Health and Medical History of President
Thomas Jefferson
President #3: 1801-1809
Lived 1743-1826
Lived 1743-1826
Health and Medical History of President
Thomas Jefferson
President #3: 1801-1809
Lived 1743-1826
Lived 1743-1826
↓
Lived 1743-1826
2023
1776
Revolutionary War1776-1783
War of 18121812-1815
Mexican-American War1846-1848
Civil War1861-1865
Spanish-American War1898-1899
World War 11917-1918
World War 21941-1945
Korean War1950-1953
Viet Nam War1964-1975
Desert Storm1990-1991
Bush's Wars2001-2021
Lived 1743-1826
2023
1776
Revolutionary War1776-1783War of 18121812-1815Mexican-American War1846-1848Civil War1861-1865Spanish-American War1898-1899World War 11917-1918World War 21941-1945Korean War1950-1953Viet Nam War1964-1975Desert Storm1990-1991Bush's Wars2001-2021
Maladies & Conditions
· severe headaches · smallpox inoculation · arm fracture · right wrist fracture · dysentery · back injury · depression · jaw infection · reading glasses · rheumatism and constipation · buttock boils · wrist and arm fracture · weakening · hearing loss · prostatic enlargement · teeth · Asperger Syndrome? · sleep · slaves · timing
Odds & Ends ·
Doctors ·
Resources ·
Cited Sources
Maladies and Conditions
From age 19 on, Jefferson had a tendency to develop prolonged incapacitating headaches, usually
at 7-8 year intervals, usually correlated with stress or grief, complicated by indecision and
deeply buried rage
1a:
- Violent headache for two days after behaving awkwardly in front of a girl he fancied (March 1764, age 20);
- Six week headache after his mother's death on March 31, 1776;
- Six weeks of headache soon after arriving, unhappy and homesick, as minister to France in 1785;
- While overburdened as Secretary of State, headaches recurred when he learned that a friend had become ill, but recovered (April 1790);
- About this time he had a second set of headaches, lasting from sunrise to sunset each day for 6 weeks.
Jefferson was inoculated against smallpox
1d.
He himself inoculated his own family -- a procedure not to be taken lightly, as the experience
of his contemporary,
John Adams,
illustrates.
In late June 1781, Jefferson (apparently) broke his arm [which one?] after being thrown from
his horse
1e.
Jefferson broke his wrist in Paris in summer 1785. This seemingly minor event was to cause
him grief the remainder of his life. There are three versions of the incident: (1) He
was trying to jump a fence while touring Paris with a married woman, (2) He was trying
to jump over a kettle, and (3) He fell while walking with an (unidentified) friend
1e.
One account described the fracture as compound and poorly treated by the Parisian doctors.
The wrist remained swollen, painful, and useless for weeks
1e.
Despite taking the waters at Aix-en-Provence, it remained deformed and bothered him the rest
of his life
1f.
After perfoming extensive manual labor at Monticello (his estate) in late summer 1794, Jefferson
became almost totally disabled by a back condition for two and a half months. The nature of
the problem is not fully known
1b.
Repeated bouts of back pain assailed Jefferson after this initial episode, e.g. in 1797
1b.
Jefferson's back problems (see above), financial troubles, and personal vicissitudes depressed
him ca. 1793-1797. He believed his physical health was so poor that death was near
1b.
Jefferson was disabled by "'rheumatism" in summer 1811
1g.
Again, the exact nature of the illness is obscure. (I am not clear if it was related to his
back problems mentioned above.)
In 1818 he had his most severe attack of rheumatism ever. It was accompanied by life-threatening
constipation.
1h.
Taking the waters at Warm Springs, VA helped the rheumatism
1g.
In the third week of taking the waters at Warm Springs (1818) Jefferson developed boils on
his buttocks. (The 50+ mile ride to the spa plus possibly unsanitary conditions there may have
predisposed to the illness.) As may be imagined, his homeward return ride was a trial. Once
home, for several weeks he conducted his correspondence lying down. He did not ride a horse
for several months. "Jefferson always believed that this experience had greatly injured
his health"
1g.
Jefferson fell from a broken step at home in 1821 (age 75), fracturing his left arm and wrist.
Now both wrists were significantly impaired (see above). He wrote less, even into 1822
1h.
In 1819 (age 75) he was "too feeble to walk much but riding without fatigue six to eight
miles per day, and sometimes thirty or forty"
1c.
Comment:
This seems like a remarkable dissociation between exercise tolerance while walking and while
sitting. Dr. Zebra wonders if Jefferson had spinal stenosis because these patients are
limited in their walking, but may have much better capacity for bicycling and other forms of
exercise when seated. Jefferson had a history of back problems.
Jefferson's strength declined further in winter 1822, but he remained in generally good
health. (He dreaded the winters at this age.) He could walk "only [to] reach my garden,
and that with sensible fatigue"
1h.
In 1819 Jefferson wrote "My hearing is distinct in particular conversation, but confused
when several voices cross each other, which unfits me for the society of the table"
1c.
(This experience is a classic manifestation of high-frequency hearing loss.) By 1825, however:
"This [hearing] dullness of mine causes me to lose much of the conversation of the world
and much a stranger to what is passing in it"
1h.
Comment:
Dr. Zebra suspects that Jefferson's fondness for shooting as a form of exercise
contributed to the hearing loss.
There are statements (without a description of symptoms) that Jefferson had prostatic enlargement
in at least the final year of life
1h.
At age 75 Jefferson wrote: "I have not yet lost a tooth to age"
2a.
Comment:
Having great teeth is a sign of hereditary fructase deficiency, but swift consultation of a
few Jefferson biographies fails to disclose an aversion to sweets, the other cardinal symptom
of the disorder.
