Clinton Releases Medical Information

The White House on Friday released summary reports on President Clinton’s health in hopes of laying to rest suggestions from GOP rival Bob Dole’s campaign that the president is suffering from an undisclosed “mystery” ailment.

According to a statement from eight of his physicians, the president has several minor aches and complaints, but no major problems nor any history of major illness.

At the same time, the White House stopped short of providing raw medical-test data, as Dole did earlier this year, saying that such data would be of no use to the public without interpretation by physicians.

“We have provided all the information necessary for anyone to reach the conclusion that he is in good health overall,” White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry said during a mid-evening session with reporters. “If this doesn’t do it, I can’t imagine what else you need.”

He asserted that Clinton has now provided as much health information as Dole and more data than has been offered by previous presidents.

The Dole campaign, which disputes McCurry’s claim, had indicated earlier that it would not be satisfied with anything less than the type of medical data that the GOP candidate provided.

“The White House has proven long ago that partial disclosure is not full disclosure,” Dole spokesman Nelson Warfield said. “We’ll wait and see what records are disclosed, and we’ll wait to see what tests the White House originally thought were too embarrassing to disclose. The White House has a credibility problem in this whole area.”

White House officials earlier had balked at requests for more complete information, contending that the issue was stoked by a Dole campaign desperate for new issues. McCurry said the new disclosures could “sure, probably” be interpreted as an acquiescence to pressure from the Dole camp.

Unlike Dole, however, the White House has so far not agreed to make Clinton’s physicians available to questions from the press. A physician employed by a news organization has interviewed Dole’s doctors about his health.

A four-page statement from Clinton’s principal physician, Dr. E. Connie Mariano, included much of the information made available after a Clinton medical checkup on May 24. But the statement provides a broader outline than before on Clinton’s medical history.

In an overview of his health, Mariano said Clinton has “no history of hypertension, diabetes, tuberculosis, sexually transmitted disease, cancer, stroke or heart disease.”

Her summary describes a variety of minor complaints.

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These include a wide variety of allergies, a partial loss of high frequency hearing, precancerous skin eruptions, a digestive disorder called gastroesophageal reflux, occasional low back pain and tendinitis in his left shoulder, so-called adult acne, a strained left knee ligament and occasional hoarseness.

The partial hearing loss was explained as a product of Clinton’s hunting as a youth and his history as a saxophone player.

Clinton takes injections and eye drops for his allergies, Maalox for the heartburn that is caused by the reflux disorder and multiple vitamins. He also uses a cream for his acne. The report also says he suffers some weakening of the eyes.

As reported earlier this year, Clinton weighs 216 pounds, has a blood pressure of 126 over 70, and a total cholesterol count of 191, which is toward the high end of the normal range.

The report describes the president as someone who uses alcohol “occasionally” at social events, caffeine only rarely and “occasionally chews on cigars.”

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But some details were withheld. McCurry said, for example, he did not want to release photographs of Clinton’s inflamed vocal cords. “That’s the kind of thing, preserving the dignity of the office, we elect not to provide,” he said.

Separately, Vice President Al Gore released his own 11-page medical report. It said he had mildly elevated cholesterol and had two tiny polyps removed from his colon in 1995.

The issue of how much medical information to release comes up every campaign season. In 1992, former Massachusetts Sen. Paul E. Tsongas asserted that he was free of a previous cancer, only to face an outcry when it emerged that there had been some recurrence of the malady.