# JFK's health issues **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 18, 2019, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jfks-health-issues/845020 "2019-12-18T03:57:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mark\_Finn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@Mark\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mark_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2019, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jfks-health-issues/845020/1 "2019-12-18T03:57:05Z")
Assuming that the events of November 22, 1963 had never happened - what would be the chances of JFK surviving to the end of his term - not to mention a second term? He had been given the Last Rites of the Roman Catholic Church four times: > **[Over his lifetime, President John F. Kennedy received last rites four times...](https://www.thevintagenews.com/2018/01/30/president-john-f-kennedy-rites/)** > > The assassination of President John F. Kennedy was a tragedy that scarred the 1960s. The shooting, which took place on November 22, 1963, affected the He had continual back problems, and ongoing Addison’s disease (which could be fatal if untreated). > **[A new view of JFK's Addison's disease](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2009-sep-05-sci-jfk-addisons5-story.html)** > > John F. Kennedy's Addison's disease was probably caused by rare autoimmune disease ---
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2019, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jfks-health-issues/845020/2 "2019-12-18T06:07:33Z")
Could he have lived through a second term? Yes. Would he have lived through a second term? Maybe. Or maybe not. It’s true untreated Addison’s disease can be fatal, but JFK’s disease _was_ treated. His adrenal glands were, however, in very bad shape: [according to pathologists who conducted the autopsy,](https://www.nytimes.com/1992/10/06/health/the-doctor-s-world-disturbing-issue-of-kennedy-s-secret-illness.html) his adrenal glands were gone or very nearly so. However, people can survive without adrenal glands if they’re given proper steroids, as JFK was. His back issues were not fatal. He was, however, on painkillers. I can’t find anything saying he was addicted, but heavy painkiller use can be detrimental to your health. He suffered from colitis, prostate issues, and allergies, too. There’s no doubt JFK was on lots of meds: codeine, demerol, procaine, methadone, Tuinal (a sleeping pill), steroids, antihistamines, antispasmodics (for colitis) and antibiotics. Medicating him for his many conditions was apparently very complex. JFK was a sick man. I tend to think he probably would have survived a second term due to his determination and the number of excellent doctors treating him. But I wouldn’t bet the farm. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2019, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jfks-health-issues/845020/3 "2019-12-18T09:20:16Z")
… ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2019, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jfks-health-issues/845020/4 "2019-12-18T12:33:10Z")
> [@Mark\_Finn](#): > > … > > He had continual back problems, and ongoing Addison’s disease (which could be fatal if untreated). > > [A new view of JFK's Addison's disease](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2009-sep-05-sci-jfk-addisons5-story.html) I saw a documentary on JFK’s health and how it affected his decision-making. Did I understand correctly that his back problem was so severe that he was wearing a back-brace of some sort in Dallas, and this unfortunately kept him more or less upright after the first bullet struck? My broad and completely unsupported impression is that he was willing to endure whatever pain / remedy was required to continue the presidency, and may well have upped his dosages to ensure his second term. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2019, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jfks-health-issues/845020/5 "2019-12-18T17:33:07Z")
In another thread, I related this anecdote. I still have no idea if it is true, but it is relevant to this thread: > [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > I once worked in a Defense Department job. My deskmate, an elderly gentleman who had worked in the field since WWII, and had held clearances waaaay above anything I ever had (and I had a pretty high one), was fond of telling stories about the Old Days. I suspect that most of the rest of the office thought of him as a garrulous old fart, but I was fascinated by them. > > One of the most interesting stories, about which I have never been able to find any corroborating evidence other than his tale, regarded Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis. > > His claim was that, due to his Addison’s disease and the various medications he was taking, Kennedy would mentally shut down during times of stress. He claims to have seen a picture of Kennedy sitting in his rocking chair, vacant of eye and slack-jawed, while, in the background, Bobby Kennedy and the rest of the staff huddled around the table, working out the appropriate response to Khrushchev. > > Bobby Kennedy is generally credited as the brain behind much of the Missile Crisis response, including the so-called “Trollop Maneuver”, where the administration responded to an earlier, more reasonable communique from Moscow, and pretend they never received the later, much more hardline one. This is considered a brilliant diplomatic coup by political historians. > > Aside from that, this story about JFK’s supposed incapacity is totally unconfirmed by any other source. It is certainly easy for a picture snapped at an inopportune moment to make an Einstein look like an idiot. On the other hand, the story has a certain plausibility, given JFK’s lifelong health issues. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2019, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jfks-health-issues/845020/6 "2019-12-18T17:50:28Z")
