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Dr. Janet Graeme Travell (December 17, 1901 — August 1, 1997) was an American physician and medical researcher. She was appointed the personal physician to President John F. Kennedy in 1961. Educated at Wellesley College and Cornell University Medical College, she was the first female doctor to be the personal physician to a sitting United States president.

Research

Her personal interest led her to investigate, explain and expound on the phenomenon of myofascial pain syndrome, secondary to trigger points, first written about in the 1920s by Dr Dudley J. Morton.^[1] She drew attention to the role of "Morton's Toe" -- one or both of two abnormal, inherited conditions of the first metatarsal bone of the foot -- and its responsibility for causing physical pain throughout the body.

Quote

"I have lived in a very special world - a world of love and security; beauty and serenity; opportunity, adventure, and variety; challenge and achievement; and the appreciation of my peers. I have had a sufficiency of everything that I desired and a surfeit of nothing." Dr. Travell, author's note to Office Hours: Day and Night, 1968.^[2]

See also

• Trigger point

References

External links

• Dr. Janet G. Travell, M.D.: "The Mother of MYOFASCIAL - TRIGGER POINT Knowledge"
• "The President's Physician: The life and legacy of Dr. Janet G. Travell" (2003), Gelman Library, George Washington University