Dole Given a Clean Bill of Health in Latest Checkup

The most recent medical examination of likely GOP presidential nominee Bob Dole, who turns 73 on Monday, found no signs of cancer, heart disease or other major illnesses, according to records made public today.

While it has become routine for presidential candidates to release their medical records, Dole’s health status has assumed particular importance because of his age.

“He seems to get healthier every year we do the examination,” said Dr. Charles Peck, a surgeon at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, who has overseen Dole’s medical care since 1985.

“My health records are better this year than they were last year,” Dole said Tuesday in a C-SPAN interview to be broadcast tonight. Although he told C-SPAN that his blood pressure was “better,” records show that it was up slightly from last year’s measurement of 104/70, to 110/74. Still, that figure is normal, doctors said.

The 1996 medical report lists 10 “pertinent” conditions over the last 50 years, including the World War II injury that disabled Dole’s right arm and hand, the postwar removal of his right kidney, a 1981 operation to remove a stone from his left kidney, colorblindness and mild high-frequency hearing loss.

The former Kansas senator was found to have prostate cancer in 1991 and had the gland surgically removed that December. Last month’s blood test for prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, was negative, indicating that he “appears to be free of cancer,” Peck said.

An electrocardiogram turned up no evidence of heart trouble; Dole’s total blood cholesterol level was 154, down from 182 last year. “This reflects superb control with medication, diet and exercise,” Dr. John Eisold, Congress’ attending physician, wrote to Dole in a letter accompanying the report.

Dole takes four medications daily, including two prescription cholesterol-lowering drugs, Pravachol and niacin. He also takes the antacid Zantac, for gastroesophageal reflux, or chronic heartburn, and Metamucil, for diverticulosis, the appearance of bulges in the colon wall.

The candidate’s most recent colonoscopy, performed last year, revealed only one “benign” polyp, the records show, while a chest X-ray last year, also the most recent, was negative for signs of lung cancer. A former smoker, Dole quit the tobacco habit 13 years ago.

Dole’s medical records are “very reassuring,” said Dr. Shawn Vieseh, a UCLA internal medicine specialist who reviewed them for The Times. Still, he said, he would recommend that Dole have a colonoscopy and chest X-ray every year.

Dole is “remarkably” youthful, said Dr. Michael Roizen, chairman of anesthesiology and critical care at the University of Chicago Medical School, who also reviewed the medical records.

A 73-year-old man has a life expectancy of 10.5 years, according to actuarial tables prepared for the Internal Revenue Service. But Dole’s life expectancy may be longer than that, Roizen said. He analyzed some data from the former senator’s most recent exam with an experimental computer program called Real Age that he and the firm, Medical Informatics, are developing. According to that analysis, Dole has the physiology of a healthy 62-year-old, he said, with a life expectancy closer to 17 years.

If elected, Dole would be the oldest man to win a first term as president.

President Clinton turns 50 on Aug. 19. The 23-year gap between their ages is the largest between the two major party contenders for the presidency in history.

Dole plans to join his wife, Elizabeth, on his birthday working at a soup kitchen in Washington before flying to Detroit to address Midwestern governors. That night, he will go to his hometown of Russell, Kan., for an ice-cream party. While there, Dole also plans to film campaign commercials.