| In May 1991, 66 year old George Bush, the 41st | | | | Barbara, was also diagnosed with Graves' disease. |
| President of the United States and father of the | | | | How could the president, his wife and his dog all |
| 43rd president, was jogging around the grounds | | | | develop autoimmune diseases that are thought to |
| of Camp David when he suddenly felt short of | | | | be inherited from your parents? Certainly, |
| breath, a tightness in his chest, and horrible | | | | President Bush, his wife and his dog did not have |
| tiredness. His heart beat very fast. How could this | | | | the same parents. Most doctors continue to think |
| happen? He was highly fit and jogged regularly. He | | | | that Grave's disease is caused a person's |
| was athletic. He was a combat pilot during World | | | | immunity being so stupid that it destroys a |
| War II and captain of the best baseball team Yale | | | | person's own thyroid, but recent research has |
| ever had. With George Bush at first base, Yale | | | | shown that this condition may be caused by a |
| went to the semifinals of the NCAA tournament, | | | | virus such as HTLV-1. |
| the only time they got that far. | | | | Doctors gave the president radioactive iodine that |
| The president of the United States had fainted | | | | he swallowed and went to his thyroid gland and |
| while jogging. A White House doctor had | | | | killed it. He now takes thyroid pills every day and |
| diagnosed a heart problem and admitted the | | | | will continue to do so for the rest of his life. Most |
| president to Bethesda Naval Hospital. The | | | | of you know that six years after his diagnosis, |
| president admitted feeling increasingly tired during | | | | and taking thyroid replacement daily, former |
| the two weeks preceding his hospitalization. He | | | | president Bush jumped out of an airplane at age |
| had lost nine pounds in the last two months, and | | | | 72. If you suffer irritability, shakiness, weight loss, |
| his hands shook so rapidly that not even he could | | | | headache, osteoporosis, strokes, clotting and |
| read his handwriting. Doctors diagnosed that his | | | | inability to stay asleep at night, you may have an |
| thyroid gland was putting out too much of its | | | | overactive thyroid gland that can be cured by |
| hormone, and called it Graves' disease. | | | | swallowing radioactive iodine. Then you take |
| Soon afterward, the Bush family dog developed | | | | thyroid replacement pills forever, but you can live |
| lupus (another autoimmune disease). Eighteen | | | | a long active and healthful life. |
| months before the president fainted, his wife, | | | | |