00:00The White House addressed questions about U.S. President Donald Trump's health today.
00:04Recent images of a bruised hand and swollen-looking legs have prompted questions about his health.
00:11The CBC's Katie Nicholson joins me live from Washington.
00:14So, Katie, what did the White House say?
00:16Yeah, there had been a lot of speculation, particularly the other day a camera zoomed in on the President's hand
00:21and it looked like there was a fair amount of concealer over it.
00:23So, essentially, what we were told today is that there was, the President had noticed some swelling in his legs
00:29and he had gotten sort of a complete physical from the White House position.
00:35And he does have a clean bill of health, sort of cardiac-wise,
00:41but they did diagnose him with a condition, chronic venous insufficiency,
00:45which is a common condition in older people.
00:48Here is Press Secretary Caroline Levitt.
00:52In keeping with routine medical care and out of an abundance of caution,
00:56this concern was thoroughly evaluated by the White House Medical Unit.
01:01The President underwent a comprehensive examination, including diagnostic vascular studies.
01:08Bilateral lower extremity venous Doppler ultrasounds were performed
01:13and revealed chronic venous insufficiency, a benign and common condition,
01:19particularly in individuals over the age of 70.
01:22So, Andrew, chronic venous insufficiency, essentially, as we age,
01:28it is that our circulatory system often has to work a little bit harder against gravity.
01:34It's not uncommon in elderly people, the President is 79 after all,
01:38to have pooling of some fluids around your ankles with this condition.
01:42So, that was that part of it.
01:44As for the sort of the patch on the back of his hand,
01:47that was explained as being soft tissue irritation.
01:51It's a side effect of the aspirin regime that the President is on,
01:56sort of a one-a-day aspirin, which is part of the cardiac regime.
01:59She went on to say that there was no sign of heart failure or renal failure,
02:04and there will be a follow-up memorandum from the White House position on this.
02:08So, just an update on his health, as this was, you know,
02:13something that can often become a distraction, right,
02:15when people are seeing world leaders presenting with some sort of symptoms,
02:20something that the White House clearly wanted to get ahead of today.
02:23Katie, thank you.
02:24The CBC's Katie Nicholson in Washington.
02:29The CBC's Katie Nicholson in Washington.
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