Healthiest and Unhealthiest Presidents

Langston Jones: Kid Historian
3 min readSep 16, 2020

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Remember those presidential health cards I was talking about on my most recent blog post? Now that I’ve finished making them, I’ve ranked the healthiest and least healthiest presidents, in my opinion. Check them out!

TOP 10 HEALTHIEST PRESIDENTS 1. Barack Obama

Though he used to smoke, he quit doing it. He’s pretty active, and he eats nothing with sugar in it! He’s a pretty healthy president. If I were giving him a grade for his health, I’d give him an A.

2. Millard Fillmore

He only had two ailments, but they were pretty bad: stroke and paralysis. Now onto the stuff that helped him rank in the top 10 healthiest. He did not drink or smoke. He ate good meals. And a fun fact is he was the first president to be known as a “health nut.”

3. Jimmy Carter

He would have probably ranked #2 or #1 if not for skin cancer — though he recovered. He runs a lot and is currently 95 years old, older than any other president. He’s almost 96!

4. Thomas Jefferson

He was a super healthy eater. He ate vegetables and seafood, as I mentioned in my octogenarian blog post. Jefferson was a pretty fit president and exercised at least two hours a day.

5. John Quincy Adams

He only had two problems: a stroke and a cerebral hemorrhage. He ran and swam every day, and also had the 11th longest life of any president: 80 years.

6. Rutherford B. Hayes

He makes this list because of how few known ailments he had during his life — the same number as Fillmore. One of them I wouldn’t call a big ailment, but it would be very frustrating. I’m talking about poison ivy. His other ailment was a pretty big one, that he died of: a heart attack.

7. James Garfield

He may have lived into his 80s if he hadn’t been assassinated. He was pretty healthy. His doctor’s report was B.

8. Andrew Johnson

He rarely drank and had only three ailments: typhoid fever, kidney stones, and stroke.

9. Richard Nixon

Nixon had four ailments and he was extremely fit. He had a bowling alley put in the White House.

10. Bill Clinton

He has more ailments than most presidents on this list, and during his presidency he was not really healthy. But near the end of it and after it, he became really healthy. He runs a lot.

FIVE LEAST HEALTHY PRESIDENTS 1. William Howard Taft

He had 31 ailments! A few of the worst were severe obesity, food poisoning, heartburn, eye injury, pinkeye, inflammation of the heart, a heart attack that killed him, and heart failure. His doctor report is F. Though after he left office he lost 80 pounds…

2. Grover Cleveland

He had so many ailments and bad habits. A few of the worst were obesity, heavy drinking, jaw cancer, smoking, a stroke, a heart attack, and detesting exercise.

3. Donald Trump

Though he’s only had a few ailments, they helped him rank low on my list. He drinks up to 12 Diet Cokes a day!

4. Andrew Jackson

He drank heavily and chewed tobacco. This probably won’t surprise you, but he had a gunshot wound. He died of heart failure. Surprisingly, after all those ailments and more, he lived the 14th longest of any president.

5. Ronald Reagan

He had so many ailments, one of the most of any president. A few of the worst were pneumonia, skin cancer, colon cancer, stomach flu, gunshot wound, bleeding of the brain, and Alzheimer’s.

Originally published at https://langstonjones.wixsite.com on September 16, 2020.

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Langston Jones: Kid Historian

I am an eight year old who’s interested in presidents and history. I’m posting some of my favorite lists for you!