Presidents' causes of death

Jan. 22 marks the 40th anniversary of the death of Lyndon B. Johnson, the 36th president of the United States (who was his predecessor?). Johnson was 64 when he died in 1973 of a massive heart attack, his third, after having struggled with heavy smoking for years.

We all know our US presidents by the lives they lived -- and yet their deaths are often just as interesting. Click through to Bing to discover how these former presidents died.

--By Anne Hurley for MSN Healthy Living

For most of his life, President Ronald Reagan was a poster boy for good health. He was 70 in 1981 when he became the 40th president and the oldest elected president in the country's history. In March 1981, just weeks into his first term, Reagan was shot in an assassination attempt but survived.

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Though President Ford's time in the White House could be called unremarkable, many Americans were glad for the respite after the divisive presidency of Richard Nixon, whose resignation led to Ford's becoming president. An avid golfer, Ford was athletic despite occasional bouts of clumsiness, made famous on "Saturday Night Live" by Chevy Chase (watch clips). Ford was also the target of two failed assassination attempts.

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President Nixon suffered the indignity of both impeachment and being the only US president to resign from office. Despite the granting of a pardon by his successor, Nixon's reputation as president suffered for many years. However, he became respected in his later years for his foreign policy decisions.

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The charismatic 35th president was elected in a squeaker race in 1960, and the handsome young Democrat (see photos) and his stylish wife, Jacqueline (see photos), ushered in an era of youthful optimism in the midst of the Cold War.

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A lifelong chain-smoker, Eisenhower finally quit in 1949, though he continued to drink large amounts of alcohol. The 34th president suffered a heart attack, a mild stroke and chronic Crohn's disease while in office, though he recovered from all three. After leaving office in 1961, Eisenhower suffered several more heart attacks. 

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Former Vice President Harry Truman became the 33rd president when Franklin Roosevelt died in office in 1945. Truman wasn't known for being particularly active or health-conscious, but coming from hardy Midwestern stock may have contributed to his living as long as he did.

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President Roosevelt and his New Deal are credited with helping to bring the nation out of the Great Depression. Roosevelt had been a fairly healthy young man, but he contracted polio in 1921 when he was 39. The disease left him paralyzed from the waist down, and during his presidency he and his aides went to great lengths to hide his disability.

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The 28th president served two terms that encompassed World War I. He also was in office when women were granted the right to vote. Wilson reportedly suffered several strokes while in office and was out of sight for days and weeks at a time.

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The 26th president made a name for himself as an outdoorsman, conservationist, war hero and adventurer. But the adventures he had as a "Rough Rider," especially in the Amazon jungles, led to infections and health problems that would plague him his whole life.

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