You don't have to be fit to be president. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the American presidents with the iffiest health records.
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00:00Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the American presidents with the iffiest health records.
00:10This son of the second American president, John Adams followed in his father's footsteps,
00:15rising to the political position as the nation's sixth commander-in-chief.
00:19There seemed to be another, less glamorous side of the Adams family, however,
00:23namely a history of essential tremor.
00:26John Quincy Adams inherited this neurological condition from his father,
00:29and his cousin Samuel Adams also had it.
00:32This didn't stop John Quincy from serving his country though,
00:35including a notable run as Secretary of State under President James Monroe.
00:39That said, John Quincy Adams had to suffer through other medical issues as well,
00:43including depression and strokes,
00:45with one of these cerebral hemorrhages actually taking place on the floor of the House of Representatives,
00:50and leading untimely to his death.
00:5319. Benjamin Harrison
00:55The family of former U.S. President Benjamin Harrison retained a long history of being politically active.
01:01This legacy of activism and hard work eventually took its toll upon Harrison,
01:04with his crowded schedule and lack of sleep leading to some serious physical and mental repercussions
01:09even before he became head of state.
01:11As the country's 23rd president,
01:13Harrison remained very much hands-on despite his previous near-breakdowns,
01:18traveling in his bid efforts for foreign policy.
01:20President Harrison was 67 when he passed away in his home,
01:24after a brief battle with pneumonia that was mistakenly believed to be the flu.
01:2818. Lyndon B. Johnson
01:30The presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson was notable for a number of reasons,
01:34not the least of which was the establishment of both Medicare and Medicaid in 1965.
01:40These government programs helped with offering medical care to those of advanced age
01:44and with fixed limited incomes.
01:46Johnson himself also dealt with various ailments over the years,
01:49including issues that affected his kidneys, heart and gallbladder.
01:53Johnson suffered a massive heart attack in 1955,
01:56one that saw the future 36th president of the United States
02:00abandon his three-pack-a-day smoking habit.
02:02This commander-in-chief was also a workaholic,
02:05sleeping very little during a presidency that was thrust upon him
02:08after the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
02:1017. Calvin Coolidge
02:13This man of few words, nicknamed Silent Cal,
02:16was another U.S. leader who rose to the highest office after the death of a sitting president.
02:21Calvin Coolidge took office as the 30th president of the United States
02:24after Warren G. Harding's sudden heart attack.
02:27Coolidge himself succumbed to coronary thrombosis on January 5th, 1933 at only 60 years of age.
02:33This former president didn't exactly have the healthiest of lifestyles,
02:37particularly when it came to his palate.
02:39Calvin Coolidge was reportedly just as choosy with what he ate as he was with his words,
02:44since the president largely subsisted upon unhealthy foods.
02:47Meanwhile, the death of his teenaged son caused Coolidge much grief and mental distress,
02:52likely causing him to suffer from depression.
02:5516. Herbert Hoover
02:57The roots of Herbert Hoover's medical history date back to his youth.
03:00This was when a future president would have to duke it out with bouts with both measles and the mumps,
03:05as well as earaches, among other conditions.
03:07Things didn't get too much easier for this 31st president of the United States once he took office either,
03:12since Hoover faced issues such as gastrointestinal bleeding and even cirrhosis.
03:17The legacy of his presidency did not begin to get reappraised until the 1970s,
03:21when Hoover's humanitarian work began to outshine the infamy of the Great Depression.
03:26President Hoover did wind up reaching 90 in his lifetime,
03:29but his struggles with internal bleeding never really went away,
03:32and he died from a hemorrhage in 1964.
03:3515. Chester A. Arthur
03:38There seems to be something of a trend here
03:40with regards to accidental U.S. presidents and recurring health issues.
03:43Chester A. Arthur was the vice president to James A. Garfield,
03:47before the latter was assassinated mere months into his first term.
03:50The new 21st president of the United States
03:53was likely already suffering from Bright's disease when he ascended to this position,
03:57having been diagnosed very soon after.
03:59Arthur largely kept this diagnosis from the public,
04:02though there were physical signs of ill health.
04:04Today, someone like Chester A. Arthur could have sought medical attention
04:08for this form of kidney disease now known as nephritis,
04:11but Bright's was considered untreatable at the time,
04:14and Arthur only served one term from 1881 to 1885
04:18before his death from a hemorrhagic stroke in 1886.
04:2214. James Monroe
04:24This fifth president of the United States
04:26was the last founding father to become head of state,
04:29and one that suffered through a lot of ailments during his time in office.