> [@Mark\_Finn](#): > > Assuming that the events of November 22, 1963 had never happened - what would be the chances of JFK surviving to the end of his term - not to mention a second term? > > He had been given the Last Rites of the Roman Catholic Church four times As noted in your link, one of those occasions was when he contracted scarlet fever at age 2. Other instances seem to have been influenced by JFK’s adrenal insufficiency, which docs may have had a better handle on treating by the early '60s. On the other hand, Kennedy arguably wasn’t great at minimizing his health risks (noting the, um, flamboyant lifestyle cited in Seymour Hersh’s “The Dark Side of Camelot”). Overall, given the quality of health care available to a sitting President back then, I think it’s reasonable to assume that he would have survived his first and (postulated) second term in office. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2019, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jfks-health-issues/845020/7 "2019-12-18T23:36:42Z")
MY grandfather and his brothers (born around 1900) had scarlet fever as children. All three died in their late 60’s due to weakened heart from the illness. I wonder if JFK would have had heart issues that would be aggravated by his extra medical issues? ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2019, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jfks-health-issues/845020/8 "2019-12-19T00:41:45Z")
JFK took a shitload of medications. From an old NYT article [here](https://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/17/us/in-jfk-file-hidden-illness-pain-and-pills.html): > [@](#): > > By the time of the missile crisis, Kennedy was taking antispasmodics to control colitis; antibiotics for a urinary tract infection; and increased amounts of hydrocortisone and testosterone, along with salt tablets, to control his adrenal insufficiency and boost his energy . . . The records show that Kennedy variously took codeine, Demerol and methadone for pain; Ritalin, a stimulant; meprobamate and librium for anxiety; barbiturates for sleep; thyroid hormone; and injections of a blood derivative, gamma globulin, . . . Impressive. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2019, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jfks-health-issues/845020/9 "2019-12-19T00:53:30Z")
If JFK had some kind of autoimmune colitis, the steroids he was on would have controlled it to some degree as well. His back issues may also have been due to osteoporosis from those steroids. (Eisenhower had Crohn’s disease, which is nasty enough now!) I wonder if that “urinary tract infection” might actually have been an STD. :dubious: Would he have survived his first term? Probably. A second? If he had, he would probably have been severely disabled by the time he left office. Regarding Addison’s disease: It can still be very difficult to diagnose. In the meantime, the year after I graduated from high school in 1981, a girl at my school died after a mysterious illness that lasted less than a week, and her AD was diagnosed only at autopsy, which revealed NO adrenal glands. :eek: I hadn’t known her, but one of my friends did. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2019, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jfks-health-issues/845020/10 "2019-12-19T00:58:45Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > MY grandfather and his brothers (born around 1900) had scarlet fever as children. All three died in their late 60’s due to weakened heart from the illness. I wonder if JFK would have had heart issues that would be aggravated by his extra medical issues? My mother had it at age 6, in 1940 and while she had no sequelae, she definitely remembered being quarantined and anything that went into that room had to be sterilizing by boiling, or burned. The most upsetting thing to her at the time was having to have all her paper dolls replaced; only Grandma and the doctor were allowed in her room, and they put a big QUARANTINE sign on the house. By then, for reasons that are still unknown, the organism was rapidly declining in virulence, and the discovery of penicillin a few years later made the disease easily curable. If JFK had had heart issues caused by this, they would have shown up in his autopsy if he hadn’t previously known about it. Rheumatic heart disease is awfully hard to hide, and something that essentially never happens nowadays. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2019, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jfks-health-issues/845020/11 "2019-12-19T02:22:17Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Regarding Addison’s disease: It can still be very difficult to diagnose. In the meantime, the year after I graduated from high school in 1981, a girl at my school died after a mysterious illness that lasted less than a week, and her AD was diagnosed only at autopsy, which revealed NO adrenal glands. . . Nitpick - it’s actually easy to diagnose. The hard part is thinking of it as a possibility.\* ETA: \*which actually shouldn’t be hard, but apparently is. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2019, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jfks-health-issues/845020/12 "2019-12-19T02:40:57Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > In another thread, I related this anecdote. I still have no idea if it is true, but it is relevant to this thread: Your story is contrary to the gossip that he was being shot full of stimulants during the Cuban Missile Crisis. > **[The Strange Saga of JFK and the Original ‘Dr. Feelgood’](https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2013/11/strange-saga-of-jfk-and-dr-feelgood.html)** > > He's the one who made him feel all right. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2019, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jfks-health-issues/845020/13 "2019-12-19T17:44:32Z")
