What’s he gonna do about flying?
That don’t compute well, in my head.
I’d be worried about DVTs.
How could they tell?
My Wife, and IronMan athlete has DVT. But she stays quite active. No compression stockings anymore. I can’t imagine DJT dealing with some condition that makes him less than Superman in his eyes.
Somewhere maybe… he knows he’s not the man he claims to be. But…
One can never be sure about the truth from this White House. They said he weighs 224 pounds. If he weighs 224, I’m a dancing princess. I fervently hope the prognosis is much worse than reported.
Will eating a healthier diet help?
So, backing a bit from the political angle, especially since many Dopers are elderly - how common is this in elderly people? Is it unusual for a 79-year old, or simply par for the course for a 79-year old?
I suspect his condition is a rare inverted version, where blood flow to the brain is restricted.
(bolding mine)
Medical terms used:
- Post-thrombotic syndrome (PTS)
- Post-phlebitic syndrome (PPS)
- Venous stasis syndrome (VSS)
- Chronic venous insufficiency (CVI)
SYMPTOMS
- chronic extremity swelling
- chronic (or waxing and waning) pain
- unspecific discomfort of the extremity
- diffuse aching
- heaviness, tiredness and cramping of extremity
- dark skin pigmentation (also known post-thrombotic pigmentation)
- bluish discoloration of toes/fingers, foot/hand or diffusely of leg/arm
- skin dryness
- eczema
- hardening of the skin
- formation of varicose veins
- skin ulcer (stasis ulcer)
- “atrophie blanche” or “white atrophy (description in text)
- “dermatoliposclerosis” (description in text)
Was it ever confirmed whether or not he’s on the Ozempic diet? He seems less puffy now than he was on the campaign trail and I assume that is with the assistance of the White House Pharmacy which under his watchful eye will generally give anything they can prescribe to anyone who asks.
In any case, it has been my experience that one can manage a health condition with medication but reversing a health condition generally takes lifestyle changes. Knowing what we know about Trump, if things have gotten this bad, I don’t believe his lackeys when they say it’s fine, they have it under control.
It’s a common problem in the elderly.
He may have to quit playing golf and actually do some work; oh, the horror!
One can purchase compression stockings that don’t look like medically issued compression stockings. Due to my job requiring me to stand for 8 hours and noticing some mild swelling I started wearing them some time ago. Mine are quite pretty. Note I have NOT been diagnosed with any sort of vein dysfunction, but a medically trained person suggested them as a prevention measure.
I will say that my lower legs and feet feel much better at the end of the day when I’ve been wearing them than when I go to work without them, and in my case it takes care of the later in the day swelling.
What I’m saying is that Mr. Trump could easily find compression socks that resemble whatever socks he normally wears, he’d probably feel better at the end of the day, and people would stop commenting on his swollen ankles. So that’s a solution I could very much see him adopting.
Losing some weight probably wouldn’t hurt. Mostly, though, the problem (as I understand it) is that the valves in his leg veins that prevent backflow are damaged or worn out. You can’t fix that with diet.
Depending on other factors mild exercise might help, as contraction of the leg muscles also helps keep blood and fluids from pooling in the feet and assists in pushing blood back up to the heart (which is why people who stand all day tend to have more issues with this than people who move around all day). Whether or not that will induce Mr. Trump to do more walking is anyone’s guess.
Another thing that helps are periodically elevating the feet/legs, even raising them higher than your head.
By the 80’s about half of people (very roughly) will be showing some symptoms of CVI. It’s not like flipping a switch (usually), this is something that occurs over time. It’s more common in women than men, but plenty of men have it. Trump is actually not unusual in showing some symptoms given his age.
I’m in my 60’s. I haven’t been diagnosed with CVI but I’m getting some swelling if I’m on my feet for many hours and I have a few spider veins. That indicates my legs aren’t what they used to be and might be in the early stages of CVI. Hence recommendations by medical people who have seen me in real life to wear compression socks if I’m standing for hours at a time, am traveling, and to keep walking (which is one of my favored forms of exercise). Bicycling is also good I’m told.
Just how advanced Trump’s case of CVI is entirely speculation for us sitting here. I’m taking a WAG and assuming he’s not to the point of having leg ulcers (yet) but he might have varicose veins, increased skin color on his legs (natural, not spray tan), the already noted swelling, and possibly some discomfort which could be either itching or aching or both.
As noted already by the media CVI is not a benign condition but there are things that can be done to alleviate symptoms and perhaps delay progression. The odds of having it go up with age, and if you have it it will increase over time even if you mange to slow it down to some degree. So the odds were pretty good Trump would show some sign of this within the next 10 years if he wasn’t already showing it. If you live long enough you’ll probably have some degree of this.
But I don’t think this is going to seriously impair him any time soon given that he’s not required to be an athlete and he can have all the golf carts he wants.
Hello schadenfreude my old friend.
I had phlebitis along with other blood clots after my triple bypass. The phlebitis was minor comparatively but still miserable since it lasted for weeks.
More on CVI:
Age, obesity and inactivity can all lead to the condition. “If a person is older, a person is overweight, a person is not engaging in regular physical activity or exercise, if a person is sitting or standing for prolonged amounts of time, you can get chronic venous insufficiency,” Dr. Chris Pernell told CNN.
“And while it is not life-threatening, it can be debilitating,” she added.
Age, obesity, and inactivity. Ya think?
The big question is whether he’ll be able to play golf ever weekend. Getting in and out of the golf cart may be painful. The horror, the horror.
Is that painful? Is it associated with severe pain? Does it hurt? A lot?
This quote will get his attention:
“It’s basically not alarming information, and it’s not surprising,” Dr. Jeremy Faust, an assistant professor of emergency medicine at Harvard Medical School, told CNN.
“This is a pretty normal part of aging, and especially for someone in the overweight to obese category, which is where the president has always been. But the bigger concern … is that symptoms like this do need to be evaluated for more serious conditions, and that is what happened.”
I don’t like the man, but I’m not going to attack him for this. The most political thing I’ll say about it is that it’s another reason why we shouldn’t be electing elderly politicians.
Oh, and this, just because I find the reference amusing.
Though that’s more the idea that a body in poor shape is a “good Republican body” and not that Nixon almost died in 1974.
He does. They just aren’t saying how much more there is.
Maybe after they cut off his bruised and battered legs at the knees he will be 224 lbs. Just maybe.
If you look at him in side profile, his enormous head alone might weigh close to 200 pounds.
Deficient in all ways would be more accurate.