What should we have the right to know about a president's health?
Photos: U.S. presidents: Ailing in office
Woodrow Wilson, 1913-1921 – Woodrow Wilson had a debilitating stroke in 1919
that left him partially paralyzed while in office. According to Jerrold
Post, Wilson had suffered several strokes while he served as president
of Princeton but never revealed his medical history to voters.
While in office, "he suffered a massive stroke, but they concealed it and just said he was under the weather and no one was informed," Post said.
While in office, "he suffered a massive stroke, but they concealed it and just said he was under the weather and no one was informed," Post said.
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Photos: U.S. presidents: Ailing in office
Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933-1945 – Franklin Delano Roosevelt was paralyzed in both legs,
likely as a result of polio that struck when he was 39. But it was the
cover-up of his advanced heart disease and elevated blood pressure when
he ran for his fourth term that historians question. FDR died just a few
months after that election.
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9 of 14
Photos: U.S. presidents: Ailing in office
Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953-1961 – Dwight D. Eisenhower suffered from ongoing gastrointestinal problems. He was later diagnosed with Crohn's disease.
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10 of 14
Photos: U.S. presidents: Ailing in office
John F. Kennedy 1961-1963 – John
F. Kennedy "probably had more diseases than any of the other
presidents," said George Annas, chairman of the department of health
law, bioethics and human rights at Boston University School of Public
Health. Kennedy took office suffering from hypothyroidism, back pain and Addison's disease and was on a daily dose of steroids and other drugs.
Hide Caption
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Photos: U.S. presidents: Ailing in office
Lyndon Baines Johnson 1963-1969 – Lyndon
Johnson had serious heart disease, which he often concealed, during his
years in the Senate and White House, and it was his failing health that
kept him from running against Nixon in 1968. The study by Duke psychiatrists also found that Johnson would have been diagnosed as bipolar.
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Photos: U.S. presidents: Ailing in office
Ronald Reagan 1981-1989 – Ronald
Reagan had a cancerous tumor and two feet of his colon removed in 1985,
but it was his diagnosis of Alzheimer's following his presidency that
have many wondering whether his performance in office was affected.
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13 of 14
Photos: U.S. presidents: Ailing in office
George H. W. Bush 1989-1993 – George
H. W. Bush was diagnosed with Grave's disease while in office.
According to former White House physician Connie Mariano, "There was
some question when he had hyperthyroidism, Grave's disease, around the
time of the Gulf War. Did that make him more hyper and aggressive? Did
it affect his memory, his ability to focus? It's hard to say."
Hide Caption
14 of 14
Photos: U.S. presidents: Ailing in office
John Adams 1797-1801 – A study by Duke psychiatrists found John Adams would have been diagnosed with a bipolar disorder.
Hide Caption
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Photos: U.S. presidents: Ailing in office
William Henry Harrison, March-April 1841 – William
Henry Harrison battled with dyspepsia and indigestion. Before he had
been in office a month, he caught a cold that developed into pneumonia.
On April 4, 1841, he became the first president to die while in office.
Hide Caption
2 of 14
Photos: U.S. presidents: Ailing in office
Abraham Lincoln, 1860-1865 – Abraham Lincoln is widely thought to have suffered from depression.
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3 of 14
Photos: U.S. presidents: Ailing in office
Ulysses S. Grant, 1869-1877 – The study by Duke psychiatrists found Ulysses S. Grant would have been diagnosed as an alcoholic with social phobias.
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Photos: U.S. presidents: Ailing in office
Chester Arthur, 1881-1885 – Chester Arthur was
diagnosed with Bright's disease, a fatal kidney condition, after a year
in office. He did not seek a second term and died less than two years
after leaving office.
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Photos: U.S. presidents: Ailing in office
Grover Cleveland, 1885-1889 and 1893-1897 – Grover Cleveland suffered from obesity and gout and was treated for cancer in his jaw while in office.
"President Cleveland was one of the most compelling stories of concealment in the high office," said Jerrold Post, professor emeritus of psychiatry, political psychology and international affairs at George Washington University. "He was brushing his teeth one day and found a lump on roof of the mouth. Instead of telling the public, he smuggled his dentist, head and neck surgeon and surgical team onto a pleasure yacht, where they removed the roof of his mouth to get rid of the carcinoma. He emerged a week later complaining of a toothache."
