Eleanor Concepcion Mariano

“ We do recommend, as we said, good diet and exercise, but we're also going to go after the LDL, the LDL being the poor cholesterol, and we're going to drive that down with diet, exercise and the medication. ”

“ The cholesterol and LDL values, again, we noted are elevated over last year's results and we recommended in addition to diet and exercise, we have started the President on medications to lower his cholesterol.
The President's chronic allergies were also evaluated today and, as you know, he has been receiving allergy shots every seven to 10 days since he's been coming to the White House. His allergist has recommended obtaining repeat skin testing in the future if he should discontinue those allergy shots. ”

“ Today's exam took about three hours to complete. The highlights of those findings are being released to you now on paper, and we'll make those available back at the White House, as well. Admiral Connie Mariano, the President's personal physician, will go over the key features of today's visit. The President is very appreciative for the work she and her team have done at the White House, a grueling schedule that the President put them through, and they've always been there to take care of him through good times and bad. ”

“ Q Is there anything other than a superficial basal cell -- could it be something different than that? DR. CORBETT: Oh, it could be a little benign, inflammatory lesion or something. But the only way you know for sure is to biopsy these spots, and that's the reason you take tissue for biopsy. Q Have you been with the President in the past year? DR. CORBETT: Yes. Q So this was the first time it was discovered -- DR. CORBETT: That's correct. He's had sun-damaged spots before, but this is the first time he's had a little spot that's been suspicious, actually, for a skin cancer. ”

“ It just grows very slowly, locally. Q Dr. Mariano, could you describe the President's -- (inaudible) -- any overall recommendations given to him as he was leaving? DR. MARIANO: Well, you know, the President, he wants to always study for his exams, and passed them with flying colors. I think today he's been undergoing a lot of busy activity and travel, so he was I don't think in the top shape he wanted to be in. But medically, as a physician, he passed -- he had a fairly normal exam, except for the things we noted, such as the skin lesion and the elevated cholesterol. ”

“ And the nice way to remember that is the HDL is high density lipoprotein and you want to get that as high as you can. And the way to bring up that HDL is pick your parents well, because genes are very effective for that. ”

“ He has certainly expressed a strong interest to getting back out on the road and resuming his jogging plans. And there are really no limitations that he faces. He's been very active, working out regularly in the White House gym, but around the demands of his road schedule and that sort of thing. Q I want to ask a question about the cholesterol because the ratio of 5.1, what is exactly -- what does that mean? And the other item, you said that LDL is elevated from 134 to 177. I understand that, because that's the dangerous cholesterol. ”

“ But in the studying of his LDL, which was 134 on our last evaluation, today it was 177. As Dr. Mariano mentioned, that's the unhealthy cholesterol occurring on a patient that's very active and following a diet. It was time to initiate drug therapy. So we'll have him on one of the HMG -- inhibitors. We'll start a normal dose regiment, and we will do follow-up laboratory tests on him in approximately one month. Q (Inaudible.) DR. MARIANO: September 25, 1999. This is the 2000 exam and the departure exam. ”