There have only ever been two presidents who have taken office when they were over 75 years old, yet the current president, Donald Trump, and the previous president, Joe Biden, were both well over that age when they took office.

The age of politicians keeps increasing, with the only president over 80 recently leaving office, and the current president slated to reach 80 during his second term. Currently, over half of the Senate is aged over 60, and there are six senators over 80 years old. This has raised concerns across the nation about the health of the politicians who lead the country and how much their age has to do with their qualifications for the role. Scientifically, aging leads to health deficits, due to the buildup of harmful substances in the body, but also general degradation of the body.

“A lot of different things happen in the human body as we age,” sophomore Aadi Soond said. “Probably one of the most well-known is the degradation of the telomeres. The telomeres on a chromosome are at the very ends and during replication, they tend to get degraded…if you get to a point where genes are getting degraded, then [proteins] will not necessarily be correct.”

Recently, a health report was released for President Trump to the public, informing the public of his health. Senior Matthew Nowell thinks that it is good to have some sort of checks, but is unsure how to ensure that the information released is factual, and is not just meant to guide public opinion, like what has been done in the past, such as with Woodrow Wilson.

“As [age] increases, we [should use] tests to make sure there are outside checks and balances,” Nowell said. “Adding checks to their mental health, their cognitive well-being, thinking, feeling, and then also physical health and sickness.”

The age of presidents and government officials has increased over time, and senior Tyler Cowan thinks that as times shift, with more politicians being older, people have to find modern solutions.

“It’s fine if there are older presidents, but it’s not good if it affects their ability to be president,” Cowan said. “The older people get, the more likely they are to have things like cognitive problems. After a certain point, they should be forced into retirement if they can’t pass some sort of cognitive exam. It would probably be best that they’re not in office, for the betterment of our country.”

Woodside students think that checking on the health of presidents is important, yet they are also unsure of how beneficial the amount of the government that is made up of older generations is.

“[Older politicians can be] kind of stuck in their own generation, where they still believe in what was right in their day and age,” Nowell said. “Whatever happened in the 80s or 90s, with the economy, or government policies, it’s much different now. Having people who are stuck in the mindset of that time, or even, in the 2000s, is a little rough, because so much has happened within those short couple [of] decades.”

There are concerns over representation that covers more demographics of the population expressed by students.

“The government average age is 60 or something like that, and it is rising, [which is] probably not a good thing,” Cowan said. “That means that a lot of younger people who would represent more progressive policies are less represented. There are older people who lived in a different time and may not know what’s needed now [in government].”

There are many different views on the increasing age of government officials, with some thinking that experience does come with age, while others doubt the ability that comes with age, or think that age should be more evenly distributed to better represent the range of ages of the population.

“A lot of these politicians in the legislative branch, they gain their supporters, they do their terms, and they just keep on going and going,” Soond said. “That pushes out younger politicians who really could make not just an impact, but make an extremely needed impact, because we need politicians who reflect society, even though the average lifespan is increasing, younger generations are pretty underrepresented.”