"President Cleveland was one of the most compelling stories of concealment in the high office," said Jerrold Post, professor emeritus of psychiatry, political psychology and international affairs at George Washington University. "He was brushing his teeth one day and found a lump on roof of the mouth. Instead of telling the public, he smuggled his dentist, head and neck surgeon and surgical team onto a pleasure yacht, where they removed the roof of his mouth to get rid of the carcinoma. He emerged a week later complaining of a toothache."
Hide Caption
6 of 14
Photos: U.S. presidents: Ailing in office
Theodore Roosevelt, 1901-1909 – Theodore Roosevelt suffered from asthma and was blind in one eye as the result of a boxing injury in 1905. He was also deaf in one ear.
The 2006 study by Duke psychiatrists applied today's diagnostic criteria to historical records and found Roosevelt would have been diagnosed with bipolar.
The 2006 study by Duke psychiatrists applied today's diagnostic criteria to historical records and found Roosevelt would have been diagnosed with bipolar.
Hide Caption
7 of 14
Photos: U.S. presidents: Ailing in office
Woodrow Wilson, 1913-1921 – Woodrow Wilson had a debilitating stroke in 1919
that left him partially paralyzed while in office. According to Jerrold
Post, Wilson had suffered several strokes while he served as president
of Princeton but never revealed his medical history to voters.
While in office, "he suffered a massive stroke, but they concealed it and just said he was under the weather and no one was informed," Post said.
While in office, "he suffered a massive stroke, but they concealed it and just said he was under the weather and no one was informed," Post said.
Hide Caption
8 of 14
Photos: U.S. presidents: Ailing in office
Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933-1945 – Franklin Delano Roosevelt was paralyzed in both legs,
likely as a result of polio that struck when he was 39. But it was the
cover-up of his advanced heart disease and elevated blood pressure when
he ran for his fourth term that historians question. FDR died just a few
months after that election.
Hide Caption
9 of 14
Photos: U.S. presidents: Ailing in office
Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953-1961 – Dwight D. Eisenhower suffered from ongoing gastrointestinal problems. He was later diagnosed with Crohn's disease.
Hide Caption
10 of 14
Photos: U.S. presidents: Ailing in office
John F. Kennedy 1961-1963 – John
F. Kennedy "probably had more diseases than any of the other
presidents," said George Annas, chairman of the department of health
law, bioethics and human rights at Boston University School of Public
Health. Kennedy took office suffering from hypothyroidism, back pain and Addison's disease and was on a daily dose of steroids and other drugs.
Hide Caption
11 of 14
Photos: U.S. presidents: Ailing in office
Lyndon Baines Johnson 1963-1969 – Lyndon
Johnson had serious heart disease, which he often concealed, during his
years in the Senate and White House, and it was his failing health that
kept him from running against Nixon in 1968. The study by Duke psychiatrists also found that Johnson would have been diagnosed as bipolar.
Hide Caption
12 of 14
Photos: U.S. presidents: Ailing in office
Ronald Reagan 1981-1989 – Ronald
Reagan had a cancerous tumor and two feet of his colon removed in 1985,
but it was his diagnosis of Alzheimer's following his presidency that
have many wondering whether his performance in office was affected.
Hide Caption
13 of 14
Photos: U.S. presidents: Ailing in office
George H. W. Bush 1989-1993 – George
H. W. Bush was diagnosed with Grave's disease while in office.
According to former White House physician Connie Mariano, "There was
some question when he had hyperthyroidism, Grave's disease, around the
time of the Gulf War. Did that make him more hyper and aggressive? Did
it affect his memory, his ability to focus? It's hard to say."
Hide Caption
14 of 14
Photos: U.S. presidents: Ailing in office
John Adams 1797-1801 – A study by Duke psychiatrists found John Adams would have been diagnosed with a bipolar disorder.
Hide Caption
1 of 14
Photos: U.S. presidents: Ailing in office
William Henry Harrison, March-April 1841 – William
Henry Harrison battled with dyspepsia and indigestion. Before he had
been in office a month, he caught a cold that developed into pneumonia.
On April 4, 1841, he became the first president to die while in office.
Hide Caption
2 of 14
Photos: U.S. presidents: Ailing in office
Abraham Lincoln, 1860-1865 – Abraham Lincoln is widely thought to have suffered from depression.
Hide Caption
3 of 14
Photos: U.S. presidents: Ailing in office
Ulysses S. Grant, 1869-1877 – The study by Duke psychiatrists found Ulysses S. Grant would have been diagnosed as an alcoholic with social phobias.
