The Health Question

By Anastasia Toufexis

Nothing generates more rumors -- founded or unfounded -- than the state of a President's health. After Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke in 1919, there were wild claims that he had contracted syphilis and was demented. Richard Nixon was said to have been close to mental collapse during the months before his resignation. Mocking questions were raised about Jimmy Carter's psychological & state after he reported being attacked on his Georgia farm by what the press dubbed a "killer rabbit." George Bush's May 1991 heart flutter and his collapse at a state dinner in Tokyo last January have fed rumors of serious health problems -- as has his somber, testy, weary mood in recent weeks.

There is no verifiable evidence behind these rumors. Bush's personal physician, Burton Lee, who checks on him every day, insists that the President is in "excellent" condition. Bush eats heartily, yet keeps his weight around 195 lbs., which is just about right for a man of 6 ft. 2 in. At 68, he has minor osteoarthritis, a common condition in men his age. He exercises vigorously several times a week without showing any sign of physical distress. He works and travels long hours without complaint. His vomiting and collapse at the Tokyo dinner were credibly attributed not to any chronic problem but to acute food poisoning or a bout with an intestinal bug.

Still, some Bush watchers have speculated that the President's medication may be affecting his mood and behavior. Bush takes a 0.15-mg pill each morning to replace the thyroid hormone that his body stopped producing after doctors shut down his thyroid gland as treatment for Graves' disease last year. The overactive gland caused the erratic heartbeat that was corrected during a four-month course of therapy with the drugs digoxin and procainamide. Since then, Lee says, Bush has experienced no arrhythmia.

Thyroid-replacement drugs can cause emotional as well as physical changes in patients if the dosage is not properly calibrated. But Lee rules such side effects out in Bush's case, saying the President's medication is monitored very carefully. If Bush seems tired or discouraged, says Lee, it is an emotional reaction to his deepening unpopularity and to the bipartisan political hammering he is taking. Still, he notes, the President "takes this battering better than anybody that I know could take it. He has tremendous equanimity." Those are reassuring words, but because it's impossible to prove a negative, they will not erase all the doubts of those who wonder whether the President's political slump mirrors a worrisome physical condition.

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CREDIT: [TMFONT 1 d #666666 d {Source: 1988 Gallup polls, 1992 polls for TIME by Yankelovich Clancy Shulman}]CAPTION: THEN WAS THEN, NOW IS NOW

With reporting by Dan Goodgame/Washington