re: Who were the most physically fit presidents?

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JFK looked fit

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JFK looked fit

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Bad back

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And addicted

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Dr. Max Jacobson (3 July 1900 – 1 December 1979) was a German physician and medical researcher who treated numerous high-profile clients in America, including President John F. Kennedy. Jacobson came to be known as "Miracle Max" and "Dr. Feelgood," because he administered highly addictive "vitamin shots" laced with various substances that included amphetamine and methamphetamine.

Largely unknown to the public until his methods were exposed by The New York Times in 1972, Jacobson was charged with unprofessional conduct and fraud in 1973. He eventually lost his medical license in 1975. Jacobson died in December 1979, having never regained his medical license.

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In September 1960, then-Senator John F. Kennedy first visited Jacobson shortly before the 1960 presidential election debates. Jacobson was part of the presidential entourage at the Vienna summit in 1961, where he administered injections to combat severe back pain. Some of the potential side effects included hyperactivity, impaired judgment, nervousness, and wild mood swings. Kennedy, however, was untroubled by Food and Drug Administration reports on the contents of Jacobson’s injections, and proclaimed: “I don’t care if it’s horse piss. It works.” Jacobson was used for the most severe bouts of back pain. By May 1962, Jacobson had visited the White House to treat the president thirty-four times, although such treatments were stopped by President Kennedy's White House physicians, who realized the inappropriate use of steroids and amphetamines administered by Jacobson. It was later observed that President Kennedy's leadership, specifically during the Cuban Missile Crisis and other events during 1963, improved greatly once Jacobson's treatments were discontinued and replaced by a medically appropriate regimen. Dr. Ghaemi, who studied Kennedy's medical records, concluded there was a “correlation; it is not causation; but it may not be coincidence either.”

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Tall and very slender and still carrying a bullet from a duel years earlier, Jackson was not to be trifled with.

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