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Time - Man of the Year
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Time_Man_of_the_Year_Compact_Publishing_3YX-Disc-1_Compact_Publishing_1993.iso
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1993-04-08
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THE U.S. CAMPAIGN, Page 26The Health Question
By Anastasia Toufexis -- With reporting by Dan Goodgame/
Washington
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 carefulIf
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.