Skip to content
  • Hot News Today
  • Fashion News
  • Automotive News
  • Technology News
  • Movie News
  • Health News
  • About Us
    • Advertise Here
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Sitemap
Copyright United Dairy News 2025
Theme by ThemeinProgress
Proudly powered by WordPress
  • Hot News Today
  • Fashion News
  • Automotive News
  • Technology News
  • Movie News
  • Health News
  • About Us
    • Advertise Here
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Sitemap
United Dairy News
  • You are here :
  • Home
  • Health News
  • As Biden battles COVID, some health issues of past US presidents were kept hidden from public
As Biden battles COVID, some health issues of past US presidents were kept hidden from public
Health News

As Biden battles COVID, some health issues of past US presidents were kept hidden from public

Eleanore Beatty July 26, 2022 Article

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

As President Biden, who is 79 years old, recovers from his recent diagnosis of COVID-19, some Americans may wonder about some of the other illnesses that previous U.S. presidents battled over the years — many of which were kept hidden from the public.

But first, a little more about Biden’s health conditions.

The president recently said during a speech that he has “cancer and … for the longest time, Delaware had the highest cancer rate in the nation.”

That comment sparked enormous confusion and discussion.

BIDEN TESTS POSITIVE FOR COVID-19

In a November 2021 memo summarizing Biden’s health, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, Biden’s physician for more than a decade, acknowledged that Biden had “several localized, non-melanoma skin cancers removed with Mohs surgery before he started his presidency.”

Biden’s ambulatory gait “is perceptibly stiffer and less fluid than it was a year or so ago.”

“These lesions were completely excised, with clear margins,” the report continued, as the Associated Press noted recently.

President Biden had "several localized, non-melanoma skin cancers removed with Mohs surgery before he started his presidency."

President Biden had “several localized, non-melanoma skin cancers removed with Mohs surgery before he started his presidency.”
(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

The same Nov. 2021 memo about Biden’s health pointed out other issues that the physician was following: the increasing “frequency and severity” of throat clearing and coughing while Biden makes speeches; and the fact that Biden’s ambulatory gait “is perceptibly stiffer and less fluid than it was a year or so ago.”

His orthopedic history suggested “several reasonable explanations” for this, the physician noted. 

The memo also noted that Biden has atrial fibrillation, a condition in which the heart beats a bit abnormally.

Here’s a sampling — not a complete list, to be sure — of some of the other health conditions that American presidents endured in their lives.

JFK’s chronic conditions

John F. Kennedy (JFK) — the nation’s youngest president to die while in office — suffered from many chronic conditions during his lifetime. 

These were kept from the public during his presidency so that he could maintain an image of youthful vitality, as many sources and biographers have noted.

On Jan. 20, 1961, President John F. Kennedy addressed the nation in his Inaugural Address and said what some consider his most famous statement: "And so my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."

On Jan. 20, 1961, President John F. Kennedy addressed the nation in his Inaugural Address and said what some consider his most famous statement: “And so my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”
(AP1961)

Kennedy battled chronic back pain after suffering a back injury when he was at Harvard in 1937. It required multiple surgeries.

His “aura of vitality belied the fact that he was patently unhealthy from an early age,” physicians T. Glenn Pait, M.D., and Justin T. Dowdy, M.D., wrote in an article in The Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine.

But JFK’s most serious medical condition was Addison’s disease, an endocrine condition diagnosed in 1947, when he was 30 years old. 

Common symptoms of Addison’s disease include fatigue, weight loss and abdominal pain; yet a hallmark symptom is hyperpigmentation on sun-exposed areas of the skin.

It’s when the adrenal glands don’t produce adequate amounts of the stress hormone known as cortisol, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Common symptoms include fatigue, weight loss and abdominal pain; yet a hallmark symptom is hyperpigmentation on sun-exposed areas of the skin.

