New York ? Racked with pain, President John F. Kennedy turned to a cornucopia of drugs – including painkillers, stimulants and anti-anxiety pills, his secret medical records reveal.

Historian Robert Dallek got unprecedented access to documents from the last eight years of JFK’s life for his upcoming biography, “An Unfinished Life.”

He found that at various times Kennedy took codeine, Demerol and methadone for pain, the stimulant Ritalin and anti-anxiety drugs meprobamate and Librium, The New York Times reported on Sunday.

The records also showed that Kennedy took barbiturates to help him sleep, thyroid hormone, the blood derivative gamma globulin and the anti-diarrhea agent Lomotil.

At the time of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, Kennedy was taking antibiotics for a urinary tract infection, medicine for colitis, salt tablets and hydrocortisone and the male hormone testosterone to build up his strength and energy.

The medicine – as many as eight drugs a day at times – helped Kennedy cope with chronic and debilitating back pain, irritable bowel syndrome and the adrenal deficiency Addison’s disease.

He also had high cholesterol, and osteoporosis left him with three fractured vertebrae that prevented him from putting on his own shoes without help.

The records show that Kennedy’s ailments were far more serious than he and his doctors had publicly acknowledged. They included details of nine secret hospital stays for back and stomach illnesses between 1955 to 1957.

A committee of three Kennedy clan associates controls the medical files and has refused to let anyone see them for decades.