Bush lied - as usual.  He didn't give up golf for the Iraq war.  He
has a miniscus tear in his knee and CAN"T play golf under doctor's
orders.

Doctors Say Bush Has Typical Runner's Knee

Published: December 19, 2003
For years, President Bush's joints seemed to defy the forces of age
and time. He ran ever faster miles, instituted a professionally timed
race for the White House staff and consulted running experts on
improving his speed. But on Thursday, in the complex medical wording
of a statement from his medical team, there it was for all to see: Mr.
Bush, 57, finally has runner's knee.

A magnetic resonance imaging test of both presidential knees at the
Walter Reed Army Medical Center in the morning showed that Mr. Bush
had no serious problems -- no ligaments torn away, no deep tears or
flaps in any cartilage, no bones pressing on bones, no fluid leaking
into the joint and no instability, restricted motion or weakness.

Instead, his joints showed the wear and tear common to his
demographic, men in their 50's who have been pounding the running
trails for decades.

The White House medical summary said the president's right knee had an
old but incomplete tear in a ligament that crosses the rear of the
joint and a small tear in the cartilage pad between the femur and the
tibia. But the tear, in the meniscus, was judged insignificant and not
the cause of pain. His joints have the wear and tear that is ''common
in runners and other active people,'' Dr. Kevin B. Freedman, director
of Sports Medicine at the Loyola University Medical Center in Chicago,
said. The slight meniscus tear is common, Dr. Freedman said.

''As you get above the age of 40,'' he added, ''you see meniscus tears
on M.R.I.'s in people who have no symptoms at all and say their knees
are perfect.''

Mr. Bush, the White House said, also had softened cartilage on the
inside of the right kneecap. Several doctors said that was probably
what was hurting him.

The left knee showed early signs of arthritis, but those had been seen
in earlier scans and had not changed. Doctors called it a degenerative
condition and said surgery was not a good way to treat it.

Mr. Bush was seen by Dr. Kevin P. Murphy, chief of orthopedics at
Walter Reed, and Dr. Stephen Haas, the president's sports medicine
consultant and a doctor for the Washington Wizards basketball team.
''Neither surgeon recommends surgery,'' a summary of their report
released by the White House said.

What Mr. Bush should do, doctors agreed, is let the pain subside and
mix his exercise routine, some cycling, some climbing, some swimming
and some weights, for example. In particular, he should strengthen the
quadriceps, the bundle of four muscles in the front of the thigh that
runs over the kneecap and holds it in place.

He should not do deep squats or leg lifts in a way that drives the
kneecap back into the knee joint, said Dr. Gordon Matheson, chief of
sports medicine at Stanford University Hospital.

Mr. Bush is taking glucosamine, a vitamin supplement that is supposed
to improve cartilage and that is common in the medicine cabinets of 50-
something weekend athletes.

Mr. Bush seemed in good spirits after the bad knee news and joked to
doctors at Walter Reed that Col. B. J. Mielcarek, who is in charge of
physical therapy at the hospital, has been ''kind of looking after my
body on occasion, too.''

Mr. Bush added, ''She's got a lot to work with.''