When the cortisol levels become low, this stimulates the anterior pituitary gland in the brain to release high levels of another hormone called adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH).

JFK's most serious medical condition was Addison’s disease, an endocrine condition he was diagnosed with in the 1940s. 

JFK’s most serious medical condition was Addison’s disease, an endocrine condition he was diagnosed with in the 1940s. 
(AP)

ACTH acts on the skin cells known as melanocytes to produce high levels of melanin, causing a “bronze” discoloration of the skin, the NIH pointed out.

“In a strange twist of fate, one of the symptoms of Addison’s as well as a symptom of the steroids used to treat it is hyperpigmentation, which may be responsible for JFK’s perpetual ‘tan,’ something viewers of his televised debate with Richard Nixon definitely noted,” History explained on its website. 

FDR’s polio

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), our nation’s longest serving president from 1933 to 1945, was diagnosed with the paralyzing virus called polio in 1921 when he was 39 years old, according to the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum.

POLIO LIVE ORAL VACCINE: HERE’S WHY THE US STOPPED USING IT YEARS AGO

“During the summer of 1921, FDR was enjoying a day of sailing on his yacht when he suddenly fell overboard into the icy waters of the Bay of Fundy, which ironically felt paralyzing to his body,” the FDR Library explained on its website. 

FDR was diagnosed with polio in August 1921 when he was 39 years old. 

FDR was diagnosed with polio in August 1921 when he was 39 years old. 
(Getty Images)

But the next day, he complained of lower back pain, so he went back in the water to relieve the soreness. 

After his swim, however, he gradually started to have increasing weakness in his legs and couldn’t bear weight within days, according to the FDR Library.

But it took several doctors to diagnose the condition correctly. 

NEW YORK COUNTY OFFICIAL URGES RESIDENTS TO GET VACCINATED AFTER FIRST CASE OF POLIO IN YEARS

Dr. William Keen “insisted” that the cause of FDR’s symptoms was a blood clot in his lower spinal cord; yet days later he said a spinal cord lesion was responsible for FDR’s symptoms.

Still, when FDR wasn’t improving, he went for a second opinion. On Aug. 25, 1921, Dr. Robert Lovett diagnosed FDR with infantile paralysis — what is now known as polio, an infectious disease that mainly affects children less than five years old, per the FDR Library’s website.

He thought the stress of politics weakened his immune system, which made him “a victim of infantile paralysis” in adulthood, per the FDR Library.

“If someone had polio as a child or young adult but had kept or recovered some or all movement of weakened arms or legs, even to the point of being athletic afterward, they can risk becoming weaker in late adulthood,” the CDC noted.

“Lovett explained that in order for a person to combat poliomyelitis, they must be in good emotional and physical health and have a healthy immune system,” the FDR Library added.

FDR reevaluated how he acquired the disease, recalling that he was sick frequently as a child. 

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt is shown delivering one of his "fireside chat" radio broadcasts in this 1930s photo. 

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt is shown delivering one of his “fireside chat” radio broadcasts in this 1930s photo. 
(Stock Montage/Getty Images)

He thought the stress of politics weakened his immune system, which made him “a victim of infantile paralysis” in adulthood, the FDR Library explained.

“The [polio] virus spreads from person to person and can infect a person’s spinal cord, causing paralysis,” according to the CDC.

D-DAY 78 YEARS LATER: HOW FDR’S POWERFUL PRAYER UNITED AMERICANS

Most people will not develop symptoms; but some 25{a78e43caf781a4748142ac77894e52b42fd2247cba0219deedaee5032d61bfc9} of people will get flu-like symptoms that last two to five days, then resolve. Less than 1{a78e43caf781a4748142ac77894e52b42fd2247cba0219deedaee5032d61bfc9} of people infected with the virus will develop more serious symptoms of the brain and spinal cord. 

FDR worked to shield his condition throughout his presidency so as not to appear “weak” to the American public. He requested the press not photograph him when he was walking or transferring himself from the car so that people would not know he was wheelchair bound, according to History.

