When John Paul, then archbishop of Krakow, was elected pontiff in 1978, he was a robust 58-year-old with an athletic build who had played soccer, skied and kayaked as a youth.

Less than three years later, in May 1981, he suffered his first health crisis when he was shot in the abdomen by a Turkish gunman in St Peter's Square in Rome.

Since then the Pope has suffered a catalogue of serious medical problems requiring stays in the papal suite on the tenth floor of Rome's Gemelli hospital, where he is said to be cared for by nuns.

His ailments included a bowel tumour, described by doctors as benign and removed in 1992; intestinal problems that led to the 1996 removal of his appendix; and a broken thigh bone, fractured in a fall in his bathroom in 1994. He also suffers from persistent knee pain caused by arthritis.

However, the most serious condition afflicting the Pope is Parkinson's disease, a disorder of the central nervous system that can affect chest muscle activity, which has progressed to its latter stages..

The Pope has occasionally had difficulty breathing since he developed Parkinson's Disease a decade ago, and the flu apparently complicated his condition. Other symptoms include tremors, slowness of movement, difficulty in starting any muscular activity and loss of facial expression, as well as insomnia, dribbling and depression.

The causes of the disease remain a mystery. The condition affects one per cent of people over the age of 60 and two per cent of the very elderly.

It is known that the Pope takes levodopa, a drug used to compensate for the lack of dopamine, which is the basic cause of Parkinson's disease. It is not known whether he takes other drugs to enhance the effect of levodopa.

He is also believed to take Immun'Age, a natural remedy based on fermented papaya extract. Papaya contains a high concentration of powerful antioxidants. Whether antioxidants can help in reducing the symptoms of Parkinson's disease is the subject of intensive research.

His latest hospital stay for breathing difficulties was triggered after he contracted the influenza virus that has swept Italy.

The Vatican said on Tuesday night the Pope had suffered an acute attack of laryngospasm, a blockage of air to the lungs, and needed urgent medical care. But it said his condition did not warrant him being placed in an intensive care unit.

Medical experts say that acute laryngospasm is very rarely fatal, but warn that the Pope's age and medical history complicate matters.

"He has other medical problems and anything that perturbs his respiratory system is probably a serious event," said Gerald Berke, the chief of head and neck surgery at the University of California at Los Angeles Medical Center.

The Pope's spokesman said this morning that he had a "little fever" and was in a stable condition, but was well enough to say mass with his closest advisers.

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