My President is black/the economy is blue/but I’ll be goddamned if he will live longer too.
A new report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association has found that 23 out of 34 presidents who died of natural causes lived beyond the average life expectancy for men of the same age.
Out of the last 8 presidents who have died of natural causes, only Lyndon Johnson did not surpass his projected life span when he passed away after a heart attack at just 64-years-old. The other 7 reached an average of 81.6 years of age.
Study author S. Jay Olshansky believes that a “trifecta” of factors contribute to their long life span, explaining:
“The presidents hit the trifecta. Being wealthy, having 16-plus years of education (for most) and access to good medical care is good news for presidents and prospective presidents. For those who don’t have those three things, the news is not as good.”
Olshansky predicts that our current president will see his 8th decade and maybe even a ninth. He estimates the president, who just turned 50, will be around until at least 79.3 years of age. However, he goes on to admit that thanks to the trifecta of wealth, education and health care, Obama will most likely live longer.
Education seems to be the key to living a long life, even for us normal folks.
White males with 16-plus years of education are expected to live 8.6 years longer than white males with less than a high school education. Black males are estimated to live an 6.9 extra years with a college education.