Wall Street Journal<\/a> that he regretted undergoing the advanced imaging on his heart and abdomen during the visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center because it raised public questions about his health. His physician said in a memo the White House released in December that he had \u201cadvanced imaging\u201d as a preventative screening for men his age.<\/p>\nTrump had initially described it as an MRI but said he didn\u2019t know what part of his body he had scanned. A CT scan is a quicker form of diagnostic imaging than an MRI but offers less detail about differences in tissue.<\/p>\n
The president\u2019s doctor, Navy Capt. Sean Barbabella, said in a statement released Thursday by the White House that Trump underwent the exam in October because he planned to be at Walter Reed to meet people working there. Trump had already undergone an annual physical in April.<\/p>\n
\u201cPresident Trump agreed to meet with the staff and soldiers at Walter Reed Medical Hospital in October. In order to make the most of the President\u2019s time at the hospital, we recommended he undergo another routine physical evaluation to ensure continued optimal health,\u201d Barbabella said. <\/p>\n
Barbabella said that he asked the president to undergo either a CT scan or MRI \u201cto definitively rule out any cardiovascular issues\u201d and the results were \u201cperfectly normal and revealed absolutely no abnormalities.\u201d<\/p>\n
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement Thursday that the president\u2019s doctors and the White House have \u201calways maintained the President received advanced imaging\u201d but said that \u201cadditional details on the imaging have been disclosed by the President himself\u201d because he \u201chas nothing to hide.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn retrospect, it\u2019s too bad I took it because it gave them a little ammunition,\u201d Trump said in the interview. \u201cI would have been a lot better off if they didn\u2019t, because the fact that I took it said, \u2018Oh gee, is something wrong?\u2019 Well, nothing\u2019s wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump, 79, became the oldest person to take the oath of office when he was sworn in as president last year and has been sensitive to questions about his health, particularly as he has repeatedly questioned his predecessor Joe Biden\u2019s fitness for office. <\/p>\n
Biden, who turned 82 in the last year of his presidency, was dogged at the end of the his tenure and during his abandoned attempt to seek reelection by scrutiny of his age and mental acuity.<\/p>\n
Questions also have swirled around Trump\u2019s health this year as he\u2019s been seen with bruising on the back of his right hand that has been conspicuous despite a slathering of makeup on top, along with noticeable swelling at his ankles. <\/p>\n
The White House this summer said the president had been diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, a common condition among older adults. The condition happens when veins in the legs can\u2019t properly carry blood back to the heart and it pools in the lower legs. <\/p>\n
In the interview, Trump said he briefly tried wearing compression socks to address the swelling but stopped because he didn\u2019t like them.<\/p>\n
The bruising on Trump\u2019s hand, according to Leavitt, is from \u201cfrequent handshaking and the use of aspirin,\u201d which Trump takes regularly to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke.<\/p>\n
He said he takes more aspirin than his doctors recommend but said he has resisted taking less because he\u2019s been taking it for 25 years and said he is \u201ca little superstitious.\u201d Trump takes 325 milligrams of aspirin daily, according to Barbabella.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey say aspirin is good for thinning out the blood, and I don\u2019t want thick blood pouring through my heart,\u201d Trump said. \u201cI want nice, thin blood pouring through my heart. Does that make sense?\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump, in the interview, denied he has fallen asleep during White House meetings when cameras have caught him with his eyes closed, instead insisting he was resting his eyes or blinking.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll just close. It\u2019s very relaxing to me,\u201d he said. \u201cSometimes they\u2019ll take a picture of me blinking, blinking, and they\u2019ll catch me with the blink.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said that he\u2019s never slept much at night, a habit he also described during his first term, and said he starts his day early in the White House residence before moving to the Oval Office around 10 a.m. and working until 7 or 8 p.m. <\/p>\n
The president dismissed questions about his hearing, saying he only struggled to hear \u201cwhen there\u2019s a lot of people talking,\u201d and said he has plenty of energy, which he credited to his genes. <\/p>\n
\u201cGenetics are very important,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I have very good genetics.\u201d<\/p>\n
Price writes for the Associated Press. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0President Trump defended his energy and health in an interview published Thursday, disclosing that he had had a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":485194,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[219384,96178,1582,276,193,9223,5495,148800,4512,1815,2961,224,5337,23266,219385,1807,219382,219383,277,5223],"class_list":{"0":"post-485193","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-advanced-imaging","9":"tag-aspirin","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-detail","13":"tag-doctor","14":"tag-energy","15":"tag-health-screening","16":"tag-heart","17":"tag-interview","18":"tag-la","19":"tag-los-angeles","20":"tag-losangeles","21":"tag-mri","22":"tag-october-examination","23":"tag-president-trump","24":"tag-public-question","25":"tag-sean-barbabella","26":"tag-trump","27":"tag-white-house"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115821018313289113","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}