(CNN) —
German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she’s taking care of health after experiencing her third bout of shaking in public in less than a month.
But she gave no further detail, doing little to put to rest speculation about what’s been affecting her.
It’s perhaps no surprise the world’s most powerful female politician caught on camera visibly trembling has stirred up a media frenzy, but do people have the right to know about a leader’s health and medical details?
“You can be sure that, firstly, I am aware of the responsibilities that come with my office and that I behave appropriately as far as my health is concerned,” Merkel said Thursday after meeting with new Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.
“And secondly you can also know that as a person I have a keen interest in being healthy and I take care of my health.”
Merkel and her doctors might not even know yet what it is, said Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s chief medical correspondent. Merkel may have recently noticed symptoms and still be in an evaluation process that involves trying different medications.
One possibility is orthostatic tremor, a rare condition that’s primarily present when someone is standing, Gupta said. It’s more common among women, and typically diagnosed in people around Merkel’s age, 64.
Treatment can involve muscle relaxers or medications used to treat seizures. Unlike Parkinson’s and some other conditions that cause tremors, it’s not something that ultimately leads to increasing disability.
With orthostatic tremor, “if they are sitting, if they are walking, if they are moving, that tremor seems to go away,” Gupta said.
Video from Thursday showed Merkel using a chair, rather than standing, during military honors for Denmark’s leader.
PHOTO: Markus Schreiber/AP
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, center right, and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, sit on chairs as they listen to the national anthems on Thursday.
In Germany, which has strict privacy laws, many are willing to take Merkel’s explanations at face value.
“It’s not like the US where people think they have all kinds of rights to information about the President or presidential candidates. It’s a less personalized system of government,” said Volker Best, a researcher at the University of Bonn’s Institute of Political Science and Sociology.
“I also think people are trusting Merkel to know when it’s time; if there were real health problems she’s a politician that would admit them and take the right action. She would not cling on to power,” he added.
Merkel’s long tenure as Germany’s leader is set to come to end in the next two years. She has said she only intends to complete her current term and has ruled out running for any political office after 2021.
Unlike the United States, there’s no equivalent to a White House physician nor are details from formal medical exams released to the public, Best said.
“In Germany there are no laws that force politicians to disclose their health status,” Best said.
Germany’s parliament is set to go on recess on July 19, which Best says will give Merkel a chance to rest and, unless another shaking bout occurs, the topic will likely disappear from the headlines.
Susanne Michl, a junior professor in medical humanities and ethics in medicine, at the Institute for the History of Medicine and Ethics in Medicine in Berlin, said that, in theory, political leaders should disclose the cause of any incapacity that stops them from doing their job.
However, “I think even then it’s a privacy issue. You have to more or less wait until a leader would say I’m not able to do my business,” she said.
“In the case of Angela Merkel, she is in good shape, she hasn’t canceled anything. I think the shaking isn’t an issue for her to tell people what her doctors have told (her about it.)”
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela Merkel
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks to delegates of her political party, the Christian Democratic Union, in February 2018.
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela Merkel
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Merkel was born in Hamburg, West Germany, in 1954, but she grew up in East Germany. Her father, Horst Kasner, was a Lutheran minister and her mother, Herlind, was an English teacher.
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela Merkel
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Merkel, left, attends a New Year's Eve party with friends in Berlin in 1972. In 1977, at the age of 23, she married her first husband, Ulrich Merkel. They divorced in 1982, but she kept the name.
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela Merkel
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Merkel poses with her siblings, Marcus and Irene Kasner.
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela Merkel
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Merkel visits a children's home during her campaign to become a member of the Bundestag, Germany's parliament, in 1990. Before turning to politics, Merkel had trained as a physician. She was also a spokeswoman for the "Democratic Awakening," East Germany's opposition movement before reunification.
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela Merkel
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A month after being elected to the Bundestag, Merkel was appointed to Germany's Cabinet in January 1991. Chancellor Helmut Kohl named her Minister for Women and Youth.
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela Merkel
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Merkel looks at Kohl during a conference of the Christian Democratic Union, their political party, in 1991. At the time, Merkel was a deputy chairwoman for the party.
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela Merkel
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Merkel changed Cabinet positions in 1994, becoming Minister of the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. Here, she visits a water-control station in Bad Honnef, Germany, in 1995.
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela Merkel
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Merkel, as the country's leader on environmental issues, irons wrapping paper to show how it can be recycled.
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela Merkel
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Merkel and Health Minister Horst Seehofer attend a Cabinet meeting in 1995.
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela Merkel
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Merkel sits in a "strandkorb," or beach basket, in an undated photo. In 2000, Merkel became the Christian Democratic Union's first female chairperson. It was the opposition party at the time.
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela Merkel
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Merkel, left, attends the opening of the Wagner Festival, an annual music festival in Bayreuth, Germany, in 2001.
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela Merkel
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Merkel spends part of her summer in Langballig, Germany, in 2002.
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela Merkel
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Merkel meets Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2002, one of many meetings they would have over the years. Merkel speaks Russian fluently, while Putin speaks German.
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela Merkel
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Merkel speaks in Nuremberg, Germany, ahead of federal elections in 2005.
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Merkel is sworn in as Germany's first female chancellor in November 2005.
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Merkel visits the White House in January 2006. A few days later she also visited the Kremlin in Russia.
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela Merkel
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US President George W. Bush shows off a barrel of pickled herrings he was presented after arriving in Stralsund, Germany, in July 2006.
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela Merkel
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Merkel visits troops stationed in Turkey in February 2013. Later that year she was re-elected for a third term.
