Trump puts on weight, but in ‘very good health’

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump is technically obese and has put on weight since last year, but his official doctor declared him on Thursday to be in “very good health.”

The presidential physician, Sean Conley, said Trump, 72, passed his medical exam last week with flying colours.

“It is my determination that the president remains in very good health overall,” he said in a brief statement.

Trump, who has confounded health experts with his penchant for junk food and avoidance of strenuous exercise, weighs 110 kg, the report said.

This is a little bulkier than the 239 pounds recorded last year, which was already considered too much. The resting heart rate has gone up too, at 70 beats a minute, compared to 68 beats last year.

Doctor Theodore Strange, associate chair of medicine at Staten Island University Hospital in New York, said after reviewing the findings that Trump is technically obese.

The results “show a 72-year-old male who meets criteria for obesity with a BMI of 30,” Strange said.

That contributes to the fact that “his cardiac risk scores are higher than normal,” Strange said in a statement. However, the president is “in good health despite being mildly obese.”

Trump has a history of high cholesterol and this year the dosage of his anti-cholesterol medicine Rosuvastatin was raised from a low 10mg a day to 40mg, Conley said.

“There were no findings of significance or changes to report on his physical exam, including the eyes, ears, nose, mouth, teeth/gums, heart, lungs, skin, gastrointestinal and neurologic systems,” Conley’s medical summary said.

Trump may have an unhealthy lifestyle and a stressful job, but on the plus side he doesn’t smoke and is a noted teetotaler. He says he’s never even had a drink. Trump has described his chief exercise as walking around the White House compound and standing up at public events.

— AFP