When President Franklin D. Roosevelt turned 62 on Jan. 30, 1944, the New York Times reported that Vice Admiral Ross T. McIntire, the president’s personal physician, believed “the chief executive was in better health then at any time since he entered the White House.” In an April 4 update, the doctor told reporters “the greatest criticism we can have is the fact we haven’t been able to provide him with enough exercise and sunshine.”

And several weeks before the 1944 election, with FDR running for a fourth term, McIntire doubled down, stating, “The president’s health is perfectly O.K. There are absolutely no organic difficulties at all.”

In fact, nothing could have been further from the truth.

By 1944, FDR’s health was deteriorating rapidly. At the end of March, a cardiologist diagnosed congestive heart failure, a condition that had been aggravated by McIntire’s disregard of recurring symptoms. The president’s work schedule was curtailed, he was treated with digitalis — and was told to smoke no more than 10 cigarettes a day.

Roosevelt was also suffering from acute hypertension. The day of McIntire’s optimistic April 4 statement, his blood pressure was 226/118. And on August 12, in Bremerton, Oregon, he suffered a mild heart attack while delivering a speech.

https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/4380603-in-1944-fdr-was-reported-to-be-in-excellent-health/

Few had known of the severity of the president’s health problems.

https://www.fdrlibrary.org/document-april

He ate a light breakfast around 9:30 in preparation for a barbecue planned for that afternoon; he also planned a light lunch, then to go see some of the children at Warm Springs rehearse for a minstrel show that evening.

https://blog.dlg.galileo.usg.edu/?p=2022