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Health and Medical History of President

James Carter

President #39: 1977-1981
Lived 1924-Now 2021 1776
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1776-1783
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1812-1815
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1846-1848
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1950-1953
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1990-1991
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2001-Now
UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Maladies & Conditions  · pancreatic cancer · height · "runner's high" · tear gas eye irritation · hemorrhoids

Odds & Ends · Doctors · Resources · Cited Sources

Maladies and Conditions
 This style...  ... means the event occurred while President.

pancreatic cancer
Carter's two sisters, his brother, and his father died of pancreatic cancer. His mother had pancreatic, bone, and breast cancer when she died at age 85. McKusick speculates whether an environmental agent, such as an agricultural chemical or aflatoxin, could be responsible OMIM 260350.

height
Carter was 5 feet 9 and 1/2 inches tall 1. During the 1976 presidential campaign, ex-football player Gerald Ford would make fun of his height 2a.

"runner's high"
Near collapse while running

tear gas eye irritation
"In 1977, on the Shah [of Iran]'s state visit to Washington, the Shah and the President stood for their commemorative photograph, wiping their eyes from the tear gas being used to keep the anti-Shah demonstrators at bay" 3a.

hemorrhoids
In 1978, Carter had to leave a Christmas party for White House staffers "to receive emergency treatment" for a painful hemorrhoid that left him "almost completely incapacitated from participating in any kind of public events" 4a.

For the first and only time during his Presidency, Carter cancelled all his scheduled events for the next day. He was given an injection of Demerol and slept at least part of that day. It was difficult for Carter to walk 4a.

The problem was successfully concealed from the public -- for a time. On Christmas Eve, however, President Anwar Sadat of Egypt "announced to the world that his good friend Jimmy had hemorrhoids and made a public appeal for all Egyptians... to pray on this holy day that I would be cured. ... The day after Christmas, for the first time in weeks, all the pain and discomfort went away. I was tempted to make a public announcement thanking people of all faiths for their prayers, but decided that we'd had enough publicity about my ailment. In any case, I've never received a better Christmas gift or felt more grateful for personal benefits that resulted from a nation at prayer" 4a.

Carter mentions that he was "first afflicted" with hemorrhoids as a young submarine officer, "but this time it was much worse than ever before" 4a. It therefore appears this was a recurrent problem for him.

Doctors
Resources
 
Carter
18 reviews
Ampres Series
Zelizer
20 reviews
Kansas Series
Kaufman
2 reviews
Cited Sources
  1. Page, Susan. Time-tested formulas suggest both Bush and Kerry will win on Nov. 2. USA Today. June 23, 2004.
        

    Comment: Accessed through usatoday.com: http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/nation/president/2004-06-23-bush-kerry-cover_x.htm

  2. DeFrank, Thomas M. Write It When I'm Gone: Remarkable Off-the-Record Conversations with Gerald R. Ford. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2007.
        
    a  p.142
  3. Walker, Martin. The Cold War. New York: Henry Holt, 1995.
        
    a  p.247
  4. Carter, Jimmy. Christmas in Plains. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001.
        
    a  pp.117-120
Other Sources
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