The study analyzed the health information of 51 deceased leaders of nuclear-armed countries: China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. Eight of the leaders died from chronic disease while still in office, five from heart attacks or strokes. Many of the leaders had multiple serious health issues while in office, including dementia, personality disorders, depression and drug and alcohol abuse.

The research was led by Professor Nick Wilson, from the Department of Public Health at the University of Otago, Wellington – Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka, Pōneke, with Associate Professor George Thomson and independent researcher Dr Matt Boyd. Professor Wilson says that of the leaders who left office while still alive, 15 had confirmed or possible health issues which likely hastened their departure.

“Probably all of this group of 15 leaders had their performance in office impaired by their health conditions. In some cases, the degree of impairment was profound, such as in the case of two former Israeli Prime Ministers: Ariel Sharon, who became comatose after suffering a stroke in office, and Menachem Begin, whose depression was so severe he spent his last year as leader isolated in his home. Impairment during crises was also seen in the case of Richard Nixon’s bouts of heavy drinking – including during a nuclear crisis involving the Middle East.

“There have also been occasions where health information about leaders has been kept secret at the time.”

This was the case for multiple US presidents, including Dwight D Eisenhower, whose doctor described his 1955 heart attack as a digestive upset; John F Kennedy, whose aides lied about him having Addison’s disease, a serious, chronic condition; and Ronald Reagan, whose administration hid the extent of his injuries after he was shot in 1981, and the likely signs of his dementia near the end of his term.

Professor Wilson says Kennedy was in poor health during his first two years in office in 1961 and 1962, with his performance likely impaired from Addison’s disease, back pain, and his use of anabolic steroids and amphetamines. It was in 1961 that he authorized the failed CIA-backed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba and that his poor performance at a Cold War summit with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna was noted. In turn, Khrushchev’s poor mental health probably contributed to him triggering both the Berlin Crisis and the Cuban Missile Crisis.

In France, long-serving President François Mitterrand clung onto power until the end of his term in 1995, despite keeping secret his advanced prostate cancer and after his doctor had concluded in late 1994 that he was no longer capable of carrying out his duties. This latest study follows previous research involving Professor Wilson on the health of former New Zealand Prime Ministers. It found the performance of at least four of the leaders was impaired, in three cases by poor health, and, in the case of Robert Muldoon, by his heavy drinking.

Professor Wilson says with the rise in international instability following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 it has become even more important to ensure there is good leadership and governance in those countries with nuclear weapons.

“This is particularly the case for the United States, where a leader can in principle authorize the release of nuclear weapons on their own, a situation referred to as a ‘nuclear monarchy’.”

He says there are a range of measures which could reduce global security risks from leaders whose judgement is in question. They include removing nuclear weapons from ‘high alert’ status, adopting ‘no first use’ policies where nations refrain from using nuclear weapons except as a retaliatory second strike, ensuring any weapon launches need authorization by multiple people, and progressing nuclear disarmament treaties.

Professor Wilson says democracies could consider introducing term limits for their leaders, as well as recall systems, so voters could petition for politicians to step down. Requirements for medical and psychological assessments could be introduced for leaders before they take office, and during their terms.

“Maintaining a strong media with investigative journalists can also help expose impairment in leaders.”

Professor Wilson says politicians in general are exposed to high levels of stress, which can affect their mental well-being. A study of UK Members of Parliament has found they were 34 per cent more likely to experience mental health problems than other high-income earners.

“Finding ways to reduce stress on politicians and better address their mental health needs is another way global security risks can be reduced.”

The research, in collaboration with Medical Detection Dogs and the Universities of Bristol and Manchester, was published on July 15 in The Journal of Parkinson’s Disease.

Two dogs were trained by the charity, Medical Detection Dogs, to distinguish between sebum swabs from people with and without Parkinson’s disease.

In a double blind trial, they showed sensitivity of up to 80% and specificity of up to 98%.

Not only that, they detected it in samples from patients who also had other health conditions.

The dogs were trained over a number of weeks on over 200 odor samples from individuals that had tested positive for PD and control samples from people who did not have the disease. Samples were presented to the dogs on a stand system and the dogs were rewarded for correctly indicating a positive sample and for correctly ignoring a negative sample.

In the double-blind testing, meaning that only a computer knew where the correct samples were, each line was also presented in reverse order so that samples for which no decision was made were re-presented. Then any unsearched samples were collected together in new lines, until a decision had been made for all samples.

A definitive diagnostic test for Parkinson’s Disease (PD) remains elusive, so identification of potential biomarkers could help diagnosis and timely intervention.

Claire Guest, Medical Detection Dogs CEO and Chief Scientific Officer, says: “We are extremely proud to say that once again, dogs can very accurately detect disease.

“There is currently no early test for Parkinson’s disease and symptoms may start up to 20 years before they become visible and persistent leading to a confirmed diagnosis.

“Timely diagnosis is key as subsequent treatment could slow down the progression of the disease and reduce the intensity of symptoms.”

Nicola Rooney, Associate Professor at Bristol Veterinary School at the University of Bristol and lead author, says: “Identifying diagnostic biomarkers of PD, particularly those that may predict development or help diagnose disease earlier is the subject of much ongoing research. The dogs in this study achieved high sensitivity and specificity and showed there is an olfactory signature distinct to patients with the disease. Sensitivity levels of 70% and 80% are well above chance and I believe that dogs could help us to develop a quick non-invasive and cost-effective method to identify patients with Parkinson’s disease.”

Perdita Barran, Professor of Mass Spectrometry at The University of Manchester, said: “It’s wonderful to be part of this research inspired by Joy Milne and our Nose2Diagnose programme. This study adds to the growing body of evidence showing that simple, non-invasive skin swabs can be used to diagnose Parkinson’s disease, offering a faster and more accessible method for early detection.”

The two dogs in the study were Golden Retriever, Bumper and Black Labrador, Peanut.

A study published on July 15 in BMJ Mental Health found that having higher ADHD traits was associated with a lower quality of life and that insomnia could be part of the reason why.

At least one in four people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) report having a sleep disorder, with insomnia being the most common of these.

“Our findings show a link between ADHD traits, insomnia severity, and reduced life satisfaction,” says Dr Sarah L. Chellappa, Associate Professor in Psychology at the University of Southampton and senior author on the research paper.

“We know that sleep disruption can impact neurobehavioral and cognitive systems, including attention and emotional regulation. At the same time, sleep disruption may arise from ADHD-related impulsivity and hyperactivity, suggesting a reinforcing cycle between sleep disorders and ADHD.”

Researchers from the University of Southampton and the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience (Prof Eus Van Someren) examined data from the Netherlands Sleep Registry, an online survey with more than ten thousand adult participants.

The team analysed responses from 1,364 participants who had answered questions about ADHD traits, sleep disturbances, circadian factors, depression, and quality of life.

They found ADHD traits were associated with worse depression, more severe insomnia, lower sleep quality, and a preference for going to bed and waking up later.

ADHD and insomnia severity both predicted a lower quality of life, with analysis suggesting insomnia was the potential link in this association.

“Adults with ADHD traits may be more likely to have low sleep quality, insomnia complaints, and low mood levels, all of which lead to reduced life satisfaction,” says Professor Samuele Cortese, a co-author on the paper, also from the University of Southampton.

“There needs to be more research to understand this complex interplay. By improving our understanding, we could uncover treatment options that improve the quality of life of people with ADHD. For instance, targeting insomnia complaints in individuals with higher ADHD traits, with Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia or Sleep Restriction therapy may help improve their quality of life.”

The paper Associations of ADHD symptom severity, sleep/circadian factors, depression, and quality of life is published in BMJ Mental Health and is available online.

The research was supported by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research and the European Research Council.

The breakthrough, detailed on July 15 in The Review of English Studies, involved working out that the manuscript refers to ‘wolves’ not ‘elves’, as scholars previously assumed.

Dr James Wade and Dr Seb Falk, colleagues at Girton College, Cambridge, argue that the only surviving fragment of the Song of Wade, first discovered by M.R. James in Cambridge in 1896, has been “radically misunderstood” for the last 130 years.

“Changing elves to wolves makes a massive difference,” Seb Falk said. “It shifts this legend away from monsters and giants into the human battles of chivalric rivals.”

James Wade said: “It wasn’t clear why Chaucer mentioned Wade in the context of courtly intrigue. Our discovery makes much more sense of this.”

“Here we have a late-12^th-century sermon deploying a meme from the hit romantic story of the day,” Seb Falk said. “This is very early evidence of a preacher weaving pop culture into a sermon to keep his audience hooked.”

“Many church leaders worried about the themes of chivalric romances – adultery, bloodshed, and other scandalous topics – so it’s surprising to see a preacher dropping such “adult content” into a sermon,”said James Wade.

For the first time, the researchers have identified the great late-medieval writer Alexander Neckam (1157-1217) as the most likely author of the Humiliamini sermon. The 800-year-old document is part of MS 255, a Peterhouse Cambridge collection of medieval sermons.

Discoveries made 130 years apart

In 1896, M. R. James was looking through Latin sermons from Peterhouse’s library in Cambridge when he was surprised to find passages written in English. He consulted another Cambridge scholar, Israel Gollancz, and together they announced that these were verses from a lost 12th-century romantic poem which they called the Song of Wade. M. R. James promised further comment but this never came.

Nearly 130 years passed with no new evidence coming to light. Several scholars have attempted to work out the meaning of the sermon’s Wade quotation and speculated on what the full legend might have been like.

“Lots of very smart people have torn their hair out over the spelling, punctuation, literal translation, meaning, and context of a few lines of text,” said James Wade.

