A President in Pain
As we observe yet another president graying quickly from the duties of the presidency, Americans are made aware of the heavy responsibility our presidents feel. A subject that is less frequently addressed is the various health issues that many presidents have faced that would have made many of their days in office an additional personal trial.
Franklin D. Roosevelt was severely incapacitated by polio; Ronald Reagan suffered a gunshot wound while in office; John F. Kennedy, we learned belatedly, suffered from debilitating back pain. Even our first president, George Washington (1732-1799) lived daily with a high degree of pain and discomfort.
This realization came to me when I stumbled on a side note about the fact that George Washington’s false teeth were not made of wood, as is so often rumored. This sent me to investigate what Ron Chernow’s exhaustive research for his new biography, Washington, A Life (Penguin 2010) had to say about Washington’s teeth.
