Elizabeth Warren released a one-page letter from her personal doctor, declaring her in “excellent health,” putting pressure on rival Democratic septuagenarian candidates to follow.
The letter released Friday uses information from Warren’s routine physical on Jan. 14, and said there were “no medical conditions or health problems that would keep her from fulfilling the duties of the president of the United States.” It was signed by Dr. Beverly Woo of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, who has treated Warren for 20 years.
“In summary, Senator Elizabeth Warren is a very healthy 70-year-old woman,” Woo wrote.
According to the letter, Warren is 5-feet, 8-inches tall, and weighs 129 pounds, which put her in the normal range in the body mass index scale. The letter says Warren has never had a problem with alcohol or misused drugs, and that she has never smoked.
“She exercises regularly and follows a healthy diet despite her very busy schedule,” Woo wrote.
[Read more: With a spring in her step, Warren, 70, breezes past scrutiny of her age]
Warren does have hypothyroidism, a condition that affects three million people, and affects metabolism. To treat it, she takes the drug levothyroxine.
The letter states Warren had an annual flu shot in October and a routine mammogram to screen for breast cancer, which came out negative. Warren also disclosed healthy blood results.
Warren is among the top polling candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination, alongside rivals Bernie Sanders, 78, and Joe Biden, 77. Both Sanders and Biden have said they would release their medical records ahead of the Iowa caucuses in February.
The pressure to do so accelerated after Sanders suffered a heart attack in October. Biden, too, has come under scrutiny because he has a lighter campaign schedule than other candidates and has made a string of verbal miscues that President Trump has described as evidence that he is “not playing with a full deck.” This week, Biden lashed out at a voter who questioned his fitness for the presidency.
Trump, 73, has also come under scrutiny for providing few details about his health. Last month he made an unannounced visit to Walter Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, and he released few details from his routine physical earlier this year.
Releasing medical records has been a campaign tradition for several election cycles, but there’s no law mandating that presidential candidates, or even presidents, release their records to the public. Candidates have relied on their personal doctors to provide information about their health rather than face an independent medical panel of the kind provided by hospitals for CEOs and other high-ranking jobs.
For that reason, the letters from doctors and what candidates disclose have varied from person to person.
