President John Q. Adams : Health & Medical History

Health and Medical History of President John Q. Adams President #6 Lived: 1767-1848 Served: 1825-1829 Timeline from 1776: ← 2013 "Where could death have found him but at the post of duty?" 1a Maladies: inbred · baldness · snored · stroke · stroke · · Odds & Ends · · Resources
UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Maladies and Conditions

inbred	He was the product of a consanguineous union. His father, President John Adams, was the third cousin of his mother, Abigail 4a.
baldness	Chrome-dome baldness ran in the family, including Adams MIM 109200. This can be a sign of carrying a variant of the polyscystic ovary gene 2. Dr. Zebra has not seen evidence that Adams was "abnormally hairy," which is another sign of males carrying the variant gene MIM 184700.
snored	Reliability of this information is uncertain. 3
stroke	Paralytic stroke in 1846, assumed atherosclerotic. Recovered the full use of his body and returned to Congress the following year. "When he walked into the House, slightly tottering, on the morning of February 13, everyone rose spontaneously and applauded." 1b
stroke	In 1848, he collapsed on the floor of the House from ?another stroke. He was carried to the Speaker's Room, where two days later he died. 1b

Odds & Ends

Adams liked to exercise. He was an excellent swimmer. Often, he would rise early in the morning, walk from the White House to the Potomac River, strip, and swim. On one occasion, someone stole his clothes, and the naked President had to ask a passing boy to run to the White House and fetch him some others! 1c
This web page long stated that Adams was the only President to serve in Congress after leaving the White House. This is untrue, if "Congress" is defined as either of the two houses. Andrew Johnson served briefly as a senator from Tennessee after his Presidency.
Through his mother, Adams could trace several lines of descent from King Edward I of England 4b.
John Adams II, who was the grandson of John Adams and the son of John Quincy Adams, married his first cousin in the White House on Feb. 25, 1828. Nine months and 7 days later, Mary Louisa Adams was born at the White House. In 1853 she married one of her cousins, who was descended from President John Adams 4c. This was the first intermarriage between the descendants of two Presidents: both bride and groom were descended from John Adams, but only the bride from John Quincy Adams 4b.

Resources

Cited Resources

Boller, Paul F. Jr. Presidential Anecdotes. New York: Oxford University Press, 1981.0195029151 Libraries 80-27092. ap. 61, spoken by Senator Thomas Hart Benton bp. 61 cp. 63
Carey, A. H.; Chan, K. L.; Short, F.; White, D.; Williamson, R.; Franks, S. Evidence for a single gene effect causing polycystic ovaries and male pattern baldness. Clin. Endocr. 1993; 38: 653-658. Pubmed 8334753.
Dugan, James. Bedlam in the boudoir. Colliers. 22 Feb. 1947; pages 17, 69-70.
Comment: Credibility is dubious. Just before a list of Presidents, the article states: "Twenty of the 32 Presidents ... are proved or believed on a thick web of circumstance to have been nocturnal nuisances in the White House."
Montgomery-Massingberd, Hugh (ed). Burke's Presidential Families of the United States of America. 2nd ed. London: Burke's Peerage Limited, 1981.0850110335 Libraries. app. 57, 69 bp. 156 cp. 153
Comment: Enumerates the ancestors and descendants of American presidents up through Ronald Reagan.

Other Resources

Health and Medical History of President John Q. Adams