President John F. Kennedy was one of many former presidents who was known to be a smoker. | Wikimedia Commons/Cecil Stoughton, 1920-2008, Photographer
President John F. Kennedy was one of many former presidents who was known to be a smoker. | Wikimedia Commons/Cecil Stoughton, 1920-2008, Photographer
When it comes to the dangers of smoking, it seems that few can avoid all of the associated health complications, one of which is chronic sinus problems.
Ear, nose and throat specialists refer to a couple of former U.S. presidents — John F. Kennedy and Franklin Delano Roosevelt — as examples of notable people who had sinusitis that was blamed at least partly on smoking.
The Janet G. Travell Oral History Interview, published in 1966, provides documentation that Kennedy, a smoker, often suffered from acute sinusitis, requiring treatment with a course of antibiotics.
Similarly, Roosevelt’s presidential physician, Ross McIntire, said that one of the president's health concerns was sinus problems, The University of Arizona Health Sciences Library papers show. Roosevelt, a heavy smoker, according to The New York Times, received treatment for his sinus conditions, which “plagued him greatly” almost nightly, documentation at his presidential library reports.
Although the role of cigarette smoke on chronic rhinosinusitis is not a new correlation, the addictive nature of smoking makes it a challenge for people to drop the habit.
Kennedy and Roosevelt didn’t have the treatment options available to them that exist today. Those who suffer from chronic sinus infections these days can undergo a minimally invasive procedure called balloon sinuplasty. The procedure is said to be safe and effective in providing long-term relief, according to the American Journal of Otolaryngology.
Those who suffer from sinus problems can take an online Sinus Self-Assessment Quiz to find out which treatment options may be a good match for them.
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