Hide Caption
4 of 14
Photos: U.S. presidents: Ailing in office
Chester Arthur, 1881-1885 – Chester Arthur was
diagnosed with Bright's disease, a fatal kidney condition, after a year
in office. He did not seek a second term and died less than two years
after leaving office.
Hide Caption
5 of 14
Photos: U.S. presidents: Ailing in office
Grover Cleveland, 1885-1889 and 1893-1897 – Grover Cleveland suffered from obesity and gout and was treated for cancer in his jaw while in office.
"President Cleveland was one of the most compelling stories of concealment in the high office," said Jerrold Post, professor emeritus of psychiatry, political psychology and international affairs at George Washington University. "He was brushing his teeth one day and found a lump on roof of the mouth. Instead of telling the public, he smuggled his dentist, head and neck surgeon and surgical team onto a pleasure yacht, where they removed the roof of his mouth to get rid of the carcinoma. He emerged a week later complaining of a toothache."
"President Cleveland was one of the most compelling stories of concealment in the high office," said Jerrold Post, professor emeritus of psychiatry, political psychology and international affairs at George Washington University. "He was brushing his teeth one day and found a lump on roof of the mouth. Instead of telling the public, he smuggled his dentist, head and neck surgeon and surgical team onto a pleasure yacht, where they removed the roof of his mouth to get rid of the carcinoma. He emerged a week later complaining of a toothache."
Hide Caption
6 of 14
Photos: U.S. presidents: Ailing in office
Theodore Roosevelt, 1901-1909 – Theodore Roosevelt suffered from asthma and was blind in one eye as the result of a boxing injury in 1905. He was also deaf in one ear.
The 2006 study by Duke psychiatrists applied today's diagnostic criteria to historical records and found Roosevelt would have been diagnosed with bipolar.
The 2006 study by Duke psychiatrists applied today's diagnostic criteria to historical records and found Roosevelt would have been diagnosed with bipolar.
Hide Caption
7 of 14
Story highlights
- On Friday, Trump will undergo his first known physical as President
- Over decades, some presidents have hidden their medical issues from the public
(CNN)On
Friday, at the age of 71, President Trump is undergoing his first-known
health physical since taking office, and observers are hoping it will
shed light on both his physical and mental health.
Concerns over Trump's physical health have grown due to reports of his fast-food habits, lack of exercise, age and weight.
On
the issue of mental health, the release of a sensational West Wing
tell-all book by journalist Michael Wolff has fueled a growing chorus of
critics who believe Trump is mentally unstable and not fully competent to perform as president.
White
House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has promised a readout of
the results as soon as information becomes available. But ultimately,
Trump may decide to withhold details from his physical from the public.
He can do so because presidents are shielded by the same federal health
privacy laws that protect each of us from undue scrutiny.
The question is, what right do citizens have to know the intimate details of a president's medical history, either physical or mental?
George Annas,
chairman of the Department of Health Law, Bioethics and Human Rights at
the Boston University School of Public Health, believes the public has
"a right to know if the candidate has a reason to believe he might die
in office."
But short of that,
Annas says, he believes that a "president has a right to keep his
medical and mental health information private. This helps to ensure that
a decision to seek medical care is a personal, medical one and not done
for political effect."
"It's a
controversial issue, because some illness can be blown out of
proportion, and with modern medicine, a person can do well," said Dr. Jerrold Post, co-author of "When Illness Strikes the Leader" and a George Washington University professor of psychiatry.
"But
if a person is suffering from early Alzheimer's or another serious
disease, it's quite another story," Post said. "Even the finest wines
can turn to vinegar."
Obama's physicals
White
House physician Dr. Ronny Jackson is on board to perform Trump's
physical on Friday; he performed President Barack Obama's last several
physicals while he was in office.
The White House has said
it will provide some details of the exam after it's over. If those
details are similar to those released for Obama, we will know Trump's
vital statistics, including his weight, body mass index, resting heart
rate and blood pressure. We will also learn about past illnesses and
surgeries, current medications and immunizations, his cholesterol levels
and the specifics of an examination of his eyes, ears, nose, throat,
lungs, digestive system, skin and heart.
Obama's exam does not specifically describe the former president's mental or cognitive state. It mentions only a neurological exam
that showed "no focal deficits," meaning his doctor did not find any
localized neurological problems, as with speech or gait. Testing for
mental or cognitive decline typically requires more extensive examination.
On Monday, the White House said Trump would not be undergoing a psychiatric evaluation, despite calls from Congress and a group of more than 100 mental health experts for the exam to be done.
"He is becoming very unstable very quickly," said Yale psychiatrist Dr. Bandy Lee, who testified in December
about Trump's mental health to both House and Senate lawmakers. "There
is a need for neuropsychiatric evaluation that would demonstrate his
capacity to serve."
Legacy of presidential coverups
Presidents
have long been wary of allowing the public to see them as less than a
picture of perfect health, and history reveals an astounding list of
hidden truths when it comes to the health of our nation's commanders in
chief.
One of the most unusual was
President Grover Cleveland's 1893 coverup of his oral cancer surgery.
He smuggled a surgeon and his team onto a friend's yacht to remove a
tumor from the roof of his mouth. Cleveland emerged from his "fishing
trip" four days later. The surgery was kept largely secret for nearly a
quarter-century.
Woodrow
Wilson suffered several strokes while he was serving as president of
Princeton, years before he ran for president, but never revealed his
medical history to voters.
In 1919, while campaigning for the Treaty of Versailles,
Wilson "suffered a massive stroke, but they concealed it and just said
he was under the weather and no one was informed," George Washington
University's Post said. "So we've already had the first
woman president: his wife, Edith. In fact, she was to have said, 'I
don't know why you men make such a fus;, I had no trouble running the
country while Woody was sick.' "
Though
the public knew that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was
wheelchair-bound due to polio when he ran for the fourth time, they did
not know he had advanced heart disease and hypertension, believed to
have contributed to the cerebral hemorrhage that killed him months into
his final term.
Then, and now,
Annas said, "the idea of a president dying in office from a disease he
knew he had before he ran for election or re-election doesn't sit quite
right with most people."
John
F. Kennedy, at 43 the youngest man elected president, went to great
lengths to be seen as healthy and vibrant during his campaign.
"We
want a leader who is all-wise and all-powerful and in excellent
health," Post said. "If we thought the candidate was ill or failing, it
would affect his electability."
In reality, Kennedy took office struggling with hypothyroidism, back pain and Addison's disease and was on a daily dose of steroids as well as a host of other drugs.
"His
pain was so severe that he brought in Dr. Max Jacobson, called 'Dr.
Feelgood' by the Secret Service, who was giving him frequent
methamphetamine injections while in the White House," Post said. In
addition to the possibility that Kennedy was sometimes high from those
injections, Post added, "steroids can cause depression and euphoria."
"Addison's
disease affects your cortisol levels, your ability to handle stress,"
Dr. Connie Mariano, who served as White House physician for Presidents
George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, told CNN in 2015. "You wonder, was the Bay of Pigs an issue because he wasn't adequately treated for Addison's?
"There
was also some question when George H. W. Bush was diagnosed with
hyperthyroidism, or Graves' disease, around the time of the Gulf War,"
Mariano continued. "Did that make Bush more hyper and aggressive? Did it
affect his memory or his ability to focus? Can you say Desert Storm was
thyroid storm? It's hard to say."
Mental illness and cognitive decline
A
2006 study by Duke psychiatrists applied today's diagnostic criteria to
historical records of the first 37 presidents and found that 18 of them met the criteria for psychiatric disorders,
mostly major depression or anxiety. The study also found that both
Teddy Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson would have been diagnosed with
bipolar disorder.
In fact, the
researchers said, 10 of the 18 presidents exhibited enough symptoms of
mental illness while in office to have affected their ability to lead
the nation.
Critics
questioning Trump's mental state have suggested a range of
possibilities, including cognitive decline. He would not be the first
president to face such speculation.
Ronald
Reagan announced in 1994, after his presidency, that he was diagnosed
with Alzheimer's. Whether it affected his ability to function while in
office is a subject of debate. Though doctors were in the dark then,
today, medical science knows that Alzheimer's begins in the brain 20 to
30 years before symptoms begin.
Donald
Trump's father, Fred, developed Alzheimer's in his 80s. Having a parent
or relative with Alzheimer's greatly increases the risk of developing
the disease.
"Can
you rely on the politician's physician to spot these types of issues?
Some illnesses are only known by the symptoms the patient complains of,"
Post said. "The softening of mental processes that begin in early
Alzheimer's, for example, may only show up if the politician complains
about it."
Mariano adds that even
when there are signs, "you have to remember if there is something wrong
with a president that kicks him out of office, everyone who comes with
him leaves. So everyone wants to keep him in. They want to silence the
doctor."
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