ABSTRACT
While jogging at Camp David on May 4, 1991, the President of the United States, George Bush, suddenly developed shortness of breath and felt his heart racing madly out of control. His physicians were summoned and, fearing the worst, they rushed the almost 67 year old president to Bethesda Naval Hospital. To everyone's relief, an over-active thyroid gland, not heart-trouble, was found to be the cause. The official diagnosis was hyperthyroidism , Graves' disease, eponymous of Dr. Robert Graves who, in his 1835 Clinical Lectures described the classic picture of the condition: rapid heart rate with an irregular beat, fatigue, appetite disturbances, intolerance to heat, insomnia, agitation, apprehensiveness, and a tremor often severe enough to interfere with writing. Abnormally prominent or bulging eyes is one of its occasional, baffling, complications. Before there were drugs to control this condition, surgery was the only recourse. But it was always a tricky business. Removing too much thyroid gland led to hypothyroidism-a lethargic, zombie-like state where all body activities slow down-and a life-long dependence on thyroid suppliments. Removing too little did nothing to help the patient. Fortunately for President Bush and
countless other victims of super-active, run-away thyroid glands, surgery became less of an imperative with the discovery of drugs that could counteract such conditions.