04:32Much of James Monroe's health problems
04:34probably stemmed from a visit to the Mississippi River in 1785.
04:38The president contracted malaria during this trip,
04:41an infection that Monroe struggled to shake,
04:43as it caused him multiple bouts of fever throughout his life.
04:46The president also suffered a seizure in 1825
04:50and developed severe tuberculosis about five years later.
04:53He would die only a year later on July 4, 1831,
04:57from the disease and heart failure.
04:5913. James Madison
05:01President James Madison was another founding father
05:04that found it difficult to stay healthy
05:05while drafting important U.S. documents
05:07like the Bill of Rights and the Constitution.
05:09This reputation stemmed from his childhood,
05:11where Madison suffered bouts of depression
05:14while living in constant fear of contagious disease.
05:16This resulted in a frail and fragile upbringing,
05:19one that stayed with Madison into adulthood.
05:22This fourth U.S. president was denied combat
05:24during the American Revolution from England,
05:26while his time in office was fraught with seizures
05:29and the continued specters of depression from Madison's youth.
05:3212. Bill Clinton
05:34The presidency of Bill Clinton
05:36was not the first to be parodied or satirized,
05:38but it's arguably one that saw
05:40some of the most insistent ribbing of the modern day.
05:43This stems largely from comedy programs
05:45such as Saturday Night Live,
05:47which delighted in referencing
05:48Clinton's renowned penchant for fast food.
05:50There was no laughing, however,
05:52when it came to 2004
05:53and the former president's quadruple bypass surgery
05:56for clogged arteries.
05:57President Clinton's heart-related issues
05:59may have run hand-in-hand with his gastric appetites,
06:02but thankfully,
06:03this former commander-in-chief
06:04made it out of the operating theater intact.
06:0711. Donald Trump
06:09This next entry serves as another example
06:11of a U.S. president that possessed
06:12a noted hankering for fast food.
06:14President Donald Trump's diet of fast food and diet soda
06:17resulted in elevated blood pressure
06:19and cholesterol levels.
06:20This 45th president of the United States
06:23is also one of few to have been labeled by some
06:25as quote, borderline obese,
06:27which combined with his advanced age
06:29places Trump in danger of heart disease.
06:32This is despite assertions
06:33from the former president's doctor
06:35in the wake of Trump's 2020 fitness test,
06:37there were no findings of significance
06:40or changes to report.
06:4110. Ronald Reagan
06:44When Ronald Reagan was sworn in as president,
06:46he was 69 years old,
06:48which at the time,
06:49made him the oldest elected president in U.S. history.
06:52As such,
06:53Reagan brought with him a host of physical maladies.
06:57For starters,
06:57he was nearsighted,
06:59a fact that kept him on the sidelines
07:00during World War II.
07:02He also had poor hearing,
07:03something that would lead him to wear hearing aids
07:05in both of his ears
07:06for much of his time in office.
07:08In 1985,
07:09he went under the knife
07:10to remove cancer from his colon.
07:12Tack on a deteriorating memory
07:14later diagnosed as Alzheimer's,
07:16and you have one unhealthy president.
07:199. Woodrow Wilson
07:21Woodrow Wilson was America's 28th president.
07:24He served two terms from 1913 to 1921,
07:28but before,
07:29during and after that time,
07:31battled through various health-related issues.
07:34He suffered what was to be the first of many strokes in 1896,
07:38and it hindered his ability to write for an entire year.
07:42In 1906,
07:43another stroke left him unable to see out of his left eye,
07:46and in 1919,
07:48he suffered what was to be the worst stroke to date.
07:51It paralyzed his entire left side
07:54and forced him for a time into a wheelchair.
07:57He died in 1924 after suffering another stroke.
08:018. William Henry Harrison
08:04To say that William Henry Harrison
08:06was sickly upon entering office
08:08would be a gross understatement.
08:10The man would only serve as president for 31 days,
08:13dying of pneumonia on April 4, 1841
08:17at the age of 68.
08:19This made him the first U.S. president to die in office
08:22and gives him the dubious distinction
08:24of having served the shortest term
08:26in U.S. presidential history.
08:28While there are other presidents
08:29that suffered from different physical and mental issues
08:32that didn't make our list,
08:33we think the fact that Harrison lasted only about a month
08:36gives him a slight edge
08:37in the unhealthiest president's department.
08:397. John F. Kennedy
08:42November 22, 1963 will forever live in infamy
08:46as the day America lost one of its most beloved presidents.
08:50However, prior to that day,
08:52John F. Kennedy was far from healthy.
08:54His younger years were peppered
08:56with a plethora of physical ailments,
08:58from scarlet fever and whooping cough
09:00to pneumonia and appendicitis.
09:02Things only got worse the older Kennedy became.
09:05He was diagnosed with Addison's disease in 1947,
09:08a disorder whose symptoms include
09:10chronic muscle weakness and nausea
09:12and, despite continuous treatment,
09:14was unable to rid himself of the issue.
09:17Add in high cholesterol, stomach and colon issues
09:20and a penchant for Cuban cigars
09:22and you have one sick president.
09:256. Dwight D. Eisenhower
09:28America's 34th president was also one of its unhealthiest.
09:32Dwight D. Eisenhower suffered multiple heart attacks
09:34during his time in office,
09:36which lasted from 1953 to 1961.
09:40They may have been a result of his smoking habit
09:42and when we say habit,
09:44we mean he smoked like a chimney
09:45on a cold winter's evening.
09:47Eisenhower did manage to kick the addiction,
09:49but not before being diagnosed with Crohn's disease in 1956.
09:54This would cause him to experience
09:55a slew of digestive issues that were only corrected
09:58after he underwent surgery later that year.
10:00Between 1955 and the year of his death,
10:03Eisenhower would endure seven heart attacks
10:06and see his gallbladder removed.
10:08So, basically, not healthy.
10:115. Theodore Roosevelt
10:13He may be on Mount Rushmore,
10:15but certainly not for his health.
10:17As a child,
10:18Roosevelt suffered from crippling asthma attacks,
10:20for which there was no cure.
10:22He was quite nearsighted
10:24and eventually lost much of his vision.
10:26In 1912,
10:27he was on the wrong end of an assassin's bullet
10:30and it remained lodged in his chest
10:32for the rest of his life.
10:33Then, in 1913,
10:35while on a trip in South America,
10:37Roosevelt got malaria.
10:38Coupled with a host of other physical ailments
10:41he received on the same trip,
10:42Roosevelt barely made it home in one piece.
10:45He died a few years later,
10:46at the age of 60.
10:494. Andrew Jackson
10:51America's seventh president,
10:53Andrew Jackson served from 1829 until 1837.
10:57During the American Revolution,
10:59a teenage Jackson was stricken with smallpox
11:02after being caught by the British
11:03and thrown in prison.
11:05Later in life,
11:06the infamously dual-crazy Jackson
11:08was shot multiple times by opponents,
11:10including one bullet to the chest
11:12that stayed lodged there until the day he died.
11:15As might be expected,
11:16he was in constant pain for the rest of his life.
11:19Jackson also suffered from both dysentery and malaria
11:23and was addicted to alcohol and tobacco.
11:26It's also been suggested that he suffered
11:27from lead and mercury poisoning.
11:29So, yeah,
11:30not exactly healthy by modern standards.
11:343. Warren G. Harding
11:36Yet another president who died while still in office,
11:39Warren G. Harding passed away on August 2, 1923,
11:43just two years into his term.
11:45He'd long suffered from various health issues
11:47like high blood pressure
11:48and was known to regularly indulge in cigars,
11:52alcohol and chewing tobacco.
11:54This caused him to develop a number of heart-related problems,
11:57which ultimately led to his fatal 1923 heart attack.
12:01Harding had also contracted influenza
12:03some months before his death,
12:05and it's said that he never truly recovered from it.
12:082. William Howard Taft
12:11William Howard Taft is the fattest president
12:14to have ever occupied the Oval Office,
12:16weighing in at over 330 pounds.
12:20His obesity caused him to suffer from sleep apnea,
12:23which led to him dozing off in meetings,
12:25conversations and occasionally while eating.
12:28He'd later be hit with gout in both of his feet,
12:31which causes the feet to swell and become stiff.
12:34Despite attempts to reduce his weight,
12:36Taft was never able to truly shed the pounds,
12:39and at the time of his death,
12:40he still weighed a considerable 280 pounds.
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13:001. Grover Cleveland
13:03Much like our previous entry,
13:04Grover Cleveland struggled with weight problems for much of his life
13:08and was stricken by gout.
13:10Much of this was due to his love of food,
13:12alcohol and cigars,
13:14the latter of which would cause him to develop carcinoma on the roof of his mouth
13:18and which would later require surgery to remove.
13:21Cleveland, who served as both the 22nd and 24th president,
13:25openly despised exercise and once said,
13:34Suffice it to say,
13:35Cleveland was far from a picture of health.
13:38Are you passionate about obscure presidential trivia?
13:41Feel like defending the legacies of any maligned commanders-in-chief?
13:44Please do so politely in the comments below.