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela Merkel
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Merkel and her husband, Joachim Sauer, walk with US President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama before a dinner in Berlin in June 2013. Merkel and Sauer have been married since 1998.
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Merkel speaks to Obama on the sidelines of a G7 summit near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, in June 2015.
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela Merkel
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Merkel was named Time magazine's Person of the Year in 2015. Time Editor-at-Large Karl Vick described her as "the de factos leader of the European Union" by virtue of being leader of the EU's largest and most economically powerful member state. Twice that year, he said, the EU had faced "existential crises" that Merkel had taken the lead in navigating -- first the Greek debt crisis faced by the eurozone, and then the ongoing migrant crisis.
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela Merkel
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Merkel and Obama test a virtual-reality headset at a trade fair in Hanover, Germany, in April 2016.
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela Merkel
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Merkel and US President Donald Trump hold a joint news conference at the White House in March 2017.
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela Merkel
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Merkel raises her glass during a toast at the Trudering Festival in Munich, Germany, in May 2017.
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela Merkel
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Merkel records her annual televised New Year's address in December 2017.
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In this photo provided by the German Government Press Office, Merkel talks with Trump as they are surrounded by other leaders at the G7 summit in June 2018. According to two senior diplomatic sources, the photo was taken when there was a difficult conversation taking place regarding the G7's communique and several issues the United States had leading up to it.
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela Merkel
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Merkel attends a Bundestag session in June 2018. She pressed lawmakers to back a tough but humane asylum and migration policy for the European Union.
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela Merkel
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In this handout photo provided by the German Government Press Office in July 2018, Merkel meets a newborn calf during a visit to the Trede family dairy farm in Nienborstel, Germany.
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela Merkel
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Merkel offers flowers to Volker Bouffier, the state premier of Hesse and the deputy chairman of the Christian Democratic Union, ahead of a party leadership meeting in October 2018. The day before, her coalition government suffered heavy losses in a key regional election in Hesse.
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela Merkel
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Merkel speaks at a debate on the future of Europe during a plenary session at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, in November 2018. Merkel made a call for a future European army and for a European Security Council that would centralize defense and security policy on the continent.
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela Merkel
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Merkel touches the scepter of a Carnival prince during the annual Carnival reception in Berlin in February 2019.
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela Merkel
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Merkel poses for photos with students as she visits a secondary school in Berlin in April 2019.
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela Merkel
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Merkel talks with European Council President Donald Tusk and British Prime Minister Theresa May at a roundtable meeting in Brussels, Belgium, in April 2019. May was in Brussels to formally present her case for a short Brexit delay.
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Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, accompanied by Prime Minister Theresa May, greets Merkel in Portsmouth, England, in June 2019. It was ahead of an event marking the 75th anniversary of the D-Day invasion.
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela Merkel
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Merkel and new Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky inspect a military honor guard as he arrives for his first official visit to Germany in June 2019. Merkel was seen shaking during the ceremony, but she later suggested dehydration was to blame and said that she was doing "very well."
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela Merkel
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Markus Schreiber/AP
The hands of Merkel and Finnish Prime Minister Antti Rinne are seen as they listen to national anthems in Berlin in July 2019. Merkel's body visibly shook again, raising concerns over her health. She said she was fine and that she has been "working through some things" since she was first seen shaking in June.
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Rain drops cover the window of a car as Merkel arrives for the opening of the James-Simon-Galerie in Berlin, in July 2019. The James-Simon-Galerie is the new central entrance building for Berlin's historic Museums Island.
Photos: In photos: The life and career of Angela Merkel
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In a rare televised message, Merkel tells the German people that the coronavirus pandemic is the nation's gravest crisis since World War II.
Historically, politicians in Germany, like elsewhere, have not been keen to admit to health problems.
Chancellor Willy Brandt resigned in May 1974, after his close aide was unmasked as an East German spy, but he was also said to suffer from recurrent depression that he kept concealed. Best said that historians thought that was a factor in his decision to go.
Helmut Schmidt, who was Chancellor from 1974 to 1982, said he had regular fainting spells that were kept secret, according to Germany news agency DPA.
“I was probably found a hundred times unconscious. Mostly only a few seconds, sometimes minutes. We have successfully kept that secret – and it has not stopped me from doing my duty as head of government,” Schmidt said in a 2014 interview.
In the US, Presidents and presidential hopefuls have gone to great lengths to be seen as healthy and vibrant, with signs of weakness often pounced on by opponents.
At age 43, John F. Kennedy, was the youngest person elected President. But he took office struggling with hypothyroidism, back pain and Addison’s disease, and was on a daily dose of steroids as well as a host of other drugs, although few people knew at the time.
Ronald Reagan announced in 1994, after his presidency, that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Whether it affected his ability to function while in office is a subject of debate. Though doctors were in the dark then, today, medical science knows that Alzheimer’s begins in the brain 20 to 30 years before symptoms begin.
Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s near fainting spell during the 2016 election campaign was seized on by her opponents. And concerns over President Donald Trump’s mental and physical health have dogged his presidency, with his fast food habits, lack of exercise, age and weight all coming under scrutiny.
But admitting to health issues need not derail a politician’s career.
In the UK, outgoing Prime Minister Theresa May has been open about having to inject herself with insulin up to five times a day to treat her diabetes.
May has type 1 diabetes and urged fellow sufferers not to allow the illness to hold them back from doing what they want in life.
CNN’s John Bonifield, Nina Avramova, Barbara Wojazer and Sandee LaMotte contributed to this report.
