JFK - Kennedy and Liothyronine

[helvella]

Given the current coverage of the death of President Kennedy, it seems not unreasonable to post again about his taking liothyronine (T3). Bearing in mind, this started next to no time after it became available - he must have been one of the earliest people to take it.

Not intended as anything other than an interesting footnote to history.

In the oral history given by Travell in 1966, she described that Kennedy was diagnosed as having hypothyroidism when he was hospitalized at New York Hospital in May 1955 (22). With the consent of Shorr as the consulting endocrinologist, Kennedy began treatment with liothyronine. The discharge summary from New York Hospital for Kennedy's hospitalization from 26 May 1955 to 2 June 1955 contains record of basal metabolic testing, namely a basal metabolic rate of −15, consistent with mild hypothyroidism; of note, liothyronine is not listed as one of the discharge medications (23). No further thyroid diagnostic testing results are contained in the medical records kept by either Dr. Travell or by Dr. Burkley, Travell's successor as White House physician (24). The White House medical records indicate that Kennedy was taking liothyronine, 25 μg twice daily, throughout his presidency.

acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326...

And if you are even reading this, consider signing the petition - no marketing, no follow ups other than a single confirmation email, no costs.

Why are we struggling so hard to get to the minimum 10,000 signatures?

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

[Staffsgirl]

It’s so frustrating isn’t it? I think I’ve bombarded everyone possible at least twice. What else can we do?

[Bollieforme]

interesting article. Thanks for sharing

[Maztee]

I have signed before and sent to my kids at least 2 of whom have signed. I could try other family members one if whom is hypothyroid but she is often difficult to persuade - some people just are, they don't understand how petitions to the government work and however frustrating I can't keep doing it. Is it on FB thyroid groups? Eg without a thyroid UK? I am sure there are members of both and other groups on there. If not I'm happy to post the link there.

[helvella in reply to Maztee]

Well I'm afraid I have absolutely no idea what is on facebook, who has posted what, etc.

I'm not on facebook.

I suggest that you just carry on and post again and again. Those I know who are on facebook tell me everything just passes by in a blur and needs repeating again. and again and again and again and again....

[Maztee in reply to helvella]

I think it depends on the group. There is a private group I'm a member of which doesn't have a huge number of members and they're very accurate and thoughtful in their support and advice so I'll post the link there and you may get more signees.

[Ellie-Louise in reply to Maztee]

I think it must be somewhere on fb, I sent it to my friend who said she’d already signed it after seeing it on fb.

I gave up on fb 3 years ago so don’t know where precisely.

[RedApple in reply to Ellie-Louise]

This petition needs to be repeatedly posted on FB, just as it does here. No matter how many times it's posted, there will always be some who don't see it, because no-one reads every post every day (not even admins!).

Petition link for anyone reading this thread that hasn't yet signed and passed it on to everyone they know petition.parliament.uk/peti...

[arTistapple]

Wow fascinating piece of history helvella. I recall he was on quite a regime of drugs. Constant back pain? And Liothyronine was one of his treatments? How very interesting.

Any idea what the metabolic rate stands for at -15? Mild or subclinical?

[helvella in reply to arTistapple]

No - I'm afraid I am not familiar with metabolic rate measurements.

[arTistapple in reply to helvella]

Thanks helvella.

[Blissful in reply to arTistapple]

Apparently he had Addisons:

history.com/news/the-health...

As historian Robert Dallek discovered when studying his medical records years later, Kennedy took as many as 12 different medications at once. He used demerol and methadone for pain, barbiturates to help him sleep, an amphetamine, thyroid hormone, and an anti-anxiety medication, and injections of gamma globulins to fight infections, among other prescriptions.

Wow, what a cocktail of uppers and downers!

[arTistapple in reply to Blissful]

Yes I remember hearing about the Addisons, now you remind me. It is a terrible cocktail of drugs. How he did his job sanely (if he did) is scary. However the medical profession nowadays has no fear of cocktails, especially for us hypos. They don’t even bother to differentiate between what is likely caused by thyroid issues and what might really be something else. They just prescribe for it, without actively applying those “little grey cells”.

[Jazzw]

Interesting that the author is gunning hard for it to have had an autoimmune basis. Is it just me, or isn’t it more likely JFK had hypopituitarism, which may (or indeed may not) have had anything to do with autoimmune disease? I might have missed whether that was ruled out…. Imaging machines probably wouldn’t have been very good back then so presumably no brain scans?

Signed the petition a while back. I’d forgotten I signed it so they sent me an email when I tried to sign it again. So nothing awful happens if you aren’t sure whether you’ve signed it or not.

[helvella in reply to Jazzw]

And best not to ignore his history of malaria.

Hypopituitarism: A rare sequel of cerebral malaria – Presenting as delayed awakening from general anesthesia

Abstract

We report a case of delayed emergence from anesthesia in a 37-year-old male who came for emergency laparoscopic appendicectomy. This patient is hailing from one of the endemic zones of Malaria, Orissa State in India. Two months ago he had cerebral malaria and was treated in our intensive care unit. After recovering from cerebral malaria, he presented to us for acute abdomen, and he was taken for emergency laparoscopic appendicectomy. He had delayed emergence of around 2 h to extubate from the time of completion of surgery in spite of termination of anesthetic agents. Further investigations showed to have decreased serum levels of thyroid hormones and cortisol levels in the postoperative period. The Physician promptly diagnosed the condition as hypopituitarism a known sequel of cerebral malaria. The secondary thyroid insufficiency contributing to the delayed emergence from anesthesia. We also review the pertinent literature related to this rare sequelae of cerebral malaria and its perioperative implication to the anesthesiologist.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

[Framboise]

How very interesting, thank you for posting this. I knew that JFK also had Addisons Disease and Coeliac disease, and it's a wonder that he managed to be so active, let alone function so well as President!

I've signed the petition, and attempted to do so a second time not realising I already had, but they email you at that point. I've also shared it on Facebook.

[jgelliss]

Amazing revelation. I never new. But it's interesting that in the 1950's Dr's prescribed T3. Yet today it's still a struggle to get T3 scripts for thyroid patients who need it. Thank you so much Helvella for sharing interesting information.

[guysgrams]

Very interesting, did not know that about President Kennedy. If I lived in UK I most certainly would sign!

[helvella]

Also posted (with slightly different slant) on Pernicious Anaemia Society forum:

healthunlocked.com/pasoc/po...