James Wade and Seb Falk argue that three words have been misread by scholars, because of misleading errors made by a scribe who transcribed the sermon. Most problematically, the letters ‘y’ and ‘w’ became muddled. Correcting these and other errors transforms the translated text from:

‘Some are elves and some are adders; some are sprites that dwell by waters: there is no man, but Hildebrand only.’

to:

‘Thus they can say, with Wade: ‘Some are wolves and some are adders; some are sea-snakes that dwell by the water. There is no man at all but Hildebrand.’

Hildebrand was Wade’s supposed father. While some folk-legends and epics refer to Hildebrand as a giant, if the Wade legend was a chivalric romance, as this study argues, Hildebrand was probably understood to be a normal man.

Chaucer and Wade

The Song of Wade was hugely popular throughout the Middle Ages. For several centuries, its central character remained a major romance hero, among other famous knights such as Lancelot and Gawain. Chaucer twice evoked Wade in the middle of this period, in the late 1300s, but these references have baffled generations of Chaucer scholars.

At a crucial moment in Troilus and Criseyde, Pandarus tells the ‘tale of Wade’ to Criseyde after supper. Today’s study argues that the Wade legend served Pandarus because he not only needed to keep Criseyde around late, but also to stir her passions. By showing that Wade was a chivalric romance, Chaucer’s reference makes much more sense.

In ‘The Merchant’s Tale’, Chaucer’s main character, January, a 60-year-old knight, refers to Wade’s boat when arguing that it is better to marry young women than old. The fact that his audience would have understood the reference in the context of chivalric romance, rather than folk tales or epics, is significant, the researchers argue.

“This reveals a characteristically Chaucerian irony at the heart of his allusion to Wade’s boat,” said James Wade.

The sermon

To make sense of the fragment, the researchers gave more attention to the Humiliamini sermon in its entirety than scholars have previously.

“The sermon itself is really interesting,” said Seb Falk. “It’s a creative experiment at a critical moment when preachers were trying to make their sermons more accessible and captivating.”

“I once went to a wedding where the vicar, hoping to appeal to an audience who he figured didn’t often go to church, quoted the Black Eyed Peas’ song ‘Where is the Love?’ in an obvious attempt to seem cool. Our medieval preacher was trying something similar to grab attention and sound relevant.”

The sermon offers a lesson in humility, a central concern of medieval theologians, but does so in unusual ways. It focuses on a debased Adam and compares human behaviours to animal traits. It presents powerful men who become like wolves because they plunder what doesn’t belong to them. And it compares the actions of cunning, deceitful and rapacious people to those of adders or water-snakes.

“This sermon still resonates today,” James Wade says. “It warns that it’s us, humans, who pose the biggest threat, not monsters.”

The preacher brings in a second topical reference to underline this point, telling the story of a real-life knight and crusader named Hugh of Gournay, who switched sides four times between England and France. The story doesn’t appear in any other surviving source, but the way the preacher tells it, he must have known his listeners would recognise it.

“It’s a bold image,” said Seb Falk: “the repentant Hugh wrapping a noose around his neck and throwing himself on the mercy of the French king is a powerful and really fresh symbol of chivalric humility.”

The researchers noticed multiple similarities in the arguments and writing style of Alexander Neckam, leading them to believe that he probably wrote the sermon.

But whether Neckam himself or an acolyte, the author must have been familiar with Wade and confident that his intended audience would get the reference.

Seb Falk said: “This sermon demonstrates new scholarship, rhetorical sophistication, and inventiveness, and it has strategic aims. It’s the ideal vehicle for the Wade quotation which served an important purpose.”

Seb Falk is a scholar of medieval history and history of science. James Wade is a scholar of English literature from the Middle Ages forward. Both are Fellows at Girton College, Cambridge.

Extract from the new translation of the sermon referring to Wade:

‘Dear [brothers], as to the fact that he says, ‘humble yourselves’, etc. – it could be considered that humility which is against the mighty hand of God is of a particular kind. For there are three kinds of humility: the humility of guilt; the humility of punishment; and the humility of penance.

Now, by the humility of guilt our first parent [Adam] was so humbled that, although he was made master of the whole world before his sins and ruled over everything that was in the world, after his sin, on the other hand, he could not even defend himself from a worthless worm, that is, from a flea or louse. He who was similar to God before sin, was made dissimilar through sin; since ‘by this poison a rose is sometimes turned into spikenard.’

Thus Adam was, from a human, made as if he was non-human; not only Adam, but almost everyone becomes as if non-humans. Thus they can say, with Wade: ‘Some are wolves and some are adders; Some are sea-snakes that dwell by the water. There is no man at all but Hildebrand.’

Similarly, today some are wolves, such as powerful tyrants, who if they can justly take the things of those subject to them, take them; but if not, [do so] by any means. Some imitate serpents, of which there are three kinds. Others become lions, like the proud ones whom God opposes; enough has been said of pride in the art of preaching. Others are foxes, such as cunning detractors and flatterers who speak with a double heart, who have honey in their mouth but bile in their heart. Others are gluttons like pigs, of whom the prophet says ‘their throats are open graves’; and thus each is judged similarly. Indeed, this humility is bad and perverse.’