Eight hours of audio tapes released in September of Jackie Kennedy speaking with a White House aide renew the belief that former U.S. president John F. Kennedy had celiac disease.
The tapes make mention of JFK’s stomach troubles, which apparently ran in the family and were referred to as the “Kennedy Stomach.”
In 2002, gastroenterologist and director of the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University Dr. Peter Green published an article in which he argued that many signs point to the former U.S. president having suffered from celiac.
Green had read an article about JFK in Atlantic Monthly that described his various health issues. As a teen, the former president suffered from gastrointestinal symptoms, weight and growth problems and fatigue. Later in life, he would suffer with abdominal pain, diarrhea, weight loss and osteoporosis.
