That's a mental ilness?
Guess I was slow to post! My question, too.
That's a mental ilness?
Aren't these the same people who think *homophobia* is a mental disorder? That should about settle the question.
Taft could eat, and when he was stressed, he ate more and excercised less. Therefore, during his rather busy and stressful presidency, during which the Republican party near broke in two, his weight swelled (and also during some tight periods while he was Sec War -- and a damned good one at that). Gluttony, whatever. Mental illness, absolutely not.
Sleep apnea causes daytime tiredness. Due to constant nightime cut-off of the air supply caused, generally but not always, by obesity, the brain awakens just enough to adjust the air passage but not enough to awaken to total consciousness. So the sufferer spends the night sleeping and waking up without knowing it, and without solid REM sleep. Recently, a physician / amateur historian diagnosed Taft with sleep apnea. He probably had it. The WashPost (article here; registration required) and other journals ran articles on the "discovery." I have no problem with the diagnosis, but I have a huge problem with suggestions of its impact upon the Taft presidency. The Post ran my rebuttal in its article. For a more extensive discussion, see (my) Taft and Sleep Apnea.
As x wrote in post no. 28, "those who write such long-distance analyses are usually influenced more by their own prejudices than by actual objective data." Indeed, this kind of history is dangerous. The very worst biography of Taft was a 1970s-drenched "pycho-biography" of the impact of his obesity, the loss of his mother, and how he spent his presidency depressed. Supposedly things happened the way they did because of it all. Dumb book and it is ignored by serious historians. Despite that, the History Channel picked up on it for its "American Presidents" series. (More on this at my website.) So the myths of that book have been passed along further into popular history. And this of the father of the modern Republican Party.
The guy who diagnosed Taft's sleep apnea keeps a rather excellent website of the medical history of presidents.