I recently stumbled upon a rather unusual website which lists the various health problems of every US president in history. Obviously the first thing I did was to look for digestive woes, and my word, did these men have some digestive woes!
I’ve chosen some of the best gastrointestinal malfunctionings and listed them below. I have to say I find it quite cheering to know that you can be the leader of the free world and still have hemorrhoids. Maybe that’s just me.
Anyway, here’s the list…
Thomas Jefferson – “life-threatening” constipation after a severe illness.
Andrew Jackson – chronic abdominal pain and diarrhea for years, possibly dating from an attack of dysentery contracted from the swamps of Florida (could this be the first ever recorded case of post-infectious IBS?!)
James Garfield – had an anal fissure which kept him in bed for several weeks and needed an operation. Had a “weak stomach” for years (another IBS candidate?). Was fed through the rectum following an assassination attempt in 1881. Don’t really want to know why.
Chester Arthur – suffered from abdominal pain and indigestion. But the most interesting fact about Arthur is that he was diagnosed with a kidney affliction called “Bright’s Disease”, which is no longer recognised in modern medicine because “it lumped too many different kidney disorders into one disease”. Perhaps the same is true for IBS, and in a hundred years we’ll no longer have IBS, but one of a handful of individual disorders?
Franklin Roosevelt – had severe iron deficiency anemia, which was ascribed to bleeding hemorrhoids.
Dwight Eisenhower – suffered from Crohn’s disease, and also had a bowel obstruction at one stage.
Jimmy Carter – was forced to leave a Christmas party in 1978 “to receive emergency treatment for a painful hemorrhoid that left him almost completely incapacitated”. Had first suffered from hemorrhoids as a young man.
Bill Clinton – had a colonoscopy for rectal bleeding (nothing found). Suffered from heartburn and reflux.
George W Bush – had a hemorrhoid while serving in the National Guard. Also had colonic polyps removed.
And finally, John F Kennedy, who I’ve saved until last because as you’ll probably know, JFK was surprisingly, almost terrifyingly unhealthy. His list of malfunctioning bits and pieces included a back problem which was so chronic he had to wear a back brace most of the time, and Addison’s disease, an endocrine disorder which almost killed him.
For us intestinally-demented folk though, JFK’s most interesting malady was a prolonged gastrointestinal problem, which was treated with steroids and at least three different anti-diarrhea medications, including Lomotil.
The first record of JFK’s digestive distress dates back to when he was just 17. Later on, when he was in the Navy, it’s fascinating to see that his disorder was described as “severe spastic colitis” – spastic colitis being, of course, the old-fashioned name for irritable bowel syndrome. Could Kennedy have been one of us?
There’s some speculation that JFK might actually have had undiagnosed celiac disease, or an inflammatory bowel disorder such as Crohn’s disease, although examinations to look for inflammation found no evidence of this. But there’s no doubt that he had some pretty nasty diarrhea attacks. And in fact, just before and just after the Bay of Pigs invasion, Kennedy was suffering from “constant, acute diarrhea” and was treated with anti-spasmodics, a puree diet and pencillin.
So, the next time you’ve got stress-induced diarrhea, and some clown tells you that you should relax and it would all go away, just say “Well, If President John F Kennedy can’t control his own bowel then neither can I”.
What a fascinating bit of research, Sophie! I was interested in the Presidental use of Lomotil – in the 60′s, after surgery for duodenal ulcers, which is rarely performed these days, I acquired frantic diarrohea which was not unusual. It did not respond to any medication. Lomotil was just being let loose on the public and I was asked to test it’s usefulness. I took the recommended doses,and had to fill in a Daily Diarrohea Diary- Duly done, I returned it to the prescribed address, received a note of thanks and that was it ! I like to think that my little part in its development has led to Lomotil being prescribed these days, though I do recall it didn’t do an awful lot for me ! Andperhaps worthy of note- I don’t use it currently but adhere to my pockets full of Immodium – begining to think that I should have gratuity shares in the firm that manufacture it!!
I wonder if a similar site exists for British Monarchs. This is a wonderful bit of information Sophie. I can testify to the pockets full of immodium. Maybe I should get some shares in them too… and the guys who do peppermint tablets.
Yes, I find this info very cheering too! I’m also filled with awe to think that these guys managed to carry on with their presidential duties all the while. Me – I feel ever so proud of just having held on to my pedestrian, stress-free, and, I suppose, not terribly important job (well, as an assistant in an academic library nobody’s life or death depends on any decisions that I make!), and with the constant IBS disruption to my day-to-day life, would not even dare to contemplate applying for a promotion – not even just one step up the ladder.
On really bad days I wish I could afford not to work at all, so that I could just put my energies into dealing with IBS (which sometimes feels like a full-time job in itself). I mean for one thing, it’s SO time-consuming. When I think of all the hours I spend in the toilet, and what I could have done with that time otherwise, I’m not surprised that I never seem to get anything done and am constantly scrambling even to keep up with something as basic as the housework. So I salute these guys!
By the way, Sophie, the new look IBS Tales is splendid. All very subtle changes, but making it even more user-friendly. Very impressed to hear that you coded practically all of it yourself!
Hi everyone, thanks for the comments. I have to agree that it’s very impressive to run a whole country while being in such a state of decrepitude…although I guess someone like JFK would have had a million doctors looking after him and lots of assistants etc, so he didn’t have to bother with the boring stuff that us lesser mortals have to cope with like washing up and cleaning the cooker.
Debbie, I think you should be proud of holding on to your job – working in an academic library sounds jolly important to me! The fact is that you are battling against a whole heap of things which your colleagues don’t have to worry about, and as you say coping with IBS can almost be a whole other job in itself. I used to think I was a bit pathetic for taking a month off of work one time, but the truth is that I was in a lot of pain and couldn’t cope, and I don’t think any of my colleagues could have coped either.
Thanks for the comments on the redesign, I appreciate it! Took me ages to do but hopefully it was worth it.
Oh, thanks, Sophie. Everything you just said is so true. In the dark days of my first year or so of having IBS, when I was completely bewildered and worn down by the myriad of disruptive and unpleasant symptoms that just wouldn’t go away, no matter what approach I took, it would have helped so much just to have some acknowledgement from somebody of the enormity of what I was facing … and maybe even a little praise, kind of along the lines of, ‘You’re being very brave and coping really well. I don’t know how I’d be dealing with all this in your shoes.’
But no – none of my nearest and dearest seemed to realize how comforting that would have been. How it would have been so much more valuable than all the half-baked suggestions that I’d invariably already thought of and tried myself, to absolutely no avail. Like you, I ended up thinking that I was basically pathetic. (Fortunately, I don’t think that anymore!) Only one friend came up with the goods, and she’s had a special place in my heart ever since.
She lives abroad and was inviting me to come and stay. For lots of reasons, that I’m sure other people with IBS will understand, I didn’t really feel up to it. I feared that the whole thing would end up being a huge endurance test instead of a nice, relaxing holiday. I explained all this to her, and told her something about my symptoms. She said, ‘But that sounds awful, Debbie,’ and didn’t put any pressure on me to come.
Another day we were chatting on the phone again, and she was telling me how she had developed some kind of skin condition – I can’t remember the name of it. It was completely curable (she just had to take some tablets/use some cream and it’d go away), but it sounded really unpleasant, and I began to express my sympathy. But she interrupted me, ‘No – it’s nothing compared to what you are having to go through,’ she said.
My heart swelled with gratitude. I’m even smiling now at the recollection. I don’t think she will ever know how much she helped me that day.
A little bit of acknowledgement like that makes all the difference.
I just have a commment about the diagnosis of IBS. I was told I had IBS by a well meanining doctor but actually I had bowel cancer. The symptoms are very similar and I found out after my operation that many people with bowel cancer are mistakenly told they have IBS thus missing a window of opportunity to treat the disease before it spreads. Constipation alternating with diarrhoea, sometimes with bloating are common symptoms of bowel cancer and this should be ruled out before accepting a diagnosis of IBS. What do other people think?
Jess, I’m sorry about your diagnosis, and the fact that your doctor got it wrong. I hope that your operation went well and you are on the road to recovery. As you say, the symptoms of cancer can be very similar to IBS, and so it’s important that doctors are careful to try to spot so-called “Red Flag” symptoms when using the Rome II or Rome III criteria to diagnose IBS. These red flag symptoms include blood in the stool, weight loss, fever, and pain or diarrhea which often wakes you up.
There are also other conditions which can produce similar symptoms, such as celiac disease and endometriosis, so if there are any IBS sufferers who have doubts about their diagnosis it is worth seeking a second opinion, or making sure that you ask your doctor to explain exactly why they think it’s IBS and why you don’t need any further tests.
On the other hand I don’t want to scare anyone – IBS is extremely common, much more common than cancer, and a good doctor will have seen enough cases and be familiar enough with the Rome II/III criteria to be able to spot the signs and clues (symptoms often starting after food poisoning, antibiotic use or surgery, no red flag symptoms, pain relieved when going to the bathroom, etc).
SODA POP CAUSES IT ? Hi, thanks for info. My experience is that the soda pop we grew up on has something in it (benzene? aluminum leaching?, other secret insidious ingredients?) that over decades builds up in our system and eventually causes the liver to malfunction which in turn causes the gall bladder to over or under produce creating either diareahe or constipation.
QUIT THE SODA POP AND AFTER A MONTH CHECk IT OUT! IBS oscillates between extremes of very ok to very bad. When you quit the soda pot it gets better gradually as the “ingredient” is gradually disapated in our system, But you still get the oscillation just less bad on the down side and more good on the up side! (if you are into stats do a moving average – no pun intended)
Also stress relievers help, such as muscle relaxers, ultraset, etc. But again it the oscillation that fools you into thinking its not working when you really have to wait for a month or so for the cumulative effect to become noticeable (the averaging).. remember most of IBS sufferers recall a gradual downward trend ( no pun again intended), that finally gets to the point where is a burden on your social life!
QUIT THE POP!! DIET COLA DRINKS SEEM TO BE THE WORST?