text: The campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton released a letter from her doctor about her recent pneumonia diagnosis and other medical history. The Fix’s Aaron Blake explains why. (Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post) 
   
   The campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton released a letter from her doctor about her recent pneumonia diagnosis and other medical history. The Fix’s Aaron Blake explains why. (Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post) 
   
   Hillary Clinton’s campaign released a letter from her doctor Wednesday describing her treatment for “mild” bacterial pneumonia and painting an overall picture of good health in an attempt to put to rest concerns about her medical condition following her illness over the weekend. 
   
   The letter, from Clinton’s doctor, Lisa Bardack, noted that she received a CT scan confirming the pneumonia diagnosis and is now about halfway through a regimen on the antibiotic Levaquin. It came three days after Clinton’s illness caused her to stumble out of a memorial service and forced her off the campaign trail. Clinton’s campaign said the information updates a health history released last year. 
   
   [Hillary Clinton’s new doctor’s letter, annotated] 
   
   The campaign came under fire on Sunday, when Clinton fell ill at a Ground Zero commemoration of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. For 90 minutes after her abrupt departure, when she was seen buckling and stumbling into her van, the campaign offered no information on Clinton’s whereabouts or condition. It was many hours later before aides revealed the pneumonia diagnosis, which had come on Friday. 
   
   “The remainder of her complete physical exam was normal and she is in excellent mental condition,” Bardack wrote in the letter. “She is recovering well with antibiotics and rest. She continues to remain healthy and fit to serve as President of the United States.” 
   
   1 of 57 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail View Photos The Democratic presidential nominee hits the road after her party’s national convention. Caption Hillary Clinton loses to Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. Nov. 9, 2016 Hillary Clinton speaks in New York while her husband, former president Bill Clinton, applauds. Melina Mara/The Washington Post Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. 
   
   Issues surrounding health and transparency have swirled around Clinton and her Republican rival, real estate mogul Donald Trump, in the past several weeks. Clinton, who turns 69 in October, would become the second-oldest president to enter the White House (after Ronald Reagan, who also was 69), while Trump, who turned 70 in June, would be the oldest. Neither has any known major medical problems. 
   
   Clinton had previously released more extensive health information than Trump. She has also been the subject of persistent rumors and conspiracy-minded claims about her health. Although her campaign has dismissed such theories as bunk and even sexist, Clinton fed into them by ditching her press corps Sunday and not releasing timely information on her health or whereabouts. 
   
   Trump discussed his own health during a taping of “The Dr. Oz Show” on Wednesday morning. He shared some of the results of his most recent physical examination, according to the show, even though earlier top campaign aides told reporters that he would not release any records on set and planned to talk about general wellness, not his personal health history. 
   
   At one point during the show, which is scheduled to air Thursday, host Mehmet Oz asked Trump why he has not yet released his medical records, given that his health seems so strong. 
   
   “Well, I really have no problem in doing it,” Trump said, according to a brief clip released by the show on Wednesday afternoon. “I have it right here. Should I do it? I don’t care. Should I do it?” 
   
   Trump then pulled two pieces of paper out of his suit pocket that he said contained test results from his latest physical examination and a letter from Lenox Hill Hospital in New York. In the video clip, Oz is shown studying the two pieces of paper. Reporters were not allowed to attend the taping, and the campaign has not released the documents. The campaign also would not say what sort of medical records Trump plans to release or how many years they cover. 
   
   Bardack is the chair of internal medicine at CareMount Medical in Mount Kisco, N.Y., and has served as Clinton’s personal physician since 2001. Her letter also described various medications that Clinton is taking, including Coumadin, a blood thinner. And it describes Clinton’s normal-ranging vital statistics: blood pressure of 100/70; a pulse of 70; and a total cholesterol level of 189. 
   
   Video of Hillary Clinton’s departure seemed to show her buckling and stumbling as she got into her van. (Thomas Johnson/The Washington Post) 
   
   Bardack examined Clinton as recently as Wednesday and has done so several other times since she was diagnosed with pneumonia Friday, according to a campaign aide. 
   
   The letter shows that Clinton has normal-ranging vital statistics, according to several doctors who reviewed the information but have never treated her. Her blood pressure and cholesterol levels are “good” or “excellent” and place her at low risk for illness for a woman her age, the doctors said. 
   
   Clinton has received two vaccinations against pneumonia — Prevnar and Pneumovax — according to the letter. The new information also reveals more about Clinton’s pneumonia diagnosis. She was tested with a non-contrast chest CT scan, which discovered a small right middle-lobe pneumonia. 
   
   David Scheiner, who was Barack Obama’s physician for more than two decades until his election in 2008, praised Clinton’s doctor for conducting a chest CT scan, which typically would not be done to diagnose pneumonia. 
   
   “I have to give the doctor credit for that one,” Scheiner said. “Because she has had blood clots, I think in the back of the doctor’s mind was, could she possibly have pulmonary embolism? That was a very smart move on the doctor’s part.” 
   
   But Scheiner said he was perplexed by some of the medications that Clinton takes. He said the blood thinner Coumadin can be hard to regulate and that better alternatives exist. In addition, the Armour Thyroid tablets she takes for hypothyroidism are used on only a small percentage of patients. 
   
   “That’s a bit unusual,” he said, noting that doctors rarely prescribe it. 
   
   Other doctors noted that while Levaquin is an appropriate treatment for her pneumonia, one of its side effects is dizziness and lightheadedness. That could have been a contributing factor to her fainting on Sunday, said Greg Rosencrance, an internist at the Cleveland Clinic. 
   
   Overall, Scheiner said the disclosures by Clinton’s campaign on Wednesday were “in the right vein.” But he argued that the current patchwork system that relies on campaigns to decide how much medical information to disclose, and often by a candidate’s personal physician, too often leaves Americans in the dark. 
   
   “The question is how much info is enough? . . . I think we need to know everything about the candidates, and not just because these are two old geezers,” said Scheiner, who has advocated for complete, objective health reports from any candidate who wants to serve as commander in chief and lead the world’s largest economy. 
   
   [It pays to read the warnings when you open up a prescription] 
   
   Clinton had previously released a letter from Bardack containing information about her health, medications and past health conditions, including a history of hypothyroidism and deep-vein thrombosis. 
   
   After Clinton’s pneumonia diagnosis, she kept the information secret and ignored her doctor’s advice to rest and modify her schedule. Instead, Clinton continued with a full day of campaign events, choosing to “power through” despite her illness. 
   
   But by Sunday morning, Clinton became severely dehydrated during the outdoor memorial at Ground Zero, according to the campaign. She left the event early and was seen in video footage buckling as she was helped into her van by her aides and security detail. 
   
   The campaign’s long delay in providing information to the media and the public prompted criticism from Democrats and Republicans alike. 
   
   Clinton canceled three days of scheduled campaign events and has been resting at home in Chappaqua, N.Y. She is expected to return to the campaign trail with an event in Greensboro, N.C., on Thursday. 
   
   “Obviously I should have gotten some rest sooner,” Clinton said on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360” on Monday. “I just didn’t think it was going to be that big a deal.” 
   
   Clinton previously suffered from severe dehydration in 2012, fainted and suffered a concussion. She was later diagnosed with a blood clot in her skull, discovered during routine testing while recovering. 
   
   At the same time, Clinton has criticized Trump for releasing a letter from his physician earlier last year that contained virtually no objective health information. Trump has since said that he would release more medical information from a physical he received last week. 
   
   Edward Geltman, a cardiologist at the medical school at Washington University in St. Louis, said the information released shows Clinton to be healthy, with normal range for vitals. Her blood pressure is on the “low side of normal,” he said, so she would be prone to fainting and sensitive to dehydration. 
   
   Geltman observed that the letter contained no information about the health of Clinton’s heart, such as an electrocardiogram. Those are fairly standard tests, and as people age, it is important to establish a baseline, he said. Heart disease is the number one killer in the United States. But because she does not smoke, does not appear to be particularly overweight and has good cholesterol levels, Clinton does not appear to be at risk for a heart attack, he said. 
   
   Doctors also noted that Clinton is on minimal medications and has had appropriate breast cancer screening — but there is no mention of colon cancer screening. 
   
   According to the letter, Clinton was diagnosed with a sinus infection and subsequently an ear infection in January, in the lead-up to the critically important Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary. 
   
   She was treated with antibiotics and steroids. Later, a tube was placed in her left ear as part of the treatment. 
   
   Bardack wrote that the symptoms improved, and a follow-up CT scan showed mild, chronic sinus infections but no abnormalities of the brain related to those illnesses. 
   
   The campaign also released a comparable letter about Clinton’s running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, who was said to be in “overall excellent health,” according to a letter released from the attending physician for Congress, Brian P. Monahan, who recommended only that Kaine, 58, add a daily vitamin D supplement to his diet. Monahan has been Kaine’s physician for three years. 
   
   In his letter, Monahan noted that Kaine’s past surgical history is limited to tooth extractions. Kaine’s most recent electrocardiogram showed his heart appeared normal with the exception of a “mild left atrial enlargement.” No other problem areas were identified. 
   
   Brady Dennis, Jenna Johnson and Lena H. Sun in Washington and John Wagner in Las Vegas contributed to this report. ||||| Hillary Clinton’s doctor said in a letter released Wednesday that the Democratic nominee is “healthy and fit to serve as President of the United States,” characterizing her pneumonia diagnosis as “mild” and “non-contagious.” 
   
   The new information on Clinton came from her physician, Dr. Lisa Bardack, who both wrote the letter about her health last year and was the doctor who diagnosed Clinton with pneumonia on Friday. The release also included a one-page letter pronouncing vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine “in overall excellent health” from Dr. Brian P. Monahan, the attending physician in Congress. 
   
   The new information from Bardack, Clinton’s doctor, further addressed her pneumonia diagnosis from last week. Bardack said in the letter that she’s examined Clinton multiple times since then, as recently as Wednesday. 
   
   Clinton’s health has been front and center since Sunday, when she abruptly left a 9/11 memorial ceremony in New York after feeling “overheated” and “dizzy.” Clinton went to her daughter’s apartment in Manhattan to recover before returning home to Chappaqua, N.Y.; later that evening, her campaign revealed that she had been diagnosed with pneumonia the preceding Friday. 
   
   “I’m reassured by this—boy, it’s nice to have information isn’t it?” CBS News’ Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook told CBSN Wednesday evening. “A bunch of the questions that I had had were, for example, how do we know she had pneumonia? Well now we know, she had a CAT scan. What was the size of the pneumonia? It was felt to be a small, right middle-lobe pneumonia, so that’s much better than if a lot of the lung was involved.” 
   
   According to Bardack’s letter, she saw Clinton on Sept. 2 for a low-grade fever, congestion and fatigue. Bardack advised rest; Clinton continued her campaign trail travel, and a week later—last Friday—she saw Bardack again when her symptoms had worsened. 
   
   On Friday, Clinton underwent a non-contrast chest CT scan, which showed a “a small right middlelobe pneumonia,” according to Bardack, which she characterized as a “mild, non-contagious bacterial pneumonia. Clinton was treated with Levaquin, which she was advised to take for 10 days. 
   
   In addition to her pneumonia diagnosis, Clinton has been treated this year for a sinus and ear infection she developed in January. In order to drain fluid from her left ear and relieve her symptoms, Clinton had a myringotomy tube placed in her ear in January by an ear, nose and throat (ENT) doctor; her symptoms have since abated, according to Bardack. 
   
   “Further follow-up evaluation with a CT scan of her brain and sinuses was done in March of 2016,” Bardack wrote. “This scan showed no abnormalities of the brain and mild chronic sinusitis. Her symptoms resolved and she continued symptom-free for the next six months.” 
   
   Bardack’s letter included an updated list of Clinton’s medications, which include Levaquin, Armor Thyroid, Coumadin, Clarinex and B-12 as needed. Her vaccinations are up to date, and she has had a normal mammogram and breast ultrasound. Clinton’s blood pressure at her last examination was 100/70 and her temperature was 97.8 degrees. 
   
   “My overall impression is that Mrs. Clinton has remained healthy and has not developed new medical conditions this year other than a sinus and ear infection and her recently diagnosed pneumonia,” Bardack wrote. “She is recovering well with antibiotics and rest. She continues to remain healthy and fit to serve as President of the United States.” 
   
   As for Kaine, Dr. Monahan pronounced him in “overall excellent health”—his only recommendation was that the vice-presidential candidate add a daily vitamin D supplement to his diet. 
   
   According to Monahan, who last examined Kaine for a full physical in February, the candidate’s lab and blood work all came back normal; he had an echocardiogram done in March to check a “left atrial enlargement” in his heart, but the results indicated “structurally normal heart valves without evidence of valve malfunction.” Kaine takes no medications and has no drug allergies; he has no history of tobacco use and his use of alcohol is “modest.” 
   
