Health: An integral part of a long and prosperous life.

It comes as no surprise that the health of our presidential candidates is in the minds and on the TV’s of the American citizens. We should care about our leader’s stamina in office. After all, the title “President” comes a promise to four years of stressful decision making and unrelenting scrutiny in the public eye. These years can take their toll on a president’s health–just look at President Obama’s change in hair color. As Trump heads into his seventies and Clinton follows at nearly 69 years of age, these nominees are the oldest in American history, posing the question: “Are these candidates fit for a role so physically demanding?”

Debate on this topic increased these past weeks after Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee, appeared to faint as she was leaving a 9/11 ceremony. Captured video of the incident shows Clinton completely limp with her feet dragging as she is hoisted into her vehicle by two aides. Release of this footage, seen here, sparked questions and concerns about the candidate’s health. After this short clip blew up on social media and news networks, Clinton’s doctor released a report stating, “On Friday, during follow up evaluation of her prolonged cough, she was diagnosed with pneumonia… While at this morning’s event, she became overheated and dehydrated.” Note that the Clinton campaign released the diagnosis two days after it was initially discovered. The campaign attempted to hide the fact that Clinton fell ill with pneumonia. But does this really matter? In reality, not so much. Suppose the candidate never went through this fainting spell; we would probably never know of the pneumonia. In fact, it could even help Hillary’s cause to show that having pneumonia did not prevent her from campaigning. Yet, failure to immediately release the diagnosis did play a significant role in drawing a myriad of attention to her health and raising suspicion over what else the campaign could be hiding. Likewise, the growing focus on Hillary Clinton’s health bounded straight to Republican nominee Donald Trump’s health as well.

Even though he may not have fainted on camera, Trump is not exempt from scrutiny over his imperfect health record. Trump’s doctor, Dr. Harold Bornstein, writes, “If elected, Mr. Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.” This hyperbole is especially quizzical because of another statement the doctor made, saying that he wrote the four paragraph report in five minutes as a driver waited to pick it up. Trump released more details on his health as interest in both his and Clinton’s health grew. The report, typed by his doctor, reveals that Trump is living a normal, healthy life minus being in the “overweight” category of the BMI index.

This increased attentiveness towards the health of the candidates is beneficial to the average voter. Media coverage especially has uncovered medical records of the candidates that may have never surfaced. With the election right around the corner, Americans are considering candidate’s health when deciding who to support, according to a survey conducted by ABC News and SSRS survey research firm. In this survey, 36% of participants agreed that a presidential candidate’s health and fitness will have a “major impact” on their vote. Similarly, 51% of participants agreed that a presidential candidate’s health and fitness will have a “minor impact” on their vote. When asked about the importance for presidential candidates to release detailed personal health records, 69% of participants believed that it was “very” or “somewhat” important.