Thread by @AbudBakri

Everyone is talking about RFK Jr's steroid stack 💉💊

What’s way more interesting is the WILD stack of PRESIDENT JFK 🦅 🇺🇸

Spoiler: A LOT OF DRUGS 💊, including Testosterone 🐂

Let’s dive in 👇

This is the crazy story of the intersection of medicine, politics and history 🏥

Buckle up 💺

This is the closest we ever came to NUCLEAR war and a doctors had the president on so many psychotropic medications 💥

At one point or another JFK was taking a battery of medications 💊, including:

⁃Muscle relaxants
⁃Sedatives
⁃Stimulates
⁃Sleeping pills
⁃Androgens
⁃Corticosteroids
⁃Thyroid hormone
⁃Anesthetic injections

Why? 🤔

First lets get some facts out of the way:

JFK was a sickly man throughout his life

He was read his last rites by a Catholic priest at least 3 times in his life 😨

JFK had two famous doctors in his life

1. Dr Janet Travell, a solid doctor and the first female physician to a US President

2. The complete quack, Max Jacobson aka Dr Feelgood or Miracle Max

These two doctors shaped the presidents life and change the course of history

So what was going on with JFK?

Likely suffered a type of Autoimmune Polyglandar Syndrome that wrecked many of his hormonal systems

He also was diagnosed with:

- Addison’s disease (adrenal insufficiency)
- Hypothyrodism
- Chronic Pain
- Colitis
- Anemia
- Cushing
- Osteoporosis

And much more

Autoimmune Polyglandular syndrome (APS) results in destruction of many endocrine tissues such as adrenals, thyroid, pancreas

This is a genetic condition and many people in the Kennedy family have autoimmune problems

It’s wild that someone with this many diseases and on this many drugs could have such a successful career and completely changed the course of history

This is diagram maps out what people have attributed his medical problems to:

Let’s dive in the meds 💊:

1. Corticosteroids

JFK was on all types of steroid throughout his life, both anabolic and catabolic

As a kid he was given copious amount of corticosteroids for his severe colitis

Eventually he developed adrenal insufficiency, or the inability to produce sufficient steroids

He was thought to have Addison’s disease, which gave him his famous year round tan

When you don’t make enough steroids, your body makes a ton of ACTH to try and compensate

ACTH can stimulate the melanocytes in your skin leading to tan, due to its similarity to MSH

Hint: POMC, but that’s a story for another time

To treat this, doctors gave him corticosteroid pellets and eventually switched him over oral steroid meds like hydrocortisone and prednisone

This replaced his steroid function but…

Like all meds came with side effects

The president ended up with Cushing syndrome and had what is called “moon face” from the steroids

4 days before his inauguration he said:

“My God, look at that fat face, if I don't lose five pounds this week we might have to call off the Inauguration."

2. Pain injections

This also led to osteoporosis as cortisol is catabolic to the bone

On top of his WW2 injuries, this lead to debilitating back pain that required Dr Travell to give him pain (procaine) injections frequently

August 1961, the records show, Mrs. Kennedy rushed… https://t.co/rHjJ4uX9ettwitter.com/i/web/status/1…

3. Anabolic steroids

Next, JFK was probably the first president on anabolic steroids

During his entire presidency he was either on:

- methyltestosterone
- fluxoymesterone (halotestin)
- aqueous testosterone suspensions

These are all oral 💊 pills

Interesting learning points:

- we don't use oral testosterone anymore as this causes liver damage and prefer injectable or topical formulations

- appears his fertility was not affected by these oral pills as he was able to have his kids just fine

- oral testosterone might… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Testosterone seems to have made his libido WILD (cough cough Marilyn Monroe)

JFK was famous for his affair with Marilyn Monroe

1963 JFK confided to Britain's Prime Minister Macmillan that he got a headache if he went too long without a woman 🤣

Senator George Smathers, once… https://t.co/nVfNCtMMqotwitter.com/i/web/status/1…

4. Amphetamines

Remember Dr Feelgood, the German quack doctor??

This guy would go around and inject famous celebrities with his “vitamin shots” and people would feel amazing

They were really just IV amphetamine injections 😳

Marilyn Monroe, another of his patients, was high as a kite when she sang the famous “Happy Birthday Mr. President” thanks to Dr. Feelgood

JFK was high on amphetamines when he met with USSR premier Krushchev

Apparently he had a very poor performance because of this and it led to Soviet’s building the Berlin Wall 🇩🇪 and putting missiles in Cuba 🇨🇺

These doctors and drugs changed history

This doctor almost led to World War 3 🤯

SIDE NOTE: if you’re a head of state reading this, dont follow a quack doctor. Yes they will prescribe you stimulants and sedatives to make you feel good in the moment but long term it there are consequences

Additional JFK was on… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

His brother, Bobby Kennedy and father of RFK jr was frustrated by the Dr. Feelgood injections and had them tested with the FBI

No one was pleased the president was taking these meds

But JFK said: “I don't care if it's horse piss. It works.”

*cue the conspiracy theories*

JFK’s New York–based orthopedic surgeon, told Kennedy in December 1962: “No president with his finger on the red button has any business taking stuff like that.”

This was the closest we ever came to nuclear war and amphetamines, which cause over confidence were in the President… https://t.co/13EPlrLYRrtwitter.com/i/web/status/1…

5. Opioids

The president was on copious amount of painkillers in part because of his severe pain:

- methadone
- demerol
- codeine

These are also known to lower testosterone and might be why he had to supplement

Additionally JFK took:

6.Thyroid meds for hypothyroidism
7.Librium for anxiety
8.Barbiturates for sleep

A typical day according to his doctor was: ascorbic acid, 500 mg twice daily; hydrocortisone, 10 mg daily; prednisone, 2.5 mg twice daily; methyltestosterone, 10 mg/d;… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

JFK was also in a rigid back brace because of his severe pain

This may have had some unintended consequences….

“Some physicians have argued that the rigid back brace he wore while sitting in the presidential limousine on Nov. 22, 1963, contributed to his death. After the… https://t.co/HGDxsfkRMBtwitter.com/i/web/status/1…

As doctors we have to remember our choices in treatment/prescription can have wild consequences, whether it is the president of the United States or the local homeless man

If you would like to read more see:

.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/00…

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Let me know what you think of the story!

What other medical-historical topics do you want me to cover?

spoiler: WW2 outcome was also influenced by drugs 👀

The combination of opioids, benzos, barbiturates and stimulants is wild I still can’t wrap my head around it

Throw in some testosterone and corticosteroids (can cause mania) and you’ve got quite the cocktail

Perhaps they call cancelled out the side effects of each other? 🤔

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And FYI I’m a big JFK fan

Some of the greatest presidential speeches ever #maninthearena

Some of the greatest decisions (cuban missile crisis)

A great American president

#fightingirish