It is news that could leave Elvis Presley’s family and fans all shook up.
DNA from Elvis’ hair suggests he suffered from a genetic heart muscle disease, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
He appeared to suffer symptoms of the condition in his final years, including an irregular heartbeat, fatigue, fainting and high blood pressure.
The new findings suggest that regardless of his diet, the iconic singer was always destined to die young.
Dead Famous DNA gives a new insight into Elvis’ death extracting DNA to analyse his genome – the genetic blueprint of life.
The results were obtained after buying Elvis’ hair from a friend of his barbers for $2000.
Presenter Mark Evans said: “Some of the results are remarkable – not least those of the DNA we believe came from Elvis.
“Elvis and his doctor have both been blamed over the years for his premature death. It was thought his overeating or overdosing on drugs had killed him.
“Whilst those addictions would have helped, this new evidence suggests Elvis may have had a flaw in his DNA and his early death was his genetic destiny.”
During three months of DNA testing, problems were found on chromosome 11 – a variant known to cause hypertophic cardiomyopathy – a heart muscle disease that usually occurs in men between 20 and 40.
Chromosome 19 showed variant for obesity. Chromosome 17 found glaucoma and chromosome 1 found variant for migraine.
Mr Evans said he was “very very confident” the hair was genuine and he was dealing with Elvis’ DNA because of the provinence of the hair.
Asked if the find is significant, Dr Stephen Kingsmore, who did the analysis at the Centre for Paediatric Genomic Medicine in Kansas, said of the heart defect: “Its definitely a smoking gun.
“We could have advised him to modify his diet. He may have had a different life.”
The programme makers contacted daughter Lisa Marie Presley’s office but said it had not had a response.
Elvis died in his bathroom on August 16, 1977 aged 42 but the majority of details of his death were kept from the public.
At this time he was suffering from aucoma, high blood pressure, liver damage, and an enlarged colon.
Dead Famous DNA also tries to look at the genetic make up of the likes of Hitler, Einstein and Marilyn Monroe.
