# Nice editing job, Fox. (Unhealthiest presidents list) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 20, 2009, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-editing-job-fox-unhealthiest-presidents-list/482190 "2009-01-20T19:43:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-editing-job-fox-unhealthiest-presidents-list/482190/1 "2009-01-20T19:43:48Z")
They might change [this](http://www.foxnews.com/photoessay/0,4644,6322,00.html#2_0) in the meantime, but as I am posting this. . . a) they have an image of Woodrow Wilson on William Henry Harrison’s entry, and b) they pretty much imply the old story that WHH caught a cold by standing in the cold rain during his inauguration (best sources indicate his cold started three weeks later). Also, it didn’t get better because of the lack of heat in the White House? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-editing-job-fox-unhealthiest-presidents-list/482190/2 "2009-01-20T19:53:44Z")
Did I miss an entry? Theodore Roosevelt was one of the unhealthiest presidents, but Taft wasn’t? ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-editing-job-fox-unhealthiest-presidents-list/482190/3 "2009-01-20T20:27:50Z")
I don’t get Theodore Roosevelt either. His life was cut short by some bad breaks, but he was a soldier and athlete in his prime. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-editing-job-fox-unhealthiest-presidents-list/482190/4 "2009-01-20T20:55:31Z")
Teddy was a very sickly child\* and didn’t improve until he reached adulthood. \*or, perhaps, he pretended to be – there’s some evidence it was a way to get attention. ---
**Author:** ![Jamaika\_a\_jamaikaiake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7993a0/32.png) [@Jamaika\_a\_jamaikaiake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jamaika_a_jamaikaiake)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-editing-job-fox-unhealthiest-presidents-list/482190/5 "2009-01-20T22:05:06Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Did I miss an entry? Theodore Roosevelt was one of the unhealthiest presidents, but Taft wasn’t? Taft lived to 72. I know he was fat, but do you have a cite that he was unhealthy? ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-editing-job-fox-unhealthiest-presidents-list/482190/6 "2009-01-20T23:05:02Z")
> [@Jamaika\_a\_jamaikaiake](#): > > Taft lived to 72. I know he was fat, but do you have a cite that he was unhealthy? Reagan lived to 93, and is on the list. ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2009, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-editing-job-fox-unhealthiest-presidents-list/482190/7 "2009-01-20T23:26:34Z")
> [@Jamaika\_a\_jamaikaiake](#): > > Taft lived to 72. I know he was fat, but do you have a cite that he was unhealthy? From Wikipedia: > [@](#): > > Evidence from eyewitnesses and from Taft himself strongly suggests that he had severe obstructive sleep apnea during his presidency, resulting from his obesity. Within a year of leaving the presidency, Taft lost approximately 80 pounds (32 kg). His somnolence resolved and, less obviously, his systolic blood pressure dropped 40–50 mmHg (from 210 mmHg)… > > Taft retired as Chief Justice on February 3, 1930, because of ill health. Taft died 5 weeks following his retirement on March 8, 1930. Not to mention that James Monroe made the list, and he lived to be 73. ---
**Author:** ![hekk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@hekk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hekk)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-editing-job-fox-unhealthiest-presidents-list/482190/8 "2009-01-21T00:20:31Z")
[Here](http://www.doctorzebra.com/prez/) is an EXCELLENT review of the health of former and current US presidents. It’s positively fascinating… ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2009, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-editing-job-fox-unhealthiest-presidents-list/482190/9 "2009-01-21T04:12:26Z")
> [@hekk](#): > > [Here](http://www.doctorzebra.com/prez/) is an EXCELLENT review of the health of former and current US presidents. > > It’s positively fascinating… That presents one of the most astonishing historical ideas I’ve ever seen: [that George Washington might have had Klinefelter’s syndrome, an intersex condition.](http://www.doctorzebra.com/prez/g01.htm#10) Can you imagine? ---
**Author:** ![hekk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@hekk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hekk)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-editing-job-fox-unhealthiest-presidents-list/482190/10 "2009-01-22T00:09:37Z")
> [@matt\_mcl](#): > > That presents one of the most astonishing historical ideas I’ve ever seen: [that George Washington might have had Klinefelter’s syndrome, an intersex condition.](http://www.doctorzebra.com/prez/g01.htm#10) Can you imagine? Even better! > [@](#): > > Thornton “proposed that the body be thawed gradually, first in cool water and then with warm blankets and rubbing of the skin, with the subsequent performance of a tracheotomy, artificial respiration at the tracheotomy site, and transfusion of lamb’s blood” Zombie Washington! ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-editing-job-fox-unhealthiest-presidents-list/482190/11 "2009-01-22T00:24:08Z")
I like Barack Obama’s entry on early life exposure to infectious diseases: “Exposed to multiple animals while living in Indonesia, including a New Guinean ape, chickens, ducks, birds, dogs, and crocodiles [3b]. He also was exposed to human diseases: **scurvy** , polio, leprosy, and a man with gaping hole where nose should be (syphilis?) [3c]. Had an “endless series of shots” before going to Indonesia for the first time.” Oh no! He was exposed to scurvy? Could he still have it? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Apocalypso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Apocalypso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apocalypso)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-editing-job-fox-unhealthiest-presidents-list/482190/12 "2009-01-22T00:50:37Z")
> [@matt\_mcl](#): > > That presents one of the most astonishing historical ideas I’ve ever seen: [that George Washington might have had Klinefelter’s syndrome, an intersex condition.](http://www.doctorzebra.com/prez/g01.htm#10) Can you imagine? Is that a cause or effect of his herb smoking? ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-editing-job-fox-unhealthiest-presidents-list/482190/13 "2009-01-22T02:15:33Z")
Also, under FDR they have the following: In March 1945, while working at his desk, the former president complained of a horrible pain and died at 3:35 p.m. of a stroke. He was 63 years old. Former president. (Well I guess he was a former preident as well as being the one then in office) ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2009, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-editing-job-fox-unhealthiest-presidents-list/482190/14 "2009-01-22T02:19:36Z")
Also looking at Reagan, he hardly seems to have been in poor health during his Presidency. He had a few skin cancers removed, a hearing aid and a minor op. Oh, and someone shot him.