Doctor says Trump would be 'healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency'

Nicole Gaudiano | USA TODAY

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Donald Trump’s longtime physician, like the candidate, apparently has a flair for the grandiose statement.

Harold Bornstein, in a Dec. 4 letter Trump released Monday, wrote that he could state “unequivocally,” that Trump, if elected, “will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.”

Trump released the report from Bornstein, a New York gastroenterologist, to bolster his claim of being “blessed with great genes” and excellent health.

“People have been impressed by my stamina, but to me it has been easy because I am truly doing something that I love,” Trump wrote in a statement accompanying the report.

Trump has lost 15 pounds over the past year, according to Bornstein, who became Trump’s personal physician in 1980. Trump’s previous physician was Bornstein’s father, Jacob Bornstein.

Over the past 39 years, Trump has had “no significant health problems,” and his blood pressure (110/65) and laboratory results were “astonishingly excellent,” Bornstein wrote.

Bornstein revealed that Trump takes 81 mg of aspirin daily and a low dose of a statin, a cholesterol lowering drug. He has a “very low” prostate-specific antigen test score and an “excellent” cardiovascular status, has suffered no form of cancer, and has never had orthopedic surgery, he wrote.

His only surgery: an appendectomy at age 10. He has no history of using alcohol or tobacco products.

“His physical strength and stamina are extraordinary,” Bornstein wrote.

In his statement, Trump mistakenly attributed the report to the "highly respected Dr. Jacob Bornstein of Lenox Hill Hospital." The New York Times published an obituary for the elder Bornstein in 2010, according to Legacy.com.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest declined to compare Trump’s health to President Obama’s, and said he “would not question the medical credentials" of Trump’s doctor. But Earnest expressed skepticism that the doctor researched the medical history of all 43 men who have been president.

Trump announced earlier this month that his doctor would release his medical records, tweeting that it would "show perfection." The Dec. 3 tweet came hours after Politico published a report noting that he has declined so far to release his records, despite once saying that all presidential candidates should do so.

Presidential candidates’ health is always important, but “Trump’s age, diet and self-professed lack of workout regimen makes the issue more pressing in his case,” Politico reported.

Contributing: Gregory Korte, USA TODAY