CNN’s chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, said yesterday that he believes the president’s physical examination results reveal that he has heart disease. He said that it’s treatable with medication, along with a healthy diet, but, he said, “he does have heard disease.”
The president had his first physical examination since entering the White House last week. The president’s physician, Rear Admiral Ronny Jackson, briefed reporters earlier this week about the results, which he called, “excellent.” Jackson credited the president’s “incredible genes” for being in such good health despite his lack of exercise and love of fast food. “That’s just the way God made him,” Jackson said.
But Gupta, questioned Jackson specifically about tests that look for the presence of calcium in the blood vessels that lead to the heart. Trump started having these tests in 2009. When he had it performed again last week, it was found that those numbers had gone up. “When they get to a certain range…that means he has heart disease,” Gupta said.
When Gupta questioned Jackson about those results, the Rear Admiral admitted that the president does in fact have heart disease. Jackson told Gupta that they’re going to be treating it with cholesterol-lowering medication.
During the initial announcement, Jackson had said that the president’s cardiac performance was very good. “He continues to enjoy the significant, long-term cardiac and overall health benefits that come from a lifetime of abstinence from tobacco and alcohol,” Jackson said.