It has been postulated that Jefferson had Asperger Syndrome, a type of autism compatible with
high achievement
3.
Dr. Zebra has not evaluated this hypothesis, but his first impulse is that distinguishing
disease from eccentricity is very difficult 200 years out.
Slept propped up in a bed that was otherwise too short for him. (Dr. Zebra heard this
on a tour of Monticello around 1990.)
Recent stories about genetic "proof" that Jeffersion
fathered a child by one of his slaves are not proof. The technique used in the
testing cannot determine whether Jefferson or one of his close male relatives
fathered the child(ren). Historical evidence must be added to differentiate
the possibilities.
Jefferson became comatose on July 2, 1826. On the third he awakened and asked,
"Is it the fourth?" He died 50 minutes into the next day, the 50th anniversary of
the Declaration of Independence
1i,
a few hours before his onetime rival
John Adams.
Adams' last words, "Thomas Jefferson still survives" were mistaken.
2b.
Odds and Ends
- As he aged, his red hair turned sandy, then white 2a.
- He did not use tobacco in any form 2c.
- Jefferson started the custom of a President shaking hands, rather than bowing, to greet guests 4a.
- The following description of Jefferson is a reminder that medical skills in that era were not always restricted to medical people: "He was a gentleman of thirty-two who could calculate an eclipse, survey an estate, tie an artery, plan an edifice, try a cause, break a horse, dance a minuet, and play the violin" 5a.
- No significant illness as infant or child 1j.
- Bumgarner quotes at length from a letter in which Jefferson gave his views on physical fitness 1k. Jefferson encouraged exercise, walking and shooting most of all, observing: "Games played with the ball and others of that nature are too violent for the body." Although a dedicated scholar, Jefferson advocated time to exercise even though it meant interrupting study, warning: "Health must not be sacrificed to learning." Unfortunately, it appears that Jefferson's fondness for shooting damaged his hearing (see above).
- Writing to a physician in 1819
1c,
Jefferson described his health and health habits, including:
- Ate little animal meat. Vegetables were his principal diet.
- Drank 3 glasses of wine a day, but "halved the effects" by drinking only the weak wines. Did not drink "ardent wines" nor "ardent spirits" in any form. He did consume "malt liquers and cider" as his "table drink."
- Slept from 5 to 8 hours nightly. Always rose with the sun.
- Had few chest colds (every 8 to 10 years). Partially ascribed this fact to his habit of bathing his feet in cold water every morning.
- Had a fever of longer than 24 hours "not above three or four times in my life."
- Jefferson was no fan of the doctors, to the point where he would look upwards for a buzzard whenever he saw three physicians together 1l. He especially distrusted the practice of bleeding and purging 1l. But Jefferson was not above practicing medicine himself. His "practice" included: suturing the wound of a severely bleeding slave, inoculating his family against smallpox (see above), and treating his daughter's typhoid fever (with Madeira wine) 1d. He used the Madeira regimen on dozens of his neighbors as well 1m.
- Through his mother's father, Jefferson could claim descent from King Edward I of England 6a.
Doctors
During Presidency
Resources
Cited Sources
- Bumgarner, John R. The Health of the Presidents: The 41 United States Presidents Through 1993 from a Physician's Point of View. Jefferson, NC: MacFarland & Company, 1994.
a pp.16-17 b p.21 c p.23 d p.19 e p.20 f pp.20-21, 23 g p.22 h p.24 i p.25 j p.16 k p.17 l p.18 m p.19-20Comment: Devotes one chapter to each President, through Clinton. Written for the layperson, well-referenced, with areas of speculation clearly identified, Dr. Zebra depends heavily on this book. Dr. Bumgarner survived the Bataan Death March and has written an unforgettable book casting a physician's eye on that experience.
- Hall, Donald (ed.). The Oxford Book of American Literary Anecdotes. Oxford: Oxford, 1981.
a p.23 b p.25 c p.24
- Ledgin, Norm. Diagnosing Jefferson: Evidence of a Condition that Guided his Beliefs, Behavior, and Personal Associations. Arlington, TX: Future Horizons, 2000.
- Stern, C. C. Braddock's Presidential Trivia. 3rd edition. Herndon, VA: Braddock Communications, Inc., 2001.
a p.3
- Dallek, Robert. An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy 1917-1963. Boston: Little, Brown, 2003.
a p.327
- Montgomery-Massingberd, Hugh (ed). Burke's Presidential Families of the United States of America. 2nd ed. London: Burke's Peerage Limited, 1981.
a p.111Comment: Maps -- in great detail -- the ancestors and descendants of American presidents through Ronald Reagan. They would have had an exhausting time with President Obama's family tree! MORE
Other Sources
George Washington · John Adams · Thomas Jefferson · James Madison · James Monroe · John Q. Adams · Andrew Jackson · Martin van Buren · William Harrison · John Tyler · James Polk · Zachary Taylor · Millard Fillmore · Franklin Pierce · James Buchanan · Abraham Lincoln · Andrew Johnson · Ulysses Grant · Rutherford Hayes · James Garfield · Chester Arthur · Grover Cleveland · Benjamin Harrison · Grover Cleveland · William McKinley · Theodore Roosevelt · William Taft · Woodrow Wilson · Warren Harding · Calvin Coolidge · Herbert Hoover · Franklin Roosevelt · Harry Truman · Dwight Eisenhower · John Kennedy · Lyndon Johnson · Richard Nixon · Gerald Ford · James Carter · Ronald Reagan · George Bush · William Clinton · George W. Bush · Barack Obama · Donald Trump · Joseph Biden