A Healthy Bob Dole Turns 73 Monday

Tests show GOP candidate in top shape

By Jeff Levine/CNN

WASHINGTON (Allpolitics, July 21) -- On the eve of his 73rd birthday, GOP presidential candidate Bob Dole is celebrating what his doctor says is "excellent health."

His cholesterol is down, his blood pressure is normal and, most of all, he feels good.

"We've got a lot of juice left in our generation," Dole said. "Don't worry about it. We got a lot of juice left."

A June 10 exam by Dr. John Eisold, the attending physician for Congress, concluded Dole is in good enough shape to run for president. He could even run around the block, if he felt like it.

"If I don't have a health problem, I don't have an age problem," Dole said.

His doctor, Charles Peck, agreed. "The normal parameters that we in the medical community use to measure health maintenance and health factors show that he's in excellent health."

If elected, Dole would become the oldest man ever inaugurated to a first term. He was born July 22, 1923. Ronald Reagan was 69 when he first took office in 1981.

Dole's exam reviewed major medical events in the presidential hopeful's life, and measured various health barometers.

Dole keeps his cholesterol in check with medications; he takes regular heartburn medicine and his blood pressure is fine, Eisold's report said. He noted that Dole lost much of the movement in his right arm from injuries he received in World War II.

A primary concern for Dole was whether prostate cancer would recur. A specialist at Johns Hopkins Hospital said it was highly unlikely. Dole had prostate surgery in 1991.

"Let's face it. Here's a person who was able to get an early diagnosis to be treated and is cured," Dr. Patrick Walsh said. In a test called Prostate Specific Antigen, the higher the number, the greater chance of cancer coming back: Dole scored a zero.

Now Dole just has to blow out all those candles on his birthday cake.

"There are some people that are 45 years old that are not well," Walsh said. "I think you have someone who physiologically is a very young 73-year-old man."

A Healthy Bob Dole Turns 73 Monday

Tests show GOP candidate in top shape

Related Stories: