[News Terms] Oldest US President Biden is a 'Super Ager'

'Super-Agers' is a term used to describe a small group of people aged 80 and above who have cognitive functions as excellent as those of middle-aged individuals, maintaining all their abilities well into the later stages of life. The term was first used in 2007 by researchers at the Alzheimer’s Disease Center of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in the United States.

According to a study published last October in the Journal of Neuroscience by a research team led by Tamar Gefen, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Super-Agers have larger neurons that make up brain tissue and significantly less abnormal tau protein?a major cause of Alzheimer’s dementia?compared to typical elderly individuals.

U.S. President Joe Biden is delivering a speech at the Turkey Pardon event held at the White House in Washington DC on the 20th (local time).
[Photo by Washington DC AP/ Yonhap News]

The research team compared postmortem brain tissues from six Super-Agers with those from seven elderly individuals who had average cognitive function during life, five patients in the early stages of dementia, and six younger healthy individuals aged 20 to 30 years less than the others.

The results showed that Super-Agers had larger neurons in the entorhinal cortex?the brain region first damaged in early dementia?and much less abnormal tau protein. Their neurons were even larger than those of middle-aged individuals, including people in their 40s. The team speculated that the neurons of Super-Agers possess characteristics that suppress the formation of abnormal tau protein, protecting the neurons from atrophy.

On the 20th (local time), U.S. President Joe Biden made a joke about his age on his 81st birthday, but also made a mistake that again raised concerns among voters, according to AP and AFP news agencies. Meanwhile, some experts predicted that aging is different now, and he could continue to perform well as a Super-Ager.

President Biden was born on November 20, 1942, and his birthday falls around the same time as the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, which is on the fourth Thursday of November each year. On this day, during the annual turkey pardon event held in the White House’s South Lawn ahead of Thanksgiving, Biden introduced that members of the Turkey Association sang a birthday song for him, saying, "I want you to know that turning 60 is hard. It’s hard." He also mentioned that this year marks the 76th turkey pardon event and joked, "I want you to know I wasn’t at the first one. I’m too young to lie about that," which made the attendees laugh.

However, while joking that the turkey’s journey to the White House is harder than getting tickets to a singer’s tour concert, he mistakenly confused the name of famous American pop singer Taylor Swift with Britney Spears. This slip came amid widespread concerns in American society about both President Biden and former President Donald Trump being too old to effectively perform presidential duties.

Despite this situation, some experts believe that both Biden and Trump have a high likelihood of being Super-Agers. Jay Olshansky, a researcher at the University of Illinois, told AFP in an interview, "Aging is different than before," adding, "There are many people in their 80s who are fully capable of doing whatever they want or can do, including being president," arguing that there would be no problem with performing presidential duties as a Super-Ager.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.