I believe I read in a book (this was over a decade ago, I don’t remember what book or the exact numbers) that Hitler’s diastolic was about 120 but went to 140 whenever he was anxious or stressed. I don’t recall any info about his systolic BP. Does anyone have any info on the subject?
FWIW, I also read that FDR has blood pressure of 200/100, but after undergoing radiation therapy it shot up to 360/190 and killed him within a year.
You know, if I had to pick one issue Hitler had, it probably wouldn’t be his blood pressure. We can safely say that “If only Hitler had taken better care of his borderline high blood pressure…” would not have done much to prevent World War II.
As for FDR, he had been very sick for years. He was a heavy smoker and the strain on his health due to the paralysis, exertion, stress of running the country during both a terrible economic situation and a terrible war took a lot out of him. By the time he ran for his third term, he arteriolosclerosis, heart disease, coronary artery disease, and a host of other aliments. He did have high blood pressure, but that probably helped caused many of his health issues. All of this is now public knowledge. His medial records are now public. I haven’t seen anything of him being treated with radiation or that his blood pressure is what killed him.
I don’t believe there are any medical records that remained for Hitler. What wasn’t blown up was destroyed. However, we do know that he was given medication for Parkinson’s disease, and that he shuffled. Hitler was a health fanatic. We know he was a vegetarian who ate a lot of vegetables and fruits. He was also against vehemently anti-smoking.
I don’t think Hitler getting his BP under control would’ve made a difference in the war. I am asking because I am curious about what his blood pressure was.
FDR may have underwent radiation therapy for prostate cancer, according to this his BP climbed from about 180/90 eventually up to 300/190 and causing a stroke.
http://health.usnews.com/usnews/health/articles/050214/14heart_3.htm
Hitler probably had pretty high blood pressure, being stressed out over losing the war so badly, and being hopped up on one thing or another much of the time.
His doctor Theodor Morrel was widely regarded as a quack even before he became Hitler’s physician.
Here’s a very interesting link from the New England Journal of Medicine detailing FDR’s blood pressure problems near the end of his life.
Would you believe 330/190? Don’t know where the ostensible prostate radiation enters the story, though.
I’ve read a lot about FDR over the years and I, too, had never heard that he had any radiation therapy.
I would question that, too. Since radiation therapy had only been discovered about 7 years before (and doctors had not yet found ways to use if very effectively), why would his doctors have used such an experimental treatment on FDR? Especially when the alternative was a pretty standard surgery?
What is striking about that piece is the portrayal of an era where essentially nothing was known about cardiovascular disease. I’d be interested to know if that is an accurate opinion, because non-historians often exaggerate the primitiveness of earlier eras.
Actually, crude forms of radiation therapy were in use from shortly after the invention of the X-ray by Roentgen in the late 1800s; also when Marie Curie discovered radium, that started to be used for the purpose of treating cancer not very long thereafter. (For a while it was fashionable to use radium to treat everything, which led to a few problems.)
The brachytherapy section of thehistorical collection at Oak Ridge Associated universities has some interesting items dating to the 1920s.
Even so, I’ve never seen any evidence that FDR was treated with any kind of radiation therapy. I’d be interested to see what the source is for that.
His blood pressure? Well, when the war started, it was 147/93 but I seem to recall that when it ended it was 000/00. so he got it under control.
Hitler WAS in terrible shape-by 1943 (when he was 54), Albert Speer said that he looked like a man of 75. How much this was due to Dr. Morell’s injections is impossible to say-but it is certain that these shots contained methamphetamines-many people who knew Hitler reported that he would frequently stay up all night.
What always puzzled me-the army officers who attempted to kill Hitler in 1943-why didn’t they simply have Morell give him a “hot shot”?
An overdose would kill quickly, and no need for an eleaborate bomb plot.