   Here’s the full text of the letter from Bardack: 
   
   HRC Physician Letter by News Team on Scribd ||||| Play Facebook 
   
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   Hillary Clinton released medical records on Wednesday providing new details about both her pneumonia diagnosis and general health — just hours after Donald Trump offered some new information about his own well being in a taped appearance on the "Dr. Oz Show." 
   
   The dueling releases shed some new light on Clinton's condition and added little to an already-thin amount of known details about Trump's health. 
   
   A letter from Clinton's doctor states that the Democratic presidential nominee last Friday was diagnosed with mild, non-contagious bacterial pneumonia. "She is recovering well with antibiotics and rest. She continues to remain healthy and fit to serve as president of the United States," said Dr. Lisa Bardack, Clinton's doctor. 
   
   Dr. Bardack also revealed she evaluated Clinton a week earlier, on Sept. 2 for a fever, congestion and fatigue. 
   
   "Over the next several days as she traveled, her congestion worsened and she developed a cough. She was advised to see me when she returned from her travels for further testing," Dr. Bardack wrote. During the follow-up, a non-contrast chest CT scan revealed the pneumonia. 
   
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   The release of Clinton's records came just hours after Trump provided some new medical information of his own in a taped appearance of "The Dr. Oz Show," which is scheduled to air Thursday. Trump handed the show's host a letter containing new details from a recent examination Dr. Harold Bornstein — the same physician that vouched for Trump's health in a brief letter he wrote in just five minutes earlier this year. That information has not been provided to reporters by the campaign. 
   
   Dr. Mehmet Oz told NBC News after the taping he was "surprised" Trump provided him with the information. 
   
   "I looked at them and tried to process it pretty quickly and I got to say as a doctor, if he was my patient, they are good for a man of his age," Dr. Oz said. 
   
   Those in the audience told NBC News after the interview that Dr. Oz gave Trump a clean bill of health. "Even Dr. Oz said that, you know, if it was his patient he would be extremely happy and just, kind of, send him on his way," audience member Bryan Manzali told NBC News following the taping in New York City. 
   
   "Other than apparently his body mass index being a little high, the man is in incredibly good shape. Dr. Oz was very, very impressed," said Matthew Stevens, who also was in the audience. 
   
   Related: Trump Shares Results Of Medical Exam During Dr. Oz Taping 
   
   Clinton's campaign released a far more detailed look at her health and some of the highlights include: 
   
   Clinton is currently taking Armor Thyroid, Coumadin, Levaquin (temporarily), Clarinex and B-12 as needed. Her blood pressure is 100/70; heart rate of 70; respiratory rate of 18; temperature of 97.8 and pulse-oximetry of 99 percent. 
   
   Clinton's vaccinations are "up to date" and include Prevnar and Pneumovax. 
   
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   She has had a normal mammogram and breast ultrasound. Lab testing (vitamin D, CBC, fasting blood glucose, comprehensive metabolic panel, hemoglobin A1-C, vitamin B-12) is "normal," including cholesterol of 189, LDL of 103, HDL of 56 and triglycerides of 159. 
   
   Dr. Bardack said, "the remainder of her complete physical exam was normal and she is in excellent mental condition." 
   
   The Clinton campaign on Wednesday also released a letter from vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine's doctor, who declared him to be in "excellent health" and recommended that he add a daily vitamin D supplement.
target: – While Donald Trump did his Dr. Oz thing, Hillary Clinton's doctor released a letter hoping to clear up this whole pneumonia brouhaha. CBS News reports Dr. Lisa Bardack diagnosed Clinton with pneumonia last Friday. Two days later, Clinton was seen stumbling while leaving a Sept. 11 memorial, kicking off speculation about her health and leading her campaign to make the pneumonia diagnosis public. In her letter released Wednesday, Bardack says a CT scan showed Clinton had "mild, non-contagious bacterial pneumonia" for which she is taking antibiotics, according to the Washington Post. CBS' chief medical correspondent says he's "reassured" by the letter, which answered "a bunch of the questions that I had." The letter also includes a whole host of health information on Clinton, including her blood pressure of 100/70, heart rate of 70, and temperature of 97.8, NBC News reports. Experts reviewing the letter for the Post say it shows normal vitals, including cholesterol and that Clinton appears to be "at low risk for illness for a woman her age." In the letter, Bardack writes she is happy with Clinton's recovery and that Clinton continues to be "healthy and fit to serve as president."