Elizabeth Warren‘s presidential campaign on Friday released the results of the senator’s most recent annual physical exam, as well as a letter from her doctor that said Warren is a “very healthy 70 year old woman” with no medical conditions that would prevent her from serving as president.
Warren’s latest physical was conducted on January 14, according to her long-time physician, Dr. Beverly Woo of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Woo said that the exam showed Warren’s blood pressure, heart rate and blood tests were all normal, her cholesterol was “excellent,” and that Warren also had a mammogram to screen for breast cancer. Warren is 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighs 129 pounds, and received a flu shot in October, Woo wrote in the letter.
Woo said that Warren’s one medical condition is hypothyroidism, and that she takes levothyroxine every day to restore her thyroid hormones to normal levels. Hypothyroidism is a condition where the thyroid doesn’t produce enough of certain hormones. It most often affects women who are middle-age and older, according to Mayo Clinic.
“Senator Warren has never smoked, used drugs or had any problem with alcohol use. She exercises regularly and follows a healthy diet despite her very busy schedule,” Woo wrote in the letter. “In summary, Senator Elizabeth Warren is a very healthy 70 year old woman. There are no medical conditions or health problems that would keep her from fulfilling the duties of the President of the United States.”
Warren’s communications director Kristen Orthman told CNN that Warren will get her yearly exam again in 2020 and that the campaign will release those records again when she does.
The campaign’s disclosure of Warren’s medical exam comes as several of the top Democratic presidential candidates, who are in their 70s — along with President Donald Trump, who is 73 — have faced questions about their physical fitness.
Former Vice President Joe Biden, 77, and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, 78, have also pledged to release their medical records before the Iowa caucuses in early February.
Warren, Biden and Sanders have been topping national and early state polls. It has not gone unnoticed that three of the Democratic candidates who appear to have a real chance at seizing the party’s nomination are septuagenarians — particularly in an election with a historically large field featuring diversity in age. If they were to beat Trump next year, both Biden and Sanders would be over 80 years old by the end of their first term in the White House.
Concerns over some of the candidates’ age and health were fully in the spotlight earlier this year, after Sanders suffered a heart attack while campaigning in Nevada. The senator underwent a procedure to place stents to fix a blockage in an artery, and took himself off the campaign trail for days to recover.
In a subsequent interview with CNN, Sanders said that he had felt discomfort during a Las Vegas campaign event and began “sweating profusely.” He visited an urgent care clinic, which immediately referred him to a hospital. After initially indicating that he might scale back his frenetic pace of campaigning, Sanders told CNN that he was “ready to go full blast.”
Biden has also confronted some questions about his age. Asked in September by a reporter whether he would release his medical records, Biden said he would, then joked: “What health concerns, man? You want to wrestle?”
On Thursday in New Hampton, Iowa, Biden had a tense exchange with a voter who said he was 83 years old and did not have the mental faculties that he did when he was younger, and also questioned Biden about his son Hunter’s business interests in Ukraine.
“The reason I’m running is because I’ve been around a long time and I know more than most people know. And I can get things done. That’s why I’m running,” a visibly frustrated Biden said. “And if you want to check my shape, let’s do push-ups together man. Let’s run, let’s do whatever you want to do. Let’s take an IQ test.”
Warren has attracted attention out on the campaign trail for her penchant for jogging onto the stage campaign events, and has said that walking is an important part of her daily exercise. In an interview with CNN earlier this year, Warren said that she tries to walk seven miles every day, including by doing laps around hotels in the evenings when she’s traveling. She does not drink coffee, and her aides often have coconut water on hand at campaign events so Warren can stay hydrated.
Some voters have expressed unease about the age of several of the leading candidates.
Jan Leavitt of Newmarket, New Hampshire, who is 75 years old, recently attended a Warren campaign town hall in Durham. Leavitt told CNN that she supported Sanders in the 2016 primaries, and that this time around, she was “leaning” towards Warren but also interested in South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Biden.
She said of Biden: “Since I’m 75, I know what it feels like to be 75 and I am a little concerned about his age and Bernie’s age.”
Asked whether she also had similar worries about Warren’s age, Leavitt responded, “She seems to have a lot of energy. Five years makes a difference, I think.”
