Trump's "excellent" health

[Langeranger]

I found his current lipid numbers today. Total cholesterol = 223. LDL = 143. And he is reported to be taking a statin. I can't imagine anyone following a low-fat, plant-based, whole food regimen considering this "excellent." Another doc who tells 'em what they want to hear rather than what they need to hear.

[darad]

Wholeheartedly agree! 122/70 BP, 68 BPS, 67 HDL, all the while consuming two nutritious Big Macs and two FIlet O Fish for Omega 3 and relish, topped off with fries (Gilroy garlic), and XL Diet Coke. Guess I blew it, and went in wrong direction, hopefully not with a dead-end. I always wondered what specific foods would boost HDL!

Of course, with 10 mg Crestor, his TC ought have been 140-160, not 223. Without statin would have been >300. And without baby aspirin BP would be considerably higher. This hypnotizes unknowing readers or fans into BELIEVING that his BP and TC are pretty good with two tiny pills. No need to change diet. On the other hand, he must have huge arteries to speak energized and boisterously at five rallies in a single day ending at 2 AM in Michigan, while his staff drags to the rear. You gotta admit that, like 'em or not.

[C.R.MacDonald]

He is an obese man with heart disease.

Clearly not "excellent", but Bill Clinton's doctor said the same thing about Bill, until he met Dr. Ornish. I think if you're the President's personal physician, you tend to want to be less critical of your high-profile patient. A lot of it probably stems from wanting to maintain their personal relationship with them, but I have no doubt that PR is a big factor in their gentle assessments.

One of the perks a President has is having access to a personal chef 24 hours a day. Trump should take advantage of this and request healthier meals. I would love such a service, ha.

[gracezw]

In my opinion, his health is excellent among all the SAD eaters. He does seems to have much better than an average SAD person' genes. His genes are better than mine. My cholesterol is higher than his when I have been whole foods plant strong/perfect for 5 years.

[vgpedlr]

No way would any report aimed at the general public say anything other than "excellent health." A poor health report would be far too unsettling, even for such an unpopular president. And those cholesterol numbers are not healthy even by lax SAD standards, especially when medicated.

As for the apparent energy, the President has access to a team of doctors with a pharmacopoeia of remedies for every situation. Not just athletes use PEDs.

[f1jim]

As far as typical Americans, he is unfortunately, in "good health." The bar is low in this country and the typical American getting these numbers from their physician would probably be told the same thing. He does reflect us as a culture.
We need a higher bar for health!
f1jim

[vgpedlr]

As far as typical Americans, he is unfortunately, in "good health." The bar is low in this country and the typical American getting these numbers from their physician would probably be told the same thing. He does reflect us as a culture.
We need a higher bar for health!
f1jim

I thought the bar was set at 200 for total cholesterol. So those numbers seem high for someone medicated.

[f1jim]

I had heard the the average American score for cholesterol was 210.
Certainly not McDougall range.
f1jim

[geo]

I will only say that characterizations of sickness in the President beyond what his doctor has already stated and the full battery and spectrum of tests that were done (yes I listened to the entire briefing yesterday), is really puzzling to me. Basically you have people who never treated, talked with, or tested the President trying to make it out like he is someone sick, crazy, or unhealthy in opposition to what his Doctor has stated.

To those so concerned about cholesterol levels, apply what you learn here. Markers such as cholesterol, HDL/LDL, etc are just that, markers of potential or possible issues. They are NOT the disease themselves. There are a battery of other tests that need to be done to prove that some disease exists.

From the Doctors report. He is over weight at 239 lbs and is being treated for high cholesterol with a small dose statin (Crestor 10 mg). He also gets some treatment for rosacia (I always wonder why he used fake tanning stuff), and he takes propicia for hairloss around his hairline. Nothing unheard of, especially in a 71 yo American male. In fact thats excellent considering his lack of any other chronic conditions. He doesnt have high BP, he doesnt have a high heart rate, he doesn't have diabetes or pre-diabetes, he doesn't have heart disease, he doesnt appear to have occluded blood vessels, he has a strong heart, good prostate health, no sign of cancer, and mentally very sharp having passed the MOCA cognitive test with a perfect 30/30 score (26/30 is considered normal) and his eyes are good at 20/30 and fully corrected with glasses. He simply does not appear to have all the chronic conditions that we expect a man of his age to have. And finally he thrives on about 4-5 hours of sleep a night and seems to have significantly more energy and stamina than most other younger men around him.

