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Part I of “Searching for Super Agers Among Filipinos and North Americans” Series
Part V of the “Fourteen Letters to His Holiness Pope Leo XIV” was entitled “Searching for Super Agers Among Retired Priests and Other Church Workers”.
Today, this column starts a new series called “Searching for Super Agers Among Filipinos and North Americans.” Yes, Filipinos, whether they are domiciled in the Philippine archipelago or abroad. They can be Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) or immigrants who compose the “Overseas-Filipino Melting Pot (OFMP)” — as spread in nearly 100 countries. And whether they belong to the clergy of any denomination or the Jewish, Islamic, or Buddhist faiths, or are civilians or former or present members of the military.
By the way, the OFMP now counts on more than 16.5 million active and retired OFWs. In the United States, there are five million Americans of Filipino descent (including 600,000 nurses, 22,000 physicians, and probably a million more medical workers — from dentists to pharmacists, HMO workers like CPAs, clerks, dietary workers, licensed caregivers, and others). There are also now more than a thousand Catholic priests and other Christian ministers, plus thousands of teachers recruited to teach in parochial schools, starting in the Archdiocese of New York. And the search for Super Agers continues among the peoples in North America.
Canada has reportedly nearly two million citizens of Filipino descent and OFWs. Mexico has had a significant number of Filipino immigrants and settlers since 1565, who intermarried with native-Mexican Indians and other ethnic groups. Nobody knows how many Mexicans of Filipino descent there are. But Mexicans have welcomed Filipino settlers and workers for the past 459 years.
It is public knowledge that life expectancy in the United States has been declining, reversing decades of progress. This decline is particularly concerning because it contrasts with the trend in other high-income countries, where life expectancy continues to increase.
The latest average life expectancy at birth in the United States is 78.4 years. This figure represents a rebound from the declines seen during the COVID-19 pandemic and is based on data from 2023, according to the CDC.
In 2024, the average life expectancy in the Philippines was approximately 71.79 years. This figure represented a slight increase from previous years, with 71.41 years reported in 2021 by the United Nations, as confirmed by official Philippine government data.
Imagine if life expectancy in both countries could be raised to the level of this journalist’s parents, who became American citizens in the early 1990s. My Dad died on January 10, 1999, at 90 (less than three months short of his birthday) during a Christmas vacation in the Philippines. My widowed mother decided to spend her remaining years in the Philippines, where private caretakers are affordable. She passed away on January 10, 2021, at the age of 95 years and four months. Their respective passing happened on the same month and day, 22 years apart.
This columnist will become an octogenarian on May 1, 2026, just nine months away. The status of being a “Super Ager” is within reach. His primary physician at his Medicare provider tells him that he is probably the “healthiest Filipino great-grandfather in the world.” This writer and his wife of 55 years still babysit their twin great-granddaughters once a week.
It is easy to prove that this writer appears to be physically and mentally fit. He writes a biweekly column in the Philippine Daily Mirror and posts daily in some 85 Facebook groups that he founded or that invited him to become an admin or moderator. He cured himself of type 2 diabetes in 2019, after a 17-month voluntary practice of the so-called “Pacific Islander Diet” (PID) that he revived. His physician allowed him to stop taking a 500 mg tablet of Metformin with every breakfast. Of course, his physician monitored his progress with quarterly blood A1C tests, plus daily brisk walking exercise of up to 3.0 miles per day.
He gave up tobacco smoking in November 1988 and limits his alcoholic consumption to a glass of red wine only during gatherings (if it is available) since then. He organized two Facebook Groups about the PID and a planned HMO for the Philippines. Thus, he has a track record that can help Filipinos, North Americans, and other nationalities in shooting for the status of becoming “Super Agers.”
