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Joe Biden Aging [1]

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Date: 2024-06-23  

President Biden is under constant attack for being “old”. Society has a long history of prejudice against age, which is often little related to reality. As Clem De Pressigny puts it in an article for New Scientist:

Ageism is arguably the last acceptable prejudice. While other forms of discrimination are considered reprehensible, it is normalized.

[“Over the Hill?” in New Scientist, 18 May 2024, pp 32-35, by Clem De Pressigny]

He quotes authorities to say that half the population is ageist. And that is bad for people. Unfounded stereotypes affect people’s financial opportunities and medical treatments. While people consider their discrimination to be “true to life”, mostly it isn’t.

In fact, De Pressigny says, “good cognitive ability and health remain intact for the majority of older people, right into their final years.”

Like Joe Biden. It is obvious he suffers from some obvious aspects of aging, including stiffness and some slowing of his thought processes (as evidenced in slightlyslower reaction times in his verbal responses). But as the State of the Union address showed, he’s still sharp-witted, with an extended attention span. He grasps what’s happening around him and can quickly react, possibly even out-thinking his opponents on the spot.

This Is a Bigger Issue

I bring up aging not just for the benefit of President Biden (and all us supporters), but because our population is aging, and it is an important political issue. How should our society respond to an aging population? How do we address the last prejudice?

The presidential debates might be, in fact, an excellent opportunity for President Biden to announce a strong initiative to deal with aging. That could include expansion of Social Security benefits and fixing the Medicare program by integrating what is now Medicare Advantage into the Medicare program, eliminating a significant boondoggle. And calling out ageism for what it is: Detrimental to the welfare of our people.

This is an opportunity for the Biden Administration to steal a march on the Republicans. And in the process show off someone who’s aced aging.

Negative stereotypes about aging affect how we age, both mentally and physically. De Pressigny reports:

It isn't until around 75 that people start to acknowledge that they are part of a group experiencing old age. This is when those negative stereotypes become how we think about ourselves, after being embedded in our thoughts decade after decade. And the consequences can be dire. One of the first people to expose this was Becca Levy at Yale University. In 2009, she and her colleagues published a landmark paper showing that people who believed negative stereotypes about old age in their younger years had a much greater chance of having a cardiovascular event, such as a stroke or congestive heart failure, decades later. Another study led by Levy found that buying into pessimistic concepts of old age results in a 50 per cent greater chance of being hospitalized in later life compared with people who think positively about it. A third showed that those negative stereotypes were linked to being much less likely to recover from a disability from the age of 70 onwards. In 2019, research by Levy and Martin Slade, also at Yale University, even connected ageism to a greater likelihood of being obese in old age.

[From “Over the Hill?”]

Really? Strokes and congestive heart failure? Hospitalization? Other disabilities? Obesity? None of that sounds good. Other downsides: Increased risk of depression, increased anxiety, and decreased will to live. And all that, just because we have allowed our society to become ageist.

But, Levy says, “Individuals who have taken in more positive age beliefs from their culture tend to show an average survival advantage of seven-and-a-half years over those who have taken in more negative age beliefs”. Seven and a half years!

Time to dump those prejudices!

But Wait, There’s More

That’s a good start, but suppose you wanted to do something to reduce aging, not just think better about it. Science to your rescue!

Research suggests there are a number of factors in aging. To address aging, I looked into various forms of life extension. There are a number of problems with this.

First of all, much of the anti-aging effort is experimental. A really definitive study would be some kind of double-blind study of aging in humans. To get good results, it would have to be multi-generational, so we could have definitive results in maybe a couple hundred years. I’m not prepared to wait that long.

Second, it can be expensive. Getting some of the more advanced (and still experimental) treatments are very costly. I’m not that wealthy.

But we don’t have to wait for human studies. We can extrapolate from animal studies. Basically, this is what I’ve done. For example, it is clear that one factor in aging is hormone levels. Levels of several essential hormones decrease or increase with age. We can now use hormone replacement therapy to adjust ones that have decreased.

Remember: Normal, healthy, youthful hormones mean normal, healthy, youthful tissues, organs, and bodies. Proper hormone levels are essential to good health as we age, and we should not be satisfied to hear that our levels are normal for our age. We are at peak health, normally, in our thirties. I believe that’s the proper target level. (Which suggests getting your levels tested in your thirties, so that you know what’s appropriate for you, personally.)

Another important aspect of aging is brain function. All organs tend to lose function with aging, and it is important to optimize brain function with age. Supplements for mental function are widely available.

The fundamental lesson here is: Don’t give up. Don’t just accept whatever biology fate has bestowed on you. There are many options, including diet, exercise, supplements, and medicines to help you actually age more gently.

Don’t buy into the stereotype that you are over the hill when you get old. That was never really true. But this is the twenty-first century. It is less true today than it ever was, and it is getting less true all the time.

More broadly, people do better when they take a proactive role in maintaining their health . Your doctor might seem to care about your health, but they aren’t the one who will die if something really goes amiss.

You must look after yourself.

What About President Biden?

So, I have a couple suggestions for the President. Be proactive. Look for what you can do right now to improve your physical strength and your neurological strength. Don’t assume you can’t change your situation. Don’t accept being “old”.

