Donald Trump takes “more aspirin” than his doctors recommend but says his “health is perfect”, according to an interview given to the Wall Street Journal after the outlet recently questioned the 79-year-old president’s health.

Trump told the Journal that the large dose of aspirin he take daily causes him to bruise easily and that doctors have encouraged him to take a lower dose – but he declined the advice because he has been taking it for 25 years.

“I’m a little superstitious,” he said.

“They say aspirin is good for thinning out the blood, and I don’t want thick blood pouring through my heart,” Trump said. “I want nice, thin blood pouring through my heart. Does that make sense?”

Like his predecessor, Joe Biden, Trump is facing scrutiny over his health.

Trump’s response to questions about his health have made headlines in recent months after he was seen with what appeared to make-up on on his hand and was seen to be drowsy in a cabinet meeting in December and at a meeting to promote lower costs of GLP-1 weight-loss medication.

Elsewhere in the interview with the Journal, Trump said he begins his day early at an office in the White House residence before coming downstairs around 10am to work in the Oval Office, which he does until 7pm or 8pm. He said he asked his staff to modify his schedule so that he can have fewer, more important meetings that he can give more attention to.

Trump said he acted on the advice of his staff to slow his pace, including spending roughly two weeks at Mar-a-Lago, AKA the “winter White House”, over Christmas and New Year. They have also counseled him to try to keep his eyes open during public events.

Trump’s health and vitality is a sensitive issue, in part because the advancing frailty of Biden became a significant issue and led to questions about a cover-up by White House senior aides. They deny that they saw obvious signs of decline.

Trump’s Journal interview betrays frustration with his staff for not promoting his health more vigorously, the outlet said. “Let’s talk about health again for the 25th time,” he said. “My health is perfect.”

But Trump said he regretted undergoing a cardiovascular and abdominal advanced imaging scan during a routine health check-up in October because it drew attention. The White House initially said the screening was a CT scan, not an MRI.

“In retrospect, it’s too bad I took it, because it gave them a little ammunition,” Trump said. “I would have been a lot better off if they didn’t, because the fact that I took it said, ‘Oh gee, is something wrong?’ Well, nothing’s wrong.”

Trump’s doctor, US navy captain Sean Barbabella, told the Journal that his patient was in “exceptional health and perfectly suited to execute his duties as commander-in-chief”. The White House provided an AI-summary analysis of Trump’s electrocardiogram that gave him a cardiac age of 65.

But Trump acknowledged that he tried compression socks to combat swelling in his legs but soon took them off. “I didn’t like them,” he said, adding that he had begun to walk around more and that the situation had improved.

He said he was not interested in taking exercise other than a round of golf. “I just don’t like it. It’s boring,” Trump said. “To walk on a treadmill or run on a treadmill for hours and hours like some people do, that’s not for me.” Trump said he had plenty of energy, which he credited to genes he inherited from his parents.

“Genetics are very important,” he said. “And I have very good genetics.”