Joe Biden: A Racehorse not a Warhorse?
Life in the Fast Lane After Age 80?
Conventional wisdom about Joe Biden during his campaign for president was that at age 78 when inaugurated and already showing some signs, naturally, of aging the old warhorse would be lucky to leave the stable alive after four years in office. Hello President Harris.
But what if that conventional wisdom is as wrong as the polls were on the presidential election? What if Joe Biden strikes a blow for the vitality of senior citizens and sparks a renaissance not just in the glories of old age but in the wrongheadedness of age discrimination?
Sure Joe fractured his foot two months before moving into the White House. But he was probably running after his dog. Maybe even sprinting. It is not beyond the pale that we will see him doing pushups on the White House portico when challenged, as he threatened to do during a campaign swing in Iowa when someone told him he was too old to be president.
Will Biden prove that 80 is the new 50? David Sinclair, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, writes in his 2019 book Lifespan: Why We Age and Why We Don’t Have To, that it won’t be long before age 100 is the new 50. He writes: “I have long said that if even a few of the therapies and treatments that are most promising come to fruition, it is not an unreasonable expectation for anyone who is alive and healthy today to reach 100 in good health — active and engaged at levels we’d expect of healthy 50-year-olds today.” Part of his prophesy rests on the hoped for effectiveness of supplements such as resveratrol, containing the anti-aging ingredient in red wine, and nicotinamide, a form of Vitamin B, which raises levels of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+). NAD+ is a coenzyme involved in numerous cell processes. He, himself, and others in his lab, takes those supplements plus metformin, a widely-prescribed drug for controlling high blood sugar.
There is no question Americans are living longer and doing more. My uncle Jack is a good example. He turns 103 in March and tells me he goes to the gym three times a week. The longtime swimmer — he was a participant in the senior Olympics in his 80s! — is fit both physically and mentally. He recognizes me when I call and asks after my wife by name.
Biden’s health and fitness is particularly important as a counterweight to the fate of too many seniors in 2020. The coronavirus pandemic swept a path of death through mostly people over 65 who had not taken very good care of themselves. Pre-existing conditions like heart and lung disease and diabetes were typically part of those death certificates. While smoking seems to have lost considerable ground over the past few decades, in good part to federal education, whether messaging on cigarette packs or other warnings, poor eating habits combined with too little exercise still blow up obesity numbers in the U.S.
Unfortunately, there is very little focus in this country on healthy living, and considerable confusion over which foods are important to eat and which to avoid. The dietary guidelines published periodically by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) seem to sway back and forth between categories and products. A recent Wall Street Journal article on the latest upcoming version of those guidelines was headlined: Should Americans Get Half Their Calories From Carbs? Two Camps Battle It Out.
With regard to seniors, the U.S. has had for decades an Aging Administration within the DHHS. It is focused on providing health and caregiving services to those over age 60, not helping them figure out how to avoid needing those services at a later age. Moreover, The U.S. Aging Administration is subsumed under the Administration for Community Living whose chief focus is on people with disabilities.
Besides proving that an 80-year-old can do pushups, Biden could help convince many more employers that seniors can work productively way beyond age 65, not to mention 50. Sara J. Czaja, Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Director of the Center on Aging at the University of Miami School of Medicine, told the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2017, “Unfortunately numerous negative stereotypes about older workers still exist that often prevent or have a negative impact on employment opportunities for older people.
At that same meeting, Laurie McCann, Senior Attorney, AARP Foundation Litigation, said, “Yet, we also know that age discrimination is alive and well, because once older workers do lose their jobs, they experience far longer spells of unemployment than younger workers.” There is a reason so many of the greeters at Walmart are over the age of 50!
President-elect Joe Biden faces a deep partisan divide on Capitol Hill which will make it hard for him to win significant political victories. But if he strikes a blow for the productivity, energy and acumen of senior citizens… that could end up being the hallmark of his administration, and an unexpected one at that.
