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The health woes of the world's most high-profile leaders is always cause for concern. These are the people that make some of the most important decisions affecting society, and whether it's a president, prime minister, or pope, their well-being is vital in maintaining national policy and public confidence in the office they hold. But just how healthy are some of those currently in charge of countries and states, and what happened to past leaders whose ill health threatened the security and stability of their nations?
Click through this gallery for a worrying diagnosis.
Donald Trump will be 78 when he takes office for the second time on January 20, 2025, making him the oldest president in US history. But Trump refuses to disclose new details about his physical or mental well-being, breaking decades of precedent.
Despite a lifetime of abstinence from tobacco and alcohol, Trump's physical and mental health have been a subject of public debate since he first won the White House in 2017. Questions regarding his blood pressure, exact weight, or whether he has continued using previously prescribed medication for high cholesterol continue to circulate.
In an interview with CBS News in August 2024, Donald Trump said he wasn't experiencing any post-traumatic stress disorder or other residual health effects following the attempt on his life. Over and above the events of July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania, clinicians and psychiatrists have speculated that Trump may have mental health impairments, ranging from narcissistic personality disorder to some form of dementia.
Joe Biden's age was of primary concern throughout his presidency. He took office aged 78—previously the oldest person ever sworn in as the country's chief executive.
During his tenure, Biden was treated for obstructive sleep apnea, nonvalvular atrial fibrillation (a type of irregular heartbeat), and hyperlipidemia, an excess of lipids of fats in the blood. He also suffered from a stiffened gait due to spinal arthritis and the aftereffects of injury.
President Biden's terrible performance at the June 27, 2024, presidential debate, during which he stumbled over numbers and words, lost his train of thought, and struggled to finish sentences, further fueled debate about his age, mental and physical health, and ability to lead the federal government. On July 21, 2024, the White House incumbent announced his withdrawal from the 2024 United States presidential election.
Pope Francis has suffered a raft of health problems dating back decades to when he was 21, when the then Jorge Bergoglio developed pleurisy (inflammation of the membranes that surround the lungs and line the chest cavity) and had part of one of his lungs removed in Argentina.
As one of the oldest pontiffs in the history of the Catholic Church (he took on the papacy in 2013 at the age of 76), Pope Francis has dealt with several health issues, including bouts of influenza, pneumonia, and two rounds of intestinal surgery.
The pope has long suffered from sciatica, a chronic nerve condition that causes back, hip, and leg pain, and now uses a wheelchair. His is an increasingly sedentary lifestyle in the Vatican.
In December 2024, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu underwent surgery to have his prostate removed. The operation was prompted by a urinary tract infection resulting from a benign prostate enlargement.
The 75-year-old Israeli leader has suffered a series of health issues in recent years, including a heart condition that he had apparently long known about but concealed from the public. The problem was revealed in July 2024 after doctors implanted a pacemaker to control his heartbeat.
Netanyahu has previously been treated for dehydration, prompting an overnight stay in hospital, and in March 2024 underwent successful surgery for a hernia.
In December 2024 Brazil's president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, underwent emergency surgery after suffering an intracranial hemorrhage. Doctors performed a craniotomy on the 79-year-old Brazilian leader, a procedure in which part of the bone is surgically removed from the skull to treat the bleed and relieve the pressure. The bone is then replaced.
Lula da Silva's health woes are well known. In 2011, he was diagnosed with laryngeal cancer and underwent chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
In 2021, Lula tested positive for COVID-19, though he recovered without needing to be admitted to hospital. Then in October 2023, the politician had hip joint replacement surgery for a hip prosthesis, replacing the top of his right femur with an implant to treat his arthrosis. And he's also had a blepharoplasty, cosmetic plastic surgery to remove excess skin from both of his eyelids.
The health of Vladimir Putin has been the subject of speculation and rumors for years, with the Kremlin swiftly dismissing any claims that the Russian president has a severe illness.
In November 2024, Putin was not seen in public for 13 days, raising suspicions about his well-being. Earlier in March, it was suggested that the Russian leader was suffering variously from Parkinson's disease, a heart condition, and even cancer.
Rumors that Putin has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a form of motor neurone disease, have been further compounded by a number of public appearances where he has looked puffy, frail, and tense. The president's state of health remains veiled to the Russian public and the outside world.
The welfare of Angela Merkel was cause for concern back in 2019 when the German chancellor suffered a series of severe shaking incidents. Her first bout of uncontrollable trembling came on June 18, 2019, when she welcomed Ukraine's then-new president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to Berlin.
At the presidential Bellevue Palace in Berlin on June 27, 2019, Merkel suffered a new shaking spell, one week after sparking concerns by visibly trembling at the meeting with Zelenskyy.
After a third bout of shaking on July 10, 2019, while greeting Finland's prime minister in Berlin, Merkel was carefully scrutinized for any sign of illness. Thereafter, she remained seated for national anthems during official ceremonies, with her office dismissing concerns about the chancellor's health, saying that the prior instances were due to the heat and dehydration. Angela Merkel retired from office in 2021 after 16 years as the nation's leader.
Shinzo Abe battled ill health for much of his time in office, as the prime minister of Japan from 2006 to 2007, and again from 2012 to 2020.
Abe suffered from chronic ulcerative colitis and spoke of struggling with it since junior high school. Symptoms include abdominal cramping, weight loss, and fatigue. The condition forced him to resign as prime minister in 2007.
In light of his condition, Abe underwent a comprehensive physical exam twice a year. He returned to office in 2012, but was again forced to resign in 2020, citing a relapse in his condition. On July 8, 2022, Shinzo Abe was fatally shot while delivering a campaign speech at Yamato-Saidaiji Station in Nara.
As a child, John F. Kennedy nearly died from scarlet fever and also had serious digestive problems. As a young man, he suffered from urinary tract infections, prostatitis, and a duodenal ulcer.
Kennedy's most notorious health complaint was the severe spine and back problems that required largely unsuccessful surgery on four different occasions. Kennedy's ailments might have influenced the 1961 Vienna summit, a tense meeting where JFK was strong-armed by Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, who played on the young president's noticeably odd passivity.
The rocking chair was a trademark of Kennedy's presidency, but the reason he used it was to ease his chronic back pain. JFK was assassinated on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas.
Anthony Eden became British prime minister in 1955, but as early as the 1920s was suffering from a stomach ulcer. He later developed gallstones, requiring surgery to remove the gallbladder (cholecystectomy).
It was during the cholecystectomy that Eden's common bile duct was damaged, leaving him susceptible to recurrent infections, biliary obstruction, and liver failure.
While in office, the prime minister suffered from cholangitis, a painful abdominal infection that saw him admitted to hospital in 1956. He was subsequently prescribed Benzedrine, an amphetamine, a drug he allegedly became dependent upon and which was blamed for his bad judgment during the Suez Crisis. Eden resigned from the Cabinet on January 9, 1957, citing his dependence on stimulants that induced insomnia, restlessness, and mood swings.
Sources: (National Institutes of Health) (The Washington Post) (Associated Press) (CNN) (BBC) (DW) (France 24) (The New Yorker)
The health challenges these world leaders face
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LIFESTYLE Politics
The health woes of the world's most high-profile leaders is always cause for concern. These are the people that make some of the most important decisions affecting society, and whether it's a president, prime minister, or pope, their well-being is vital in maintaining national policy and public confidence in the office they hold. But just how healthy are some of those currently in charge of countries and states, and what happened to past leaders whose ill health threatened the security and stability of their nations?
Click through this gallery for a worrying diagnosis.