Presidents DON'T age in fast-forward! Expert claims Obama is graying at the same pace as the rest of us

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[h=1]Presidents DON'T age in fast-forward! Expert claims Obama is graying at the same pace as the rest of us[/h]

• University of Illinois aging expert S. Jay Olshansky says that despite his infamously relentless schedule Obama is aging at a normal rate

An Illinois professor set out to disprove the age old presumption that the relentless stress of America's top job makes our Commander-in-Chiefs age in fast-forward.
The conclusion: President Obama, like most presidents, is aging no differently from the rest of us.
'It's just a misconception,' S. Jay Olshansky, a public health professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, told the Los Angeles Times.
In fact, technology Olshansky used to analyze the fine lines, wrinkles and age spots of Obama's famous face indicates the current president registers slightly younger than his 53 years.

 

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Spot the difference? Despite a tumultuous year for the president and the infamously relentless schedule at the Oval Office, president Obama is aging at the same rate as the rest of us, says expert S. Jay Olshansky (President is seen at a January 2008 campaign stop at left and in December 2014 at right)

 

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The LA Times writes that technology like that Olshansky used is available not just to professors but to anyone with an internet connection, at facemyage.com.




'It's a reflection on us. It is a direct reflection of the normal process of aging that we all experience and especially that we all experience right at that phase in our life,' the longevity expert said. 'Those of us that are in that our 50s and 60s — I'm sorry. We're all aging; he's just part of the crowd.'



Despite evidence of a mounting racial divide in America during his tenure, continued conflicts abroad and an uphill battle for his party here at home, Obama's oft-noted graying temples are typical for anyone.



In a 2011 study, Olshansky a study showed 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.

 

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Passage of time: George W. Bush's hair grayed markedly between 2001 (left) and 2008 (right) but at least one expert's study says that's just time passed

 

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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.
'The graying of hair and wrinkling of the skin seen in presidents while they're in office are normal elements of human aging,' Olshansky told the Associated Press at the time of the study. 'We don't actually know if they get more gray hair or more wrinkles' than other men their age.



'But even if they did, we don't die of gray hair and wrinkles,' Olshansky said.
Given that most of the 43 men who have served as president have been college-educated, wealthy and had access to the best doctors, their long lives are actually not that surprising, he said.
The 34 presidents who died of natural causes were aged 73 on average at death, a few months less than Olshansky's' life expectancy estimate. But under the accelerated aging theory, their average age of death would have been 68, he said.

 

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'It's a reflection on us. It is a direct reflection of the normal process of aging that we all experience and especially that we all experience right at that phase in our life,' the longevity expert said. 'Those of us that are in that our 50s and 60s — I'm sorry. We're all aging; he's just part of the crowd.' (at left Bill Clinton is pictured in 1992, at right he's pictured again the year he left office two terms later in 2000)

 

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The 23 presidents who lived longer than Olshansky's projections died at an average age of 78, 11 years later than under the accelerated aging theory. The four presidents who were assassinated — Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley and John F. Kennedy — were aged 52 on average at death.




The first eight presidents were almost 80 years old on average when they died, at a time when the average life expectancy for men was less than age 35. 'It's absolutely extraordinary that they lived this long,' Olshansky said. That includes John Adams, who died at 90; James Madison, 85; and Thomas Jefferson, 83.





Ditto the last eight presidents who died — seven lived longer than expected; Lyndon Johnson was the only one who didn't. He died of a heart attack at age 64, 10 years less than his projected life expectancy and five years less than his life expectancy with accelerated aging, Olshansky said.





Among the more recent presidents, Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford both died at 93. Jimmy Carter and George H. W. Bush are both 87.





Olshansky has even done some projecting about 50-year-old President Barack Obama. Given his age when inaugurated, Obama's life expectancy would be 79, but Olshansky estimates that Obama will live to at least 82 because of his education, wealth and access to top-notch health care.

 

[Willie99]

the only President I didn't see aging quicker was RR, he looked the same

he started old

what the fuck is an "aging expert"? is there a college degree for this? and anyone who can look at our presidents and say they didn't age quickly would be on the opposite end of that expert spectrum, closer to clueless