Records reveal Mahatma Gandhi had low BMI, high BP

His power struggle with Subhash Chandra Bose on leading the Congress movement for Independence and ideas to create a separate state of Pakistan may be among the factors that sky-rocketed Mahatma Gandhi's blood pressure.

The Father of the Nation's health records – released by Indian Council of Medical Research on Monday in a special issue of its journal – demonstrate how he suffered from high blood pressure through the better part of his life. In addition, he was grossly under-nourished with a body-weight of 46 kg and a body mass index of 17.1.

In March and April of 1939 when the Congress party was virtually split into two camps led by Gandhi and Bose, Mahatma's blood pressure varied from 170/110 (March 4) and 180/110 (March 5) to 160/100 (April 30).

On April 29, in a letter to Bose, he wrote, “...knowing how you and most of the members differ on fundamentals.. you are free to choose your own Committee.” On the same day, the Bengal leader resigned from the post of Congress president after reading out Gandhi's letter at the AICC meeting held at Tirupati.

A year later, doctors looking after Mahatma's health recorded a blood pressure of 220/110 on February 19, 1940.

While the ICMR document doesn't provide any insight, it is to be noted that such a high BP was recorded a month before the Lahore session of All India Muslim League where then Bengal Prime Minister A K Fazlul Haq proposed a 'Pakistan Resolution' that was duly passed, putting the demand for a separate homeland for the Indian Muslims openly for the first time in black and white.

“As per the health file of Gandhiji (1924-47), his blood pressure readings were as high as 194/130 and 220/110 (on Oct 26, 1937, and February 19, 1940. In between as well, his blood pressure readings were higher than normal and touched 170/110 and 180/105,” says the ICMR journal that was published to commemorate 150 years of Mahatma's birth anniversary.

“He depended on Sarpgandha (an Ayurvedic medicine and source of BP lowering drug reserpine) to control his blood pressure. He also suffered from malaria thrice and was operated for piles and appendicitis at the Sassoon General Hospital, Pune,” ICMR director general Balram Bhargava told DH.

Bapu himself wrote about his Sarpagandha treatment to his personal physician Sushila Nayyar.

“Despite having such high BP and poor BMI, the apostle of peace was able to continue with his workload possibly because of his daily routine of walking 18 km. During his campaign from 1913 to 1948, he walked around 79,000 km, which is equivalent to walking around the Earth twice,” Bhargava said.

Unlike in the West, there's no tradition of making medical records of leaders public in India. But some of the medical records of world leaders do make interesting reading.

“For instance, Dwight D Eisenhower had a blood pressure of 340. It is often being said that the World War-II may not have taken place had Eisenhower had normal blood pressure,” said Bhargava, a former professor of cardiology at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences here.