Announcement of Alzheimer's Disease

Known as "the Great Communicator," the nation's 40th president - who died on June 5, 2004 at the age of 93 following a decade-long struggle with Alzheimer's disease - also raised awareness of a number of health issues through personal experience.

Fit even in his youth, Ronald Reagan often proudly recalled the seven summers he spent as a lifeguard - beginning at age 15 - at Lowell Park in his hometown of Dixon, Illinois. He was credited with saving 77 lives.

The first health crisis of his presidency came on March 30, 1981, when he was shot during an assassination attempt by John W. Hinckley Jr. outside of the Hilton Hotel in Washington. White House Press Secretary James Brady and two others also were seriously wounded during the attack.

But Reagan, who received a lung injury when he was shot in the left side, recovered relatively quickly. He returned to the White House after less than a month at George Washington University Hospital. Even Reagan thought his rate of recovery was astonishing, especially when he compared it to a 1945 bout with pneumonia that caused him to lose 17 pounds.

Still, the shooting injury caused him "paralyzing pain," the then-70-year-old president said in April 1981.

Two years later, Reagan began wearing a hearing aid to assist him with right ear hearing loss that was attributed to the firing of a revolver too close to his ear on a movie set 44 years previously.

News surrounding the condition, as well as the president's $1,000 custom-made hearing device, put a national spotlight on hearing loss.

After his election to a second term, Reagan helped to increase attention on colorectal health when polyps were found in his colon in the summer of 1985. The polyps were removed at Bethesda Naval Medical Center in Maryland, and one was found to be cancerous.

The diagnosis stimulated national debate on the advisability of regular colorectal screening tests and increased public vigilance concerning the disease for some time.

Just weeks later, public notice shifted to skin cancer when Reagan visited the Bethesda hospital again to have a lesion removed from his nose. The lesion was determined to be a basal cell carcinoma, the most common and easily treated form of the disease.

Once more, Reagan's affliction focused attention on a growing problem - skin cancer related to sun exposure.

"We found through our open disclosures, we were able to raise public awareness," Reagan later wrote. "We were happy that, as a result, many more people underwent testing, (and were able to) return to normal, healthy lives."

Again, the president's recovery was swift, and the trend continued into the next year, when more polyps were discovered in his colon.

These polyps were determined to be benign, signaling recovery from yet another health crisis.