Bernie Sanders: Medical Odds and Ends

Gout - Medical

Senator Sanders has gout [§1.15a]. Undisclosed are its duration, frequency, severity, and treatment.

Gout is a painful, episodic disorder that responds to chronic medication, acute medication, and diet. Sanders is not taking a daily gout medication [§1.20]. Whether this is advisable or not depends on the [undisclosed] frequency of his gout attacks. His medical disclosures do not mention dietary restrictions. CHECK WEB FOR "GOUT AND SANDERS."

Gout is more than a pain syndrome -- it a metabolic disease that affects multiple organs and metabolic processes. For example, gout can damage the kidneys, and is METABOLIC SYNDROME. 1

Gout - Psychological

In medical circles it has long been felt that gout patients have a distinctive personality that is grumpy, self-involved, and short on humor. (See: Cheney, Dick.) This is not supported by an abundance of real science -- studies of the "gout personality" are few, older, and weak.

Interestingly, however, one such study found that two-thirds of its male gout subjects were "philobats" 2. This disagreeable-sounding psychoanalytic term from the 1950s refers to a personality type that "enjoys being on his own, away from all support and relying on his own resources, proving his independence by the precariousness of the situation to which he is attracted" 3.

Comment: Remarkably, this seems to well describe Senator Sanders' political style, starting with his basic party affiliation — "I-Vt." — that proclaims and proves his independence. Furthermore, his "being on his own" seems to extend beyond mere labels. He has been in the Senate since 2007, but afer all that time has only one senatorial endorsement for president -- from his state's other senator 4. On the Senate floor: "Other senators hobnobbed. Sanders kept to himself, accepting a primary-day handshake or a pat on the back from a few colleagues but conversing with no one" 4. If indeed some elements of Senator Sanders' personality do derive from gout, how interesting it is that a slew of uric acid molecules could help steer the future of the United States! 5

• Why was the beta blocker stopped?
• Why is he not on a stronger dual anti-platelet regimen?
• Why is there no mention of a cardiac rehabilitation program?

Trauma - Head Laceration

Sen. Sanders required seven stitches at a walk-in clinic after cutting his forehead on the edge of a glass shower door on the morning of March 15, 2019. He did not fall. 6