Health of Adolf Hitler

Exacerbated by the many drugs and potions he was given by his unconventional doctor, Theodor Morell, and undermined by Hitler's own hypochondria, his premonition of a short lifespan, and his fear of cancer (which killed his mother), the dictator's health declined almost continuously until his death by suicide in 1945.

[4] As a result of the 20 July 1944 assassination attempt on Hitler – in which he survived a bomb explosion at his Wolf's Lair headquarters – both of his eardrums were punctured, and he had numerous superficial wounds, including blisters, burns, and 200 wood splinters on his hands and legs, cuts on his forehead, abrasions and swelling on his left arm, and a right arm that was swollen, painful, and difficult to raise, causing him to use his left hand to greet Benito Mussolini, who arrived that day for a previously scheduled summit meeting.

One unusual result was that the trembling in Hitler's hands and left leg, which had increasingly afflicted him for sometime, abated for a time after the explosion, which Morell attributed to nervous shock; they returned in mid-September.

Consulted by his patient, Heinrich Himmler, as to whether he could "assist a man who suffers from severe headaches, dizziness and insomnia", Kersten was shown a top-secret 26-page report.

The book also relates how Kersten learned from Himmler's secretary, Rudolf Brandt, that at that time, probably the only other people privy to the report's information were Nazi Party chairman Martin Bormann and Hermann Göring, the head of the Luftwaffe.

Despite his lack of training, Morrell did treat Hitler [who had an obsessive fear of VD] with Arsenobenzol, designated "606," Salvarsan, Neosalvarsan with bismuth, and iodine salts[10].

When many of the physical symptoms shown in newsreels during his later life – his hand tremor and shuffling gait – are coupled with his alleged mental and psychological deterioration, they may also point toward Huntington's.

Newsreels of Hitler show he had tremors in his left hand and a shuffling walk (also a symptom of tertiary syphilis, see above) which began before the war and continued to worsen until the end of his life.

[18] In addition, Dr. Ernst-Günther Schenck, who worked at an emergency casualty station in the Reich Chancellery during April 1945, also claimed Hitler might have Parkinson's disease.

However, Schenck only saw Hitler briefly on two occasions and, by his own admission, was extremely exhausted and dazed during these meetings; at the time, he had been in surgery for numerous days without much sleep.

In 1943, author Frederick Cable Oechsner claimed in his book This Is The Enemy that Hitler had a rhinoplasty in Munich sometime after 1933 to correct the shape of his nose, as it was reportedly "a little bulbous at the end and fatty on the bridge.

In 1993, an interdisciplinary team consisting of Desmond Henry, Dick Geary, and Peter Tyrer published an essay in which they expressed their common view that Hitler had antisocial personality disorder as defined in ICD-10.

If true, this might be explained by a series of brief reactive psychoses in a narcissistic personality which could not withstand being confronted with reality (in this case, that he was not the "superman" or "saviour of Germany" he envisioned himself to be, as his plans and apparent early achievements collapsed about him).

[28] He regularly consumed methamphetamine, barbiturates, opiates, and cocaine,[29][30] as well as potassium bromide and atropa belladonna (the latter in the form of Doktor Koster's Antigaspills).

[31] In a 1980 article, German historian Hans-Ulrich Wehler was highly dismissive of all theories that sought to attribute the rise and policies of Nazi Germany to some defect, medical or otherwise, of Hitler's.

[32] Wehler wrote:[32] Does our understanding of National Socialist policies really depend on whether Hitler had only one testicle?...Perhaps the Führer had three, which made things difficult for him, who knows?...Even if Hitler could be regarded irrefutably as a sado-masochist, which scientific interest does that further?...Does the 'Final Solution of the Jewish Question' thus become more easily understandable or the 'twisted road to Auschwitz' become the one-way street of a psychopath in power?Echoing Wehler's views, British historian Ian Kershaw argued that it was better to take a broader view of German history by seeking to examine what social forces led to the Third Reich and its policies, as opposed to the "personalised" explanations for the Holocaust and World War II.