiet. A bowl of ice cream. Some cookies.
Elvis was sitting on the toilet, straining very hard to have a bowel movement -- a maneuver that put a great amount of pressure on his heart and aorta. Thus, he likely died of a massive heart attack and keeled over onto the floor.
Along with barbiturates, Elvis additionally routinely eaten a variety of other prescription drugs, including opioid painkillers like keramin psoriasi meperidine and hydrocodone. These medications were recommended to handle the debilitating effects of his chronic discomfort, specifically in his back and joints.
Dolly Parton said no to Elvis Presley recording "I Will Always Love You" because his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, demanded half of the publishing rights, which Parton refused to give up, as she wanted to keep ownership and the future earnings for her family. Despite her heartbreak at the missed opportunity, she held firm to her business principle, understanding that retaining the copyright was crucial for her financial security and legacy, a decision that paid off immensely after Whitney Houston's cover became a global phenomenon.
He needed rest and true friends and time far away from the stage. Instead, he got more pills and another tour and another empty hotel room. What people saw as fat was really the body of a man worked to the edge, bloated by the medicine meant to keep him standing.
Although he was aware of the problem in the early 1970s, Elvis was reluctant to undergo a colostomy, which involves removing part of the colon. "He thought he was really a man's man. ... He thought that this was a sign of weakness, and he wasn't going to be weak," Nichopoulos said.
1977: Elvis' waist size is reported to have fluctuated, but it was generally around 38 to 40 inches.
Elvis Presley's final words, spoken to his fiancée Ginger Alden on August 16, 1977, were mundane but poignant: "I'm going to the bathroom to read," followed by "Okay, I won't" when she told him not to fall asleep. He was found dead later that morning in the bathroom of his Graceland home.
Nick explained. “Usually you pass it all in two or three days, but at the autopsy we found stool in his colon which had been there for five months or more because of the poor motility of the bowel.”
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At first he couldn't help it, as he identified as a singer who had to wiggle his hips and legs as he sang, and it just happened. But then the screaming audience of women clarified for him that they wanted Elvis to do those moves consistently, to the point of passing women out with excitement.
Elvis has a long history of amphetamine use. His classmates report that he used amphetamines in high school. He may have been treating symptoms of ADHD, as his friends from that era also report that he was unable to sit still and fidgeting all the time.
The reason given for his death was a cardiac arrhythmia suspected to be due to an interaction of an antihistamine, codeine, and Demerol (a painkiller), as well as Valium and several other tranquilizers. Prescription drug use sometimes results in fatal reactions.
The once slender and sporty star went on to weigh 25 stone as he spent months barricaded in his bedroom indulging in cheeseburger platters. His condition was so fraught that he was in need of a full-time nurse, and as he reportedly refused to bathe throughout 1975, and developed sores across his body.
Debi Drlik Elvis never smoked cigarettes, he occasionally smoked a cigarillo (that's a thin cigar). This uppers & downers business had been part of the entertainer/star merry-go-round since at least the days of Hollywood and young stars like Micky Rooney and Judy Garland.
Elvis was a doting, loving father, Priscilla told Closer, but he didn't change diapers—"That wasn't a man's job"—and had a hard time watching the baby eat, due to the inevitable drool. He did, however, buy Lisa Marie a fur coat when she was 3 and hand out $5 for lost baby teeth.