Forget the politics, pro or con — what we love here, of course, in this great article on MedPageToday, is the use of “SuperAger.” And the definition used here certainly lines up with the premise of our book. A “SuperAger,” they say (though they spell it Super-Ager) is “someone generally older than 80 who has cognitive and physical function higher than their peers, more akin to people decades younger.”
Does this fit President Biden? The article discusses an op-ed by two gerontologists who assessed the health of both Biden and Trump ahead of the 2020 election. Their report said “Biden is expected to outlive Trump, even though he is 3 years older” because of his “exceptional health profile for a man his age.”
But is he really a SuperAger? The article cited some further evidence beyond the op-ed — an interview with Nir Barzilai, MD, director of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine’s Institute for Aging Research in New York City and scientific director of the American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR). (Barzilai was also on that 2020 panel.) “While there isn’t a universal definition for ‘super-ager,’ he explained that the unifying factors are older age with relatively higher cognitive and physical function.”
From the article: “‘There is a chronological age and a biological age, and I think all of us intuitively know that those are not the same,’ Barzilai said. He noted that while genes play a role in aging, so do exercise, diet, sleep, and social connectivity. These four ‘are much more important things than a specific test,’ he added, and Biden scores well on those traits, except for potentially sleep.”
Another plus factor is having a parent with exceptional age. Both Biden’s and Trump’s parents lived into their early 90s.
“But, ultimately, Barzilai said he can’t definitively affirm that Biden is aging backwards — or that Trump is, for that matter — because he doesn’t know their full medical histories. Specifically, he would be interested to know their HbA1c and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels.”
Currently, AFAR is recruiting people 95 and older, and their families, to study longevity genes.
He says, “As scientists, we’re trying to figure out what is this biology and can we extend health span and lifespan for everyone else.”
There’s a convention that presidents have an annual physical exam and report on the results (though technically there is no legal requirement for them to do so.) Wouldn’t it be something one of the routine questions became, “Are you or are you not a SuperAger?”