Health and Medical History of President
Martin van Buren
President #8: 1837-1841
Lived 1782-1862
Lived 1782-1862
Health and Medical History of President
Martin van Buren
President #8: 1837-1841
Lived 1782-1862
Lived 1782-1862
↓
Lived 1782-1862
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 1782-1862
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
· short, trim, and vain · heavy drinker · bald and short · snored · colds, etc. · "influenza" · nervous indigestion · gout · asthma · circulatory failure
Odds & Ends ·
Doctors ·
Resources ·
Cited Sources
Maladies and Conditions
At age 18 van Buren was 5 feet 6 inches tall (his full adult height). He was trim and slender,
and stayed so until almost age 60. There were suspicions that, to maintain an illusion of slimness,
he wore a corset after that
1a.
By age 25 van Buren had a reputation for being able to drink large quantities of alcohol without
showing signs of drunkenness. As a result, his nickname was "Blue Whiskey Van." His
heavy drinking seems to have persisted even into the Vice Presidency (1833-1837)
1a.
van Buren's height and hairline were mocked in the 1840 presidential campaign in which his
opponent, "Old Tip," was
William Henry Harrison:
Old Tip he wears a homespun suit,
He has no ruffled shirt -- wirt, wirt;
But Mat he has the golden pate,
And he's a little squirt -- wirt, wirt. 2a:
Reliability of this information is uncertain.
3
However, given van Buren's alcohol use and obesity, it would be surprising only if he did not
snore.
As Vice President, Van Buren did not enjoy presiding over the Senate. It has been speculated
that the more-frequent-than-usual colds and other ailments he suffered during this period,
which often drove him into bed for short periods, may have been an escape
1a.
Van Buren was ill for several weeks in summer 1834, and again in late September that year,
with an illness he called "influenza"
1a.
Van Buren's first year in office (1837) was especially trying. He developed dyspepsia (apparently
not for the first time in association with stress), which he treated with water, soot, and
powdered charcoal
1b.
(Bumgarner notes that powdered charcoal was used to treat gas even into recent years
1b.)
By summer 1838 he had lost weight, was pale, and still looked worried
1b.
Gout also plagued him.
Van Buren developed gout sometime in the 1830s (his 50s), aided, no doubt, by his dietary habits
and wine consumption. He suffered greatly from the disease in summer 1838. During summer 1840,
a stay at White Sulfur Springs (a spa in New York state) helped his gout, at least temporarily
1b.
Thirteen years later (at age 71) van Buren went to Aix-les-Bains, France for gout treatment,
attending the same spa that had botched the treatment of
Thomas Jefferson's
fractured wrist decades earlier. Van Buren apparently had a better experience
1b.
Asthma afflicted van Buren for several months in 1860. It recurred to a severe degree in fall
1861
1c.
It is not clear to me whether he had experienced the disorder earlier. Also, see caveats below.
In early 1862 van Buren was attended by the noted physician
Dr. Alonzo Clark
in New York ?City, presumably for "asthma." Van Buren returned to his upstate home
in May 1862. He was weak and largely bedbound. He developed signs of circulatory failure, such
as cold and clammy skin, in mid-July. On July 21 he became comatose, and died three days later,
age 79
1b.
Comment:
The details of van Buren's asthma and final illness are unsatisfying. Too much stock should
not be placed in the diagnosis of "asthma." It is probably better to say only that
Van Buren had a condition that caused episodes of dyspnea. While it may have been true asthma,
it may also have been cardiac asthma. Given van Buren's obesity and snoring, the possibility
of heart failure owing to sleep apnea should not be dismissed.
Odds and Ends
- Van Buren had good health as a child and young man 1a.
- There is no evidence that van Buren smoked or otherwise used tobacco 1d.
- Through his mother, Van Buren was related three ways (all distantly), to Theodore Roosevelt, who, like Van Buren, was of Dutch descent. In fact, Van Buren was the first of only five Presidents not of British paternal descent. The others were the two Roosevelts, plus Herbert Hoover and Dwight Eisenhower. 4a
Doctors
After 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 p.56 b p.57 c pp.57-58 d p.58Comment: 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.
- James, Marquis. Andrew Jackson: Portrait of a President. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, unknown year (originally published in 1937 by Bobbs-Merrill).
a p.450
- Dugan, James. Bedlam in the boudoir. Colliers. 22 Feb. 1947; pages 17, 69-70.
Comment: Credibility is dubious. Just before a list of Presidents, the article states: "Twenty of the 32 Presidents ... are proved or believed on a thick web of circumstance to have been nocturnal nuisances in the White House." - Montgomery-Massingberd, Hugh (ed). Burke's Presidential Families of the United States of America. 2nd ed. London: Burke's Peerage Limited, 1981.
a p.184Comment: 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