JFK's pills cocktail to keep pain at bay

Biographers have known for some time that John F Kennedy was a sick man throughout his short-lived presidency, suffering from chronic back pain and a life-threatening kidney ailment called Addison's disease.

Now, newly released medical records show the extraordinary regimen of pills and injections that kept him going – a regimen that included painkillers, hormones and anti-anxiety drugs, stimulants and sleeping pills.

According to the records, shown to the Kennedy biographer Robert Dallek and discussed in the December issue of The Atlantic Monthly magazine, JFK suffered from colitis, urinary tract infections, severe digestive cramps, anxiety and a proclivity for infections. It was not unusual for him to receive as many as eight consecutive injections before news conferences and high-profile events.

"The most remarkable thing was the extent to which Kennedy was in pain every day of his presidency," said Jeffrey Kelman, one of three doctors on a special committee entrusted with the former president's medical records.