For what it’s worth, “Last Rites” is an obsolete name for that sacrament, which is nowadays referred to as “Anointing of the Sick”. The idea is that it’s much better to err on the side of administering the sacrament when it’s not needed, than to not administer it when it is, and so now it’s performed much more frequently, even in situations of relatively low risk. Though that’s probably not relevant to Kennedy’s case, given that that change mostly occurred with Vatican II, circa 1962. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2019, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jfks-health-issues/845020/14 "2019-12-19T18:55:49Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > For what it’s worth, “Last Rites” is an obsolete name for that sacrament, which is nowadays referred to as “Anointing of the Sick”. The idea is that it’s much better to err on the side of administering the sacrament when it’s not needed, than to not administer it when it is, and so now it’s performed much more frequently, even in situations of relatively low risk. > > Though that’s probably not relevant to Kennedy’s case, given that that change mostly occurred with Vatican II, circa 1962. Later in the 60’s. When I was learning church crappola in the early 60’s through mid 60’s, it was referred to as “Extreme Unction” referring to anointing the dying as part of the rite. Which sounds weird, hence the name change to Last Rites. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2019, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jfks-health-issues/845020/15 "2019-12-19T18:58:11Z")
Bay in the day it was called “Extreme Unction.” I want to be in a heavy metal band named Extreme Unction. EDIT: **md2000** , your ninja vanquished my priest. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2019, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jfks-health-issues/845020/16 "2019-12-19T23:12:49Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > If JFK had some kind of autoimmune colitis, the steroids he was on would have controlled it to some degree as well. His back issues may also have been due to osteoporosis from those steroids. (Eisenhower had Crohn’s disease, which is nasty enough now!) I wonder if that “urinary tract infection” might actually have been an STD. :dubious: Steroid treatment also suppresses the immune system, leaving you more vulnerable to plain old ordinary urinary tract infections. Yeah, we know JFK was a horndog. That doesn’t mean he had an STD. UTI’s are common enough. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2019, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jfks-health-issues/845020/17 "2019-12-20T00:00:06Z")
Well, he almost certainly had at least some STD(s). Basically everyone who’s sexually active and not monogamous has herpes, for instance. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2019, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jfks-health-issues/845020/18 "2019-12-20T00:21:12Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Steroid treatment also suppresses the immune system, leaving you more vulnerable to plain old ordinary urinary tract infections. > > Yeah, we know JFK was a horndog. That doesn’t mean he had an STD. UTI’s are common enough. UTIs are not common in young(ish) men. And, I’d also argue that steroids have little or no effect to promote bacterial infections such as UTIs (in fact, they can actually be therapeutic for a number of bacterial infections such as meningitis, certain pneumonias, and even sepsis in general). You are right that steroids suppress the immune system and thus promote infections, but only viral, parasitic, and fungal ones. Many physicians are also under the impression that steroids promote bacterial infection and they are wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2019, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jfks-health-issues/845020/19 "2019-12-20T09:50:08Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > For what it’s worth, “Last Rites” is an obsolete name for that sacrament, which is nowadays referred to as “Anointing of the Sick”. **The idea is that it’s much better to err on the side of administering the sacrament when it’s not needed, than to not administer it when it is** , and so now it’s performed much more frequently, even in situations of relatively low risk. > > Though that’s probably not relevant to Kennedy’s case, given that that change mostly occurred with Vatican II, circa 1962. So why not administer Last Rites to everyone immediately after Baptism? ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2019, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jfks-health-issues/845020/20 "2019-12-20T10:07:44Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#): > > UTIs are not common in young(ish) men. But not unknown either. I guess I was just objecting to the kneejerk assumption that any urinary tract infection JFK had _had_ to be an STD. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jfks-health-issues/845020.md?page=2)