WASHINGTON (AFP) - Mrs Hillary Clinton's doctor on Wednesday (Sept 14) declared her "fit to serve" as president, in a health bulletin released a day before she returns to the fray after being grounded by pneumonia at the height of the White House race.
The disclosure came as her Republican rival Donald Trump - in a media-savvy move - released new health data of his own during the taping of a medical chat show set to air on Thursday.
Both candidates, among the oldest ever to run for the White House, were under intense pressure to share more medical information after Mrs Clinton fell ill during a 9/11 ceremony in New York on Sunday and was forced to leave.
Health issues have dominated the campaign trail for days, sidelining other questions like funding for Mr Trump's foundation - now the subject of a probe in New York state - with less than two weeks to go before the candidates' first debate.
In a detailed, two-page "summary update" on Mrs Clinton's health, her personal physician Lisa Bardack wrote that the 68-year-old was recuperating from a diagnosis of "mild, non-contagious" pneumonia.
She "is recovering well with antibiotics and rest" after being laid low over the weekend, when she suffered from fatigue and a low-grade fever, although her vital signs remained normal, Dr Bardack said.
The Democratic White House nominee "continues to remain healthy and fit to serve as president of the United States", she wrote, noting she is in "excellent mental condition".
When Mrs Clinton was seen stumbling limp-legged into a Secret Service vehicle at the weekend, it took several hours for her personal physician to disclose she had been diagnosed with pneumonia two days earlier, raising tough questions about her campaign's transparency.
Mrs Clinton was at home in Chappaqua, New York for a third straight day on Wednesday, recovering from a health scare that has rocked her bid to become America's first woman president.
News of Mr Trump's media-savvy appearance on The Dr Oz Show - though it appeared to reveal little detail - flooded the US airwaves on Wednesday, upping the pressure on Mrs Clinton to share more health data before returning to the trail on Thursday with appearances in North Carolina and Washington.
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CLINTON'S HEALTH REPORT
- A summary of Clinton's recent medical test results
- - Recovering from mild and non-contagious bacterial pneumonia after being prescribed with a short course of antibiotic medication Levaquin
- Previous sinus and ear infections diagnosed in Jan 2016, treated with antibiotics and steroids
- Current medications include Armor Thyroid to treat her underactive thyroid, which has been stable for years. Also taking Clarinex for her allergies, a vitamin B12 supplement and blood thinner Coumadin following a 2012 blood clot in her head.
- Blood pressure of 100/70 within the normal range
- Cholesterol in the normal range with LDL of 103 and HDL of 56
- Normal heart rate of 70 bpm
- Normal mammogram and breast ultrasound
- No new medical conditions this year
- Suffered minor allergy flares over the past year, a recurrent problem for most of her life
- Experienced deep vein thrombosis in 1998 and 2009, an elbow fracture in 2009, and a concussion in 2012. These conditions had previously been made public. - Source: BLOOMBERG, REUTERS, AFP, THE WASHINGTON POST
So far the 70-year-old Trump had released only four, gushing paragraphs on his health, written by his doctor Harold Bornstein in December 2015.
Following the revelation of Mrs Clinton's pneumonia, Mr Trump vowed soon to release "very, very specific numbers" from a recent check-up with Dr Bornstein.
Team Trump had raised - then dropped - the possibility of releasing them during an appearance on "Dr Oz".
But during recording of the segment on Wednesday morning, Mr Trump finally did present its celebrity host with the results, according to a statement on the show's website.
In a snippet teased on the site, Dr Mehmet Oz - who is also a professor of surgery at Columbia University in New York - is seen asking Mr Trump: "If your health is as strong as it seems... why not show your medical records?
"Well, I have really no problem in doing it," Mr Trump responds. "I have it right here. Should I do it? I don't care." The Republican nominee goes on to pull the documents from his pocket, to cheers and applause from the show audience.
A statement from the medical chat show said their hour-long one-one-one interview touched on Mr Trump's cardiovascular health, family medical history and history of cancer, among other topics.
"As all physicians do when seeing a patient for the first time, Dr Oz took Mr Trump through a full review of systems," it said.
But the actual details revealed appeared to remain very generic.
According to US media who attended the taping, Dr Oz declared Mr. Trump "slightly overweight" at 267 pounds (120kg) for roughly six foot two inches (1.88m).
Audience member Kelly Platt - a pharmacist intern and Trump supporter - told CNN that Dr Oz deemed Mr Trump's cholesterol to have come down to a safe level, thanks to medication.
"Other than apparently his body mass index being a little high, the man is in incredibly good shape. Dr Oz was very, very impressed," NBC quoted an audience member, Mr Matthew Stevens, as saying.
