Perino: White House rough on your health

Dana Perino says she did “permanent damage” to her health while working as a White House press secretary under former President George W. Bush.

In an interview with Julie Mason for SiriusXM’s “Leading Ladies” series, Perino says it was “very hard to take care of your health” while working at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

{mosads}“I got to a point where my arm went numb from the elbow down. BlackBerrys were relatively new, but over time, I built up the muscles now, I guess. But I think that’s what it was,” Perino says.
 
Now a co-host on Fox News’s “The Five,” Perino quips that one of her health conditions even affected her husband’s slumber.

“I got a sinus infection that led to this ear ringing that was so loud that Peter said it even woke him up at night. But it was inside my head, and I remember being at a press briefing and all I could hear was this ringing, and I could see the reporter asking this question and I couldn’t hear what they were saying.”

The former White House staffer adds: “I didn’t sleep without Ambien.”
 
Perino, 42, served as press secretary for the last two years of Bush’s second term, but the television personality says the effects from her former job have lingered.

“I did some permanent damage to my health, partly because of the hours,” she says.

Perino’s writing a book that’s set for release next year and will reportedly include advice on her personal and professional keys to success. But she was quick to disclose at least some wisdom to Mason, saying, “If I had to go back and do it again, I would be more responsible, because there’s really nobody else that can do that for you.”