Wilson’s paralysis

A physician noticed that Woodrow Wilson, who was inaugurated in 1913 as the nation’s 28th president, began to experience drooping on one side of his mouth in 1919. 

That is a classic sign of a stroke. 

Later in that year of his second term, Wilson found himself partially paralyzed when he woke up one day. Yet his wife Edith rallied behind her husband to protect his administration from any public fallout of his health scare.

Woodrow Wilson (at right) is pictured along with his wife, Edith Wilson.

Woodrow Wilson (at right) is pictured along with his wife, Edith Wilson.
(Fox News)

“She essentially acted as the president, and the country was kept in the dark about Wilson’s true condition until after his term ended in 1921,” according to History.

Vice President Thomas Marshall didn’t assume the presidency at the time because in 1919 he was following Article 2 of the Constitution, which stated that a vice president would assume the presidency only in “death, resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said office,” per History.

The American Stroke Association encourages people to think “F.A.S.T.” when they recognize symptoms of a stroke. 

The 25th Amendment was later ratified in 1967, which set clearer succession rules of the president due to disabilities.

The American Stroke Association encourages people to think “F.A.S.T.” when they recognize symptoms of a stroke. The acronym stands for facial drooping, arm weakness on one side of the body, speech difficulty and time to call 911.

One president — after he’d left the White House — chose to tell the American people about his medical illness in a letter. 

Reagan’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis

Ronald Reagan, the nation’s oldest president to be re-elected, wrote a handwritten letter to the American people about five years after he left office when he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

This December 1986 file photo shows then-first lady Nancy Reagan holding Rex, a King Charles spaniel, as she and President Reagan walked on the White House South lawn. 

This December 1986 file photo shows then-first lady Nancy Reagan holding Rex, a King Charles spaniel, as she and President Reagan walked on the White House South lawn. 
(AP Photo/Dennis Cook, File)

“I have recently been told that I am one of the millions of Americans who will be afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease,” he wrote on Nov. 5, 1994, in a letter addressed to “My Fellow Americans.”

“In opening our hearts, [Nancy and I] hope this might promote greater awareness of this condition,” Reagan added. 

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

“Perhaps it will encourage a clearer understanding of the individuals and families who are affected by it,” the former president wrote in his much longer letter.

You may also like

Aging with Dignity: How Assisted Living Improves Quality of Life for Seniors

COVID vaccine prices could quadruple : Shots

Patient advocates push for aggressive crackdown on medical debt : Shots

Teen mental health is in crisis, study shows. What can parents do?

How long should Texas extend Medicaid coverage after childbirth? : Shots

FDA has new power to hold drugmakers accountable : Shots

Tags: Battles, Biden, COVID, health, hidden, issues, presidents, public

Archives

  • December 2024
  • November 2024
  • September 2024
  • August 2024
  • July 2024
  • February 2024
  • January 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • October 2023
  • September 2023
  • August 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021

Calendar

July 2025
M T W T F S S
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031  
« Dec    

Categories

  • Automotive News
  • Business Tips
  • Fashion News
  • Health News
  • Home Improvements
  • Hot News Today
  • Law News
  • Movie News
  • Technology News

Recent Posts

  • How Does Web Hosting Affect Search Engine Ranking?
  • How to Choose the Best Stainless Steel Coils for Your Project
  • Understanding VPS Hosting Basics
  • Generate Buzz for Your Summer Fashion Collection With These 10 Strategies
  • Aging with Dignity: How Assisted Living Improves Quality of Life for Seniors

Archives

  • December 2024
  • November 2024
  • September 2024
  • August 2024
  • July 2024
  • February 2024
  • January 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • October 2023
  • September 2023
  • August 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021

Visit Here

Computer Engineering

Copyright United Dairy News 2025 | Theme by ThemeinProgress | Proudly powered by WordPress

We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT