CHICAGO — White House wannabes, take note: Contrary to the idea that being president speeds up aging, a study shows that many U.S. commanders in chief have actually lived longer than their peers.
Using life-expectancy data for men the same age as presidents on their inauguration days, the study found that 23 of 34 presidents who died of natural causes lived several years longer than expected.
The four former presidents still alive have already lived longer than predicted, or likely will because they’re in good health, the study said.
“The graying of hair and wrinkling of the skin seen in presidents while they’re in office are normal elements of human aging,” said study author S. Jay Olshansky, a researcher on aging at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Stress can speed up those two outward signs of aging, and it’s possible that job stress has made some presidents appear to age quickly. But the study shows that doesn’t mean being doomed to an early grave.
Given that most of the 43 men who have served as president have been college-educated and wealthy and had access to the best doctors, their long lives are actually not that surprising, he said.
His study is published in today’s Journal of the American Medical Association.
The Associated Press