In other words, despite his weight issues, and eating a generally poor SAD and not exercising, he is in remarkable health for a 71 yo.

His lack of ever smoking or drinking I'm sure goes a long ways toward his current health and as his Doctor stated, he probably has excellent genes to help him along. We all know people who do everything wrong in diet/lifestyle and live to 100...Trump is probably one of them...my guess.

I envy anybody who can live his diet/lifestyle and yet at 71 not suffer from a cornucopia of chronic health issues.

But his Doctor does recommend losing weight (10-15 lbs), eating a better diet, and exercising. To that effect, the Doctor is smart enough to have a dietician treat him and the white house cooks on improving his diet and will be working with him for the next year on weight-loss and exercise. We will see if Trump changes his ways...

Nope, to those of us who came to this program because we do/did suffer from the SAD and all the chronic diseases it causes and dont have perfect genes, he has some ways to go still. but his current health, being labelled excellent, is impressive given what we know of his diet/lifestyle...if only we all could be so lucky.

[barryoilbegone]

From the NY Times article:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/16/us/p ... -test.html

"Dr. Jackson said that Mr. Trump received a score of 30 out of 30 on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, a well-known test regularly used at Walter Reed and other hospitals.

The test is described as a “rapid-screening instrument for mild cognitive dysfunction” that focuses on “attention and concentration, executive functions, memory, language” and other mental skills. It asks patients to repeat a list of spoken words, identify pictures of animals like a lion or a camel, draw a cube or draw a clock face set to a particular time.

Dr. Jackson said the president did “exceedingly well” on the screening test, adding evidence to the doctor’s own assessment that the president has been “very sharp” during numerous interactions he has had with him during the past year."


Don't believe the headlines on this! I use the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) where I work (I work at a memory clinic, part time). We use the MoCA when we're forced to essentially, when for whatever reason it's not possible to do more in depth and complex assessment.

There are a whole bunch of higher level "executive" functions of the brain that the MoCA doesn't even begin to touch. For Mild Cognitive Impairment, or early stage dementia (which are more likely in Trump's case), the MOcA has relatively poor ability to detect this. As it's brief, it's better suited to detect moderate - late (severe) stage dementia.

If a person has fronto-temporal and behavioural changes (which seem more indicated in Trump, from my observations), the MoCA has no questions about this at all, and cannot detect certain fronto-temporal changes. So I wonder: did they choose the MoCA because of having that in mind?

Just some food for thought...

Barry

[dynodan62]

Anyone who thinks any employee of the country’s premier U.S. military hospital would dare release information about the commander & chief that was not pre-approved/spun by the current administation’s official policy/supervision has obviously never read ‘The Pentagon Papers’.

[Skip]

he doesn't have heart disease

How do you know if he has heart disease or not? Did they give him a Coronary Calcium Scan? And if they did give him a Coronary Calcium Scan and it clearly showed that he had a heart/circulatory condition, do you really believe that would publish the results for the world to see?

and mentally very sharp having passed the MOCA cognitive test with a perfect 30/30 score

He is so mentally sharp that a group of psychiatrists have written a book about how his mental stability is a serious question:

https://www.amazon.com/Dangerous-Case-D ... nald+trump

https://www.democracynow.org/2017/12/8/ ... _us_mental

[bbq]

TC went from 169 to 223, that's impressive:























Oh wait, "excellent" health might not very good for the economy?

[f1jim]

We had a president in a wheel chair for a long time and most of the world didn't know it. I have to agree if anything serious were found we might not know till his term was long gone. We have had heavy smokers for president, we have had heavy drinkers for president. The public eye isn't always the best for vetting.
Please let's not turn this discussion political, ok?
f1jim

[darad]

Bill Clinton's BP was 120/80, yet still needed quad-bypass? Then I am in deep trouble, though my BMI is a better at 23. Trump's personal physician Dr Bernstein does not appear healthy at all. Should Trump play more golf for walking exercise -- without the electric cart!

What if Chris Christie had become president, or VP. I dreaded that. Conversely, we could have offered him the Dr McDougall Program to make a serious dent in his shape, for the entire country to observe.