NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Casting doubt on the long-held belief that Andrew Jackson slowly died of mercury and lead poisoning, researchers reported Wednesday that the president known as "Old Hickory" instead died of kidney failure.
The researchers analyzed two strands of hair clipped from Jackson in 1815 and 1839 and preserved by The Hermitage, his Tennessee plantation.While the mercury and lead levels found in the hair were "significantly elevated," they were not toxic, said Dr. Ludwig Deppisch, a pathologist with Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine and Forum Health.
The research is published in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association.
Historians have long thought that the seventh president died of mercury and lead poisoning from two bullets in his body and the 19th-century medications he took for intestinal problems. He died in 1845 at age 78.
Jackson, who served from 1829-37, was among the sickest of all presidents. Many of his symptoms were consistent with mercury and lead poisoning, including excessive salivation, rapid tooth loss, colic, diarrhea, hand tremors, irritability, mood swings and paranoia.
Some historians believed Jackson's frequent ingestion of calomel (mercurous chloride) and sugar of lead (lead acetate) for intestinal ailments caused the symptoms and led to his death.