Republicans believe President Biden is on drugs. I’m not suggesting drugs. But there are plenty of supplements now available that can enhance physical and mental performance. Those of us fortunate enough to reach our golden years should look at all aspects of our lives and make those years shine.

Remember what Rush says:

You can do a lot in a lifetime, if you don’t burn out too fast.

You can make the most of the distance.

First you need endurance. First you’ve got to last.

[“Marathon”, Rush. Lyrics: Neil Peart]

That’s your advantage. You’ve lasted. And you can be even healthier now as you face the next hill.

Go get ‘em, tiger!

My Personal Anti-Aging

Back in the Nineties I started looking into longevity along with a group of friends. We brought in speakers on aging and went to various conferences, looking at how to keep our minds and bodies healthy.

As an example, we attended a number of conferences sponsored by the A4M. For more than 30 years, the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M) has promoted medical education in longevity medicine, metabolic resilience, and whole-person care. They had giant conferences with speakers from all areas of research and medical science who worked specifically on the prevention of aging. And maybe the eventual cure, although that still seems like science fiction even now in the future. We also went to the Endocrine Society conferences.

You do not have to be a doctor or a medical researcher to attend. The information can be fascinating.

For example, one A4M conference in Las Vegas had a huge tent where a new speaker talked about cutting-edge science very twenty minutes. When they finished, they went to a smaller, secondary tent to take questions, so that the information didn’t stop until the end of the day.

The Endocrine Society had a room with board presentations. These were basically cork boards where researchers posted their findings, and you could walk around and look at the results.

One of the more accessible ways to reduce aging was with dietary supplements. While these are largely unregulated in the U.S., you can still research them relatively easily. And you can look at the European thoughts on them for comparison.

I looked at supplements used in two studies. (Unfortunately, I don’t have references for these any more, because I made my decisions in the 1990s.)

In one study, CoQ 10 was shown to increase average longevity in gerbils. Average longevity means that the average age at which they died was longer than the average age for those not given CoQ 10 . In some sense, this suggests they were healthier in their old age.

I’m for that.

In another study, DHEA was shown to increase the maximum lifespan for dogs. I’m sufficiently like a dog that I think that might apply to me.

In humans, the maximum lifespan is probably around 120 years. It also turns out that DHEA levels drop off with age in the human population. If your DHEA level drops off sufficiently, you die from lack of that hormone (and whatever downstream effects that has). An increase in maximum lifespan for humans could push it to 130 years or more.

Also, people who live to advanced ages have higher levels of DHEA. It isn’t certain whether those higher levels help people live longer, or if people who live longer just have higher levels.

But I don’t want to find out after the fact that it’s the latter.

So, I have been supplementing with CoQ 10 and DHEA for a number of years. I’m 70. So, I’m objectively old. I don’t know whether that’s because I’ve been using anti-aging supplements or because I was just designed from the start to live to a ripe old age. Maybe I was born with extra telomeres.

In essence, I’m in the experimental group, taking these supplements. And I’m happy with that. We know what happens to everyone in the control group.

DHEA is a hormone. It is, in fact, one of the basic hormones in a cascade of male hormones (androgens, as you might be able to tell from its name: Dehydroepiandrosterone). So, it also tends to increase testosterone. This depends on the ability of cells to convert hormones, which comes down largely to specific enzymes in certain metabolic pathways.

One of the advantages of increased testosterone is its effect on tissues, especially muscle tissues. And one of the advantages of additional muscle mass is that it apparently increases the quality of our immune system. Which can help address cancers, because the immune system is one of the counter-cancer systems. It has the ability to find cancer cells and destroy them in early stages of tumor growth.

However, since DHEA is a hormone, I don’t take it orally. Whatever you eat goes into the gut, where it is absorbed into the bloodstream. Nutrients absorbed from the gut first go to the liver. I don’t want to dose my liver with daily doses of DHEA, so I use it transdermally. I put it on as a cream and allow it to be absorbed into muscle tissue, where it will be released more slowly into the bloodstream. This not only avoids direct transfer to the liver, but also means its effect is spread out more evenly over the day.

I’m telling you this not because I think you should take CoQ 10 or DHEA. I’m telling you this because you can look at what’s available, and you may be able to extend your longevity. Because science marches on. And if you are aware of the opportunities at an early age, you might be able to take advantage of anti-aging medicine over a longer period of time, with a better effect.

I also take vitamin C each day. This is because I know that it plays an essential role in maintaining good blood vessels. It is also possible that reducing oxidative damage inside cells promotes cell longevity. Humans don’t produce their own vitamin C, and you cannot be sure about the quantities in your diet.

I looked at a number of supplements that claimed to help with brain function, but I finally settled on Acetyl-L-carnitine. In the body, it is broken down into carnitine which is used by the body to transport fatty acids into the mitochondria for breakdown.

The reason I picked it is because I observed that it tended to reduce my dyslexia. This is not what most people use it for. And I’m not recommending it, specifically. First of all, I’m not recommending anything, because I’m not your doctor. Or, a doctor.

So, here is my recommendation: Find out what options you have for extending your own life. Discuss them with a professional. Be proactive in making your choices.

You’ll be thankful you did.

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