50+: Live Better, Longer

How Healthy Are Clinton, Trump?

Sept. 15, 2016 -- The presidential candidates for the two major parties released some personal health information this week, with doctors for both stating they are healthy and fit to serve.

Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's health information was contained in a two-page letter released Wednesday by her doctor, Lisa Bardack, MD, an internal medicine doctor in Mount Kisco, NY.

Donald Trump also discussed his health Thursday with Dr. Mehmet Oz on The Dr. Oz Show. The Republican nominee provided a letter from his doctor declaring him in “excellent physical health,” but acknowledged he would like to lose some weight.

Trump’s campaign released the letter from his doctor, Harold Bornstein, MD, a gastroenterologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, before the show aired Thursday.

Oz said he has also asked Clinton to appear on the show, and she was considering the invitation.

WebMD asked three doctors for second opinions on the candidates' health. None has treated either candidate, and they emphasize they are speaking generally.

Hillary Clinton

The letter from Clinton's doctor updates a previous medical statement from July 2015. Bardack also discussed the pneumonia responsible for Clinton's dizziness and stumbling at a September 11 memorial service Sunday. At the time, Bardack said Clinton, 68, was overheated and dehydrated; later, it was revealed that Clinton had been diagnosed with pneumonia days earlier.

Clinton's current medications include:

• Armour Thyroid, for low thyroid functioning
• Coumadin (warfarin), an anticoagulant prescribed after she suffered a concussion and blood clot in 2012
• Clarinex, an antihistamine, for ongoing allergies
• Vitamin B-12 as needed
• Levaquin (levofloxacin), an antibiotic for the pneumonia, to be taken for 10 days.

Bardack diagnosed the pneumonia after a scan of the lungs that also included scanning to assess heart disease risk, producing a ''coronary calcium score.'' It evaluates the amount of calcium in coronary arteries, an indication of heart disease risk. Clinton’s calcium score was zero, as it has been in the past. Bardack concludes that Clinton is “in excellent mental condition” and that she is ''healthy and fit to serve as president of the United States."