Clinton and Trump give more details on their health

NEW YORK – With pressure mounting for the presidential candidates to give details about their health and medical histories, Donald Trump acknowledged on Wednesday that he was overweight and taking a cholesterol-fighting drug, and Hillary Clinton elaborated on the circumstances that led to her contracting pneumonia and the medicine she was taking to recover.

Clinton’s doctor said she “continues to improve” after contracting a “mild, non-contagious” form of pneumonia diagnosed last Friday, two days before she grew dizzy and was seen losing her footing while leaving a ceremony in New York for the 15th anniversary of the Sept 11 terrorist attacks.

In a letter released by the Clinton campaign, the physician, Dr Lisa Bardack, said she had evaluated Clinton several times since Sunday, including Wednesday.

“She is recovering well with antibiotics and rest,” Bardack said. “She continues to remain healthy and fit to serve as president of the United States.”

After Clinton left Sunday’s Sept 11 ceremony early, a spokesman initially said only that she had felt overheated. But after video shot by an onlooker showed Secret Service agents helping a wobbly Clinton into a van, her campaign released a statement from Bardack saying that Clinton had pneumonia.

Since then, Trump’s campaign has urged supporters to refrain from talking about Clinton’s health, a frequent topic of speculation among some Republicans before her pneumonia diagnosis. But at a rally in Ohio on Wednesday night, Trump said he hoped Clinton was improving but added that she was “lying in bed”.

He also noted his ability to keep standing in an overheated room. “I don’t know, folks,” he said. “Do you think Hillary would be able to stand up here for an hour?”

Despite fanning conspiracy theories about Clinton’s health, Trump provided scant information about his own. On Wednesday, he taped an appearance on Dr Mehmet Oz’s daytime television show in which he discussed his health to some degree, including the results of a physical last week, according to people present for the taping and a clip released by the show’s publicists.

But little information was available about what was said on the show, which will be broadcast Thursday, other than that Trump, 70, said he was taking regular doses of a statin, a drug that lowers cholesterol, and gave his weight as 236 pounds (107kg). NEW YORK TIMES