For centuries, mankind has been trying to solve the riddle of longevity. Indeed, according to the Bible, before the Flood, people lived up to 900 years. And Methuselah did live up to 969 years.
However, scientists still do not know why this or that person becomes a super-long-liver. Some of these lucky people have been drinking, smoking and addicted to "various bad excesses" all their lives, while someone adheres to a strict diet and leads a correct lifestyle. We also do not know the answer to this question. But we know how old is the oldest person in the world.
The oldest living person
The oldest person on Earth right now is a resident of Japan, Kane Tanaka. According to the latest data from the Guinness Book of Records, this woman is the oldest resident of the Earth. Her age has already exceeded 117 years, and on January 2, 2021 she should be 118 years old.
The life of Kane Tanaka is vivid proof that you should not give up at any age. At 103, she was diagnosed with cancer (colon cancer), but the woman successfully overcame the disease and continues to enjoy life. She is sure that the secret of longevity lies in hope, family support, proper diet and sleep.
The previous long-lived record holder, Nabi Tajima, lived 117 years and 260 days, and passed away in 2018.
And the title of the oldest man in the world from the living men in February 2020, passed to the British Robert Waighton. His documented date of birth is March 29, 1908, and he has already celebrated his 112th birthday.
Robert Waiton died on 05/28/2020 in a dream from cancer.
Just imagine that the year he was born, Theodore Roosevelt was the president of the United States, the Tunguska meteorite fell in Siberia, and the Titanic have not even begun to build.
At one time, Waiton managed to work as an engineer and a teacher, visited Taiwan, Japan and Canada, and now lives in a nursing home in the city of Alton. He has two sons, a daughter, 10 grandchildren and 25 great-grandchildren. The long-liver himself walks for groceries, and on his walker there is a proud sign - 111. He drinks alcohol only in special cases, does not smoke and does not eat red meat. As for a particular diet, Robert Waighton does not have it.
“I have done nothing to earn or reach this age. I’m just one of the lucky ones, ”the oldest living man on Earth once said. And he recommended to those who want to live to his age only one. Do not die!
Before him, the oldest person in the world was Masazo Nonaka, a resident of Hokkaido, who died in 2019 at the age of 113.
Little did not reach his 113th birthday Chitetsu Watanabe, who at the beginning of this year officially awarded the title of the oldest man in the world from the Guinness Book of Records. He died recently, on February 23, 2020, at the age of 112 years, 355 days. During his life, Watanabe said that the secret of longevity lies in not being angry and smiling more often.
The oldest person ever to live
On August 4, 1997, Joan Kalman died in a nursing home in France. Surely the Grim Reaper would come for us all, but he took his time to Mrs. Kalman. She died at the age of 122 years and 164 days, setting an official record for human longevity.
Before her, the title "oldest person on the planet", according to the Guinness Book of Records, was worn by the Japanese Sigetie Izumi, born June 29, 1865 and died February 21, 1986, at the age of 120 years and 237 days. It is interesting that both Kalman and Izumi did not refuse to drink or smoke.
And unofficially, the oldest person on Earth was the Chinese Li Qingyun, presumably (since there are no documents confirming this), who was born in 1736 and died in 1933. Some sources even cite the year 1677 as the birth date of Qingyun. That is, at the time of his death, he was 256 years old.
Most of his life, this man was engaged in collecting medicinal herbs in the Sichuan mountains, and comprehending the secrets of longevity. When asked about the secret of his fantastically long life, he replied: "keep your heart quieter, sit like a tortoise, go wide awake like a dove and sleep like a dog." He also did qigong gymnastics and drank herbal infusion, the recipe of which was lost.
List of the oldest inhabitants of the planet
Here is what a dozen verified centenarians of the Earth look like, now living and having already left this world.
- Zhanna Kalman - lived 122 