Hillary Rodham Clinton’s physician said Friday that the Democratic presidential candidate is in “excellent physical condition” and has completely recovered from the effects of a concussion she suffered in 2012, pronouncing her “fit to serve as president of the United States.”
Clinton is the first 2016 presidential candidate to release her health records. The details came in a two-page letter from Dr. Lisa Bardack, an internist and chairman of the department of medicine at the Mount Kisco Medical Group near Clinton’s suburban New York home.
Clinton sustained the concussion in December 2012 after fainting, which Bardack attributed to stomach virus and dehydration. During the course of her treatment for the concussion, Clinton was also found to have a blood clot and was given medication to dissolve it. She’s remains on the medicine as a precaution, Bardack wrote.
Bardack said testing the following year showed “complete resolution” of the concussion’s effects, including double vision, which she wore glasses with specialized lenses to address.
According to her doctor’s assessment, Clinton’s cholesterol and blood pressure are in normal, healthy ranges, and she has had the major cancer screenings and exams recommended for someone her age. She has a very common thyroid condition and seasonal allergies, and takes a blood thinner — Coumadin — as a precaution since her fall and blood clot a few years ago.
There was no mention of Clinton’s height or weight, but it did say Clinton gets routine mammograms and breast ultrasounds, as well colonoscopies and gynecological exams.
“There’s no red flags there,” said Dr. Mark Creager, director of the Dartmouth-Hitchkock heart and vascular center in Lebanon, New Hampshire, and president of the American Heart Association. In terms of heart problems, he said, “she is at low risk for anybody, particularly for somebody in her age group.”
At her most recent exam in March, her blood pressure was 100 over 65. Her total cholesterol was 195; her LDL or “bad” cholesterol was 118, and her HDL or “good” cholesterol was 64 — all within healthy levels and not signaling the need for any medications.
The doctor noted that Clinton’s father lived into his eighties and her mother, into her nineties. She has two brothers, and one had premature heart disease.
Due to her family history, she had full cardiac testing, including an ultrasound exam of arteries in her neck, and all was well.
