Medical Conditions and Weight
Evidence from eyewitnesses, and from Taft himself, strongly suggests that during his presidency he had severe obstructive sleep apnea because of his morbid obesity.
Taft is remembered by some historians as being the most obese president. He was known to have an insatiable appetite that included high caloric meals. His weight problem led to many incidents including loud belches and chronic flatulence. One embarrassing episode involved Taft becoming stuck in a bath tub in the White House. Taft ordered his aides to use butter to dislodge him. He had a very large tub installed.
Taft often requested and ate large portions of unhealthy foods from the White House kitchen staff, such as red meat and gravy at dinners, and often felt dismayed at his large profile and reputation as a glutton.
Within a year of leaving the presidency, Taft lost approximately 80 pounds (36 kg). His somnolence problem resolved and, less obviously, his systolic blood pressure dropped 40–50 mmHg (from 210 mmHg). Undoubtedly, this weight loss extended his life. Soon after his weight loss, he had a revival of interest in the outdoors; this led him to explore Alaska. Beginning in 1920, Taft used a cane; this was a gift from Professor of Geology W. S. Foster, and was made of 250,000-year-old petrified wood.
Read more about this topic: William Howard Taft
Famous quotes containing the words medical, conditions and/or weight:
“They said I’d never get you back again.
I tell you what you’ll never really know:
all the medical hypothesis
that explained my brain will never be as true as these
struck leaves letting go.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
“If there is a species which is more maltreated than children, then it must be their toys, which they handle in an incredibly off-hand manner.... Toys are thus the end point in that long chain in which all the conditions of despotic high-handedness are in play which enchain beings one to another, from one species to another—cruel divinities to their sacrificial victims, from masters to slaves, from adults to children, and from children to their objects.”
—Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929)
“You will trail across the rocks
and wash them with your salt,
you will curl between sand-hills
you will thunder along the cliff
break retreat get fresh strength
gather and pour weight upon the beach.”
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)