George Bush drank down his cocktail and announced that he felt “perfect.” But the buzz was bizarre: the drink made him radioactive enough that his doctors warned him to avoid hugging his grandchildren for a few days.
The radioactive iodine in the cocktail also began the quick and almost certain cure for the thyroid condition that triggered the president’s scary episode of heart flutters during a weekend jog at Camp David. The heart irregularity, called atrial fibrillation, can be a symptom of too much thyroid hormone. And oddly enough, what caused Bush’s hyperthyroid activity turned out, after several days of tests, to be the same illness that has plagued his wife, Barbara: Graves’ disease. It’s not thought to be contagious, and doctors said the chances that a husband and wife will both have it are one in 10,000.
Some doctors found it “a little odd,” as a New York cardiologist put it, that the problem hadn’t been found in Bush’s last physical exam only six weeks earlier. But others said it would be foolish for his doctor, White House physician Burton Lee, to test a healthy patient for everything that could conceivably go wrong. Lee confirmed that he hadn’t tested for thyroid problems, but he said other tests would almost surely have signaled trouble if there had been a serious problem. In recent months, however, Bush has reported two milder bouts of fatigue and shortness of breath while jogging. Lee said his patient dismissed the early symptoms, griping: “Gee whiz, maybe I’m getting older.”
About 1 million Americans suffer from Graves’ disease, which isn’t life threatening when properly treated. The underlying cause is unknown; researchers suspect that bacteria or a retrovirus may be involved, but stress might play a part, too. Whatever begins it, the body’s autoimmune system produces an antibody which mimics the hormone that normally tells the thyroid gland how much to produce. Receiving the false signal, the thyroid begins flooding the body with a hormone that speeds up the metabolism. Too much of the hormone can cause weight loss and irritability, and if untreated the condition can lead to fever, rapid pulse, breathing problems, fear, exhaustion and heart failure.
Three treatments are possible. Doctors could have removed the gland surgically or given drugs to slow down production of thyroid hormone. But surgery is not usually recommended for older patients, and the drugs might act only temporarily. “Why not get the thing treated definitively and finally?” says Dr. Lewis Landsberg, a leading endocrinologist who heads the department of medicine at the Northwestern University Medical School. Lee chose the third alternative, a massive dose of radioactive iodine, which is soaked up by the thyroid and gradually kills off most or all of the hormone-producing cells. Lee said the dose should finish its work in two to six weeks. The treatment often results in overkill, shutting down thyroid activity altogether, but that is easily handled by giving the patient daily doses of hormone in tablet form. And given a normal supply of hormone, the heart fibrillation will almost surely stop–though Bush was warned that in a few cases, further treatment is needed.
At least for a while, the president’s schedule will be uncharacteristically leisurely. After one day of 14 meetings last week, he was reported to feel exhausted enough to agree to slow down and even to send Vice President Dan Quayle in his place on one trip this week. He continues to take drugs to regulate his heartbeat, along with anticoagulants and iodine drops. As he feels better, he will gradually resume his active regimen. But there is at least a chance that Bush’s energy level will be permanently lowered a notch. Said Bruce D. Weintraub, a thyroid specialist at the National Institutes of Health: the American public may see “a slower and less frenetic George Bush.”
Whether he’s on the White House Stairmaster or jogging at Camp David, Bush works hard at staying fit.
Once a week, Bush takes to the courts for a game of doubles with friends and advisers.
On a treadmill or outdoors, Bush usually goes for a 20-minute jog three times a week.
The president has been known to pump away on his Stairmaster for 45 minutes at a time.
Bush is no Dan Quayle on the green, but he enjoys swinging a club. During the gulf crisis last August, he played 18 holes in less than two hours.
