Although I’ve by no means examined President Joe Biden nor learn by his full well being data, nonetheless, as a working towards internist who treats many aged sufferers, I’ve cause to be involved. What precisely is his stage of cognitive operate?
Most worrying is the realm of executive function, which incorporates the flexibility to plan, pay cautious consideration to element, carry out duties, consider detailed info and most of all make selections. It goes with out saying that the president as this nation’s chief govt should have a really excessive stage of govt operate.
One of the best ways to strategy Biden’s obvious a number of reminiscence lapses and intervals of disorientation is to not speculate based mostly on video clips alone however to demand full disclosure and transparency, particularly of a president virtually 80 years previous with a major medical historical past. If he decides to run once more, I’m on file demanding full well being transparency of all candidates for larger workplace, tracing again to when John McCain was 71 and operating for president in 2008. I called it “the McCain Protocol” in 2016 when each Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have been over 70 and operating for president.
I would favor Biden have a cognitive neuropsychiatric check proper now, a lot as Trump underwent the Montreal Cognitive Assessment when he was in workplace and launched the outcomes.
After all, there’s substantial precedent for unwell presidents hiding their illnesses from the general public, from Woodrow Wilson’s extreme case of Spanish flu (which arguably affected the Treaty of Versailles) and subsequent stroke to Franklin Roosevelt’s coronary heart failure to the extent of Dwight Eisenhower’s coronary heart illness to John Kennedy’s Addison’s illness, all whereas nonetheless in workplace.
There’s cause to pause earlier than demanding full disclosure by a sitting president for concern of sending a message of weak spot — greater than Biden is already doing together with his erratic habits — to our enemies. Nonetheless, annual presidential physicals are actually routine, and there comes some extent the place impairment is substantial sufficient that the influence of the sickness is extra harmful than the necessity to current a powerful face.
Has this president reached that time? We don’t know.
However there are causes to be involved based mostly on what we do know. Final fall, the president’s doctor, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, released a letter summarizing his newest bodily. Most troubling was the report his gait had stiffened considerably over the prior 12 months. This was attributed to degenerative arthritis, however there was no MRI, no cognitive check reported and no analysis from a neurologist included.
Although the letter was reassuring in that it acknowledged there was no proof for Parkinson’s illness or stroke, nonetheless, element was sorely missing — and actually a stiffening gait might be related to multiple conditions (together with white matter harm or regular stress hydrocephalus) that trigger cognitive decline. With one other presidential bodily arising quickly, it’s time to incorporate a complete cognitive examination.
Again in 1988, Biden had two mind aneurysms surgically clipped and he sustained a mind bleed, each of which medical literature has proven to result in long-term dangers of cognitive decline. Not solely that, however atrial fibrillation, an arrhythmia the president has had for greater than a decade, has additionally been discovered to be related to cognitive problems in addition to silent damage to the mind, in keeping with the current Swiss Atrial Fibrillation Cohort study.
Most lately, the president survived COVID, and although he didn’t seem to endure from post-COVID issues, there’s nonetheless a significant risk it exacerbated pre-existing neurological issues in the event that they exist.
Merely being over the age of 75 carries with it a higher risk of cognitive impairment of at least 20%.
There are 40 million individuals in America with gentle cognitive impairment, a lot of which isn’t recognized. However on the subject of the president of the USA, piloting the ship over the tough waters of worldwide and home crises, coping with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese language President Xi Jinping, to not point out the Mexican drug cartels, the border disaster and a faltering economic system, what’s gentle in somebody’s grandfather immediately turns into magnified by the calls for of the very best workplace.
The president ought to actually be cognitively examined if he decides to run once more and the outcomes launched at that time if not sooner. Add an MRI and a proper neurological evaluation for good measure.
I do know many neurologists who aren’t reassured by basic statements from the president’s physician and wish to see a extra complete analysis administered and reported with the upcoming annual bodily.
Dr. O’Connor has an obligation based mostly on medical ethics to find out the performance of the president. This ongoing evaluation ought to embody a full neurological analysis.
Marc Siegel, M.D., is a scientific professor of drugs and medical director of Physician Radio at NYU Langone Well being and a Fox Information medical analyst.
