to test the water in the White House, the Naval Observatory, Kennebunkport, and Camp
David, since it is well established that Basedow's disease is emotionally triggered. An
emotional upheaval, psychic shock, or other mental trauma stimulates the master
endocrine gland of the body, the pituitary gland, into an overproduction of its hormone,
which in turn provokes an overactivity of the thyroid, speeding up overall metabolism
and further exacerbating the nervous and emotional crisis. This pattern of overstimulation
of the mind, the pituitary, the thyroid, the mind, and so forth becomes a vicious, self-
feeding cycle, which can be life threatening if it is not effectively treated.
According to this Baltimore expert, the fact that Bush has experienced a pattern of atrial
fibrillation is cause for concern not so much because of what it portends for Bush's heart,
but rather because it shows that Bush's case of Basedow's disease is already well
advanced, with a significant excess of thyroid hormone. The overproduction of thyroid
hormone can theoretically be brought under control through the administration of
radioactive iodine, but this does not mean that the disease itself is easy to treat or to bring
under control with any finality. Precisely because Basedow's disease is emotionally
triggered, a sudden increase in emotional stress can result in a renewal of erratic
behavior.
The good news, in the view of this expert, is that patients suffering from Basedow's
disease do not have to be placed into a mental institution. Their symptoms can be
managed, although they will continue to have their ups and downs. But such management
requires a stress-free environment. The implications for Bush's further tenure in the
White House are obvious enough: the Federal Aeronautics Administration will not grant
a pilot's license of any kind to a person who has been diagnosed with Basedow's disease.
The Baltimore specialist also pointed out that although samples of Bush's blood, taken by
his White House doctors and frozen over a period of months and years, might be tested
for thyroid hormone in order to answer the all-important question of when Bush's case of
Basedow's disease actually began, these findings might be fragmentary because of the
significant day-to-day variations in the level of thyroid hormone. If a sample had been
taken after Bush heard the news that Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz had declined to
accept Bush's threatening letter handed to him by Secretary of State Baker, Bush's level
of thyroid hormone that day might have been high enough to warrant immediate
hospitalization.
In the opinion of this expert, these points all represent standard, well-known medical
doctrine which is not subject to any controversy among physicians and specialists. Bush's
White House medical team must therefore be keenly aware of all of them.
According to a California professor of radiology, hyperthyroidism is traditionally
associated with patients who are irritable, restless, overactive, and emotionally labile.
They often lack the ability to concentrate, and have symptoms of anxiety. They also
exhibit impulsive behavior. In addition, there are outright psychiatric disorders which are
associated with hyperthyroidism. This professor pointed to Bush's decision to initiate
hostilities against Iraq, in which he rejected the advice of eight out of nine secretaries of