By DARLENE SUPERVILLE and WILL WEISSERT (Associated Press)
BETHESDA, Md. (AP) — President Joe Biden “continues to be fit for duty,” his physician wrote Wednesday after conducting an annual bodily that’s being intently watched because the 81-year-old seeks reelection in November.
Dr. Kevin O’Connor, Biden’s doctor, wrote that the president is adjusting nicely to a brand new gadget that helps management his sleep apnea and has skilled some hip discomfort but in addition works out 5 occasions per week.
“President Biden is a healthy, active, robust, 81-year-old male who remains fit to successfully execute the duties of the presidency,” O’Connor mentioned in a six-page memo on the president’s well being, following a bodily that took Biden to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for greater than 2 1/2 hours.
His memo added that Biden “feels well and this year’s physical identifies no new concerns.”
The oldest president in U.S. historical past, Biden can be 86 by the top of a second time period, ought to he win one. His newest bodily mirrored one he had in February final yr when O’Connor described Biden as “healthy, vigorous” and “fit” to deal with his White House duties.
Still, voters are approaching this yr’s election with misgivings about Biden’s age, having scrutinized his gaffes, his coughing, his sluggish strolling and even a tumble off his bicycle.
After he returned to the White House on Wednesday, Biden attended an occasion on combating crime and instructed that when it got here to his well being “everything is squared away” and “there is nothing different than last year.”
He additionally joked about his age and folks considering “I look too young.”
Former President Donald Trump, 77, is the favourite to lock up the Republican nomination later this month, which might carry him nearer to a November rematch in opposition to Biden. Trump was 70 when he took workplace in 2017, which made him the oldest American president to be inaugurated — till Biden broke his document by being inaugurated at 78 in 2021.
O’Connor’s report mentioned that Biden’s stiff strolling was no worse than final yr and was the results of arthritic modifications in his backbone. He mentioned the president additionally famous “some increased left hip discomfort.” There had been no indicators of stroke, a number of sclerosis, Parkinson’s or different related circumstances in what the report referred to as an “extremely detailed neurologic exam.”
Biden, final summer time, started utilizing a steady constructive airway strain, or CPAP, machine at night time to assist with sleep apnea, and O’Connor wrote that the president had responded nicely to that therapy and is “diligently compliant” about utilizing it.
A latest particular counsel’s report on the investigation into Biden’s dealing with of categorised paperwork repeatedly derided Biden’s reminiscence, calling it “hazy,” “fuzzy,” “faulty,” “poor” and having “significant limitations.” It additionally famous that Biden couldn’t recall defining milestones in his personal life comparable to when his son Beau died or when he served as vp.
Still, addressing reporters the night of the report’s launch, Biden mentioned “my memory is fine” and grew visibly offended as he denied forgetting when his son died of mind most cancers in 2015 on the age of 46.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre mentioned that O’Connor was one in all a group of 20 totally different medical specialists who helped full the bodily.
Asked why Biden wasn’t present process a cognitive check as a part of the bodily, Jean-Pierre mentioned that O’Connor and Biden’s neurologist “don’t believe he needs one.”
“He passes a cognitive test every day, every day as he moves from one topic to another topic, understanding the granular level of these topics,” Jean-Pierre mentioned, noting that Biden tackled such various points as Wednesday’s crime prevention occasion earlier than his deliberate journey to the U.S.-Mexico border on Thursday and subsequent week’s State of the Union tackle.
“This is a very rigorous job,” she added.
That image of the president doesn’t mirror the kind of struggles with routine duties which may point out the necessity for additional exams, mentioned Dr. Michael Rosenbloom, a neurologist on the University of Washington School of Medicine.
“Constantly questioning older folks who may have an occasional lapse is a form of ageism,” Rosenbloom mentioned.
From sleep apnea to arthritis, Biden’s well being report “seems pretty run of the mill for an 81-year-old person,” mentioned Dr. Jeffrey A. Linder, chief of normal inner drugs at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.
“His doctors are in a unique position to assess his cognitive ability on a daily basis,” Linder mentioned. “These doctors are able to see how he’s functioning day to day. That’s much more useful” than a cognitive evaluation.
Many Americans, together with Democrats, have expressed reservations about Biden in search of a second time period throughout this fall’s election. Only 37% of Democrats say Biden ought to pursue reelection, down from 52% earlier than the 2022 midterm elections, based on a ballot from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Biden counters that his age brings knowledge, and he has begun to criticize Trump for the previous president’s latest public gaffes.
The president joked that his age was categorised info and instructed throughout a taping in New York on Monday of “Late Night With Seth Meyers ″ that Trump mistakenly called his wife Melania, “Mercedes” throughout a weekend speech on the Conservative Political Action Conference — although the Trump marketing campaign says he was accurately referring to political commentator Mercedes Schlapp.
Trump has certainly had his share of verbal miscues, mixing up the town and state the place he was campaigning, calling Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán the chief of Turkey and repeatedly mispronouncing the militant group Hamas as “hummus.” More not too long ago, he confused his Republican major rival Nikki Haley with former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
While he was president, Trump’s annual bodily in 2019 revealed that he had gained weight and was as much as 243 kilos. With his 6-foot, 3-inch body, that meant Trump’s Body Mass Index was 30.4. An index ranking of 30 is the extent at which docs contemplate somebody overweight beneath this generally used formulation.
Wednesday’s report listed Biden as 6-foot tall and weighing 178 kilos.
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Weissert reported from Washington. AP Medical Writer Carla Ok. Johnson in Washington state contributed.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”