Stress Takes Its Toll on Obama's Face

Gray hair, worry lines betray pressures of presidency
By Jane Yager,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 19, 2009 8:40 AM CST
Stress Takes Its Toll on Obama's Face
Fast-forward to Nov. 18, 2009, and he's looking a little more haggard, say experts.   (AP Photo/ Lee Jin-man)

Ten months into his presidency, Barack Obama is looking markedly less boyish. Flecks of gray hair and new worry lines have the president looking like the 48-year-old he is rather than the enthusiastic youth of the 2008 campaign. Obama denies it's the stress of the job—"My hair has gotten a lot grayer because I was at the age where my hair was going to start getting gray," he says—but experts point to a proven link between stress and aging.

Obama, who's had plenty to furrow his brow over since taking office, recently called unemployment, health care, and Afghanistan worries that "I carry around on my shoulders every day," the New York Daily News reports. Obama's occasional smoking isn't doing him any favors in the aging process, either; but on the positive side, the prez says his lithe weight has remained unchanged for the past 30 years.
(More Barack Obama stories.)

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