(Many are lowlights) Medical Effects on the Conduct of the Presidency

• Wilson and his stroke
• Reagan and his Alzheimer disease
• Garfield and his long lingering death
• Pierce and his alcoholism

Politics and Presidential Illness

• Cleveland and his secret cancer operation
• FDR and his hypertensive cardiovascular disease
• Washington and his sterility
• Kennedy and his Addison disease cover-up

Medical Science and Presidential Illness

• Garfield and the unfortunate attempts to save him
• McKinley and the failed operation to save his life
• Reagan and the triumph of modern trauma care

Historical Ramifications of Presidential Illness

• FDR and his mental capacity at Yalta and Potsdam
• Wilson and his mental state during World War I reconstruction
• Taylor, his death, and the avoidance of Civil War

When the Patient is the President

• Eisenhower and the decision to operate

Mysteries

• Tyler -- did he have botulism?
• Polk -- did a childhood operation leave him impotent?
• Truman -- did he have diphtheritic hypermetropia?

The President as a Physician

• Harrison -- attended medical school
• Taft -- overrules a doctor at Ellis Island
• Taft -- "A president of the United States, it might be assumed, is too busy or too important an official to deal with the kidney excretions of even the most influential convict."

"Oh, the Humanity!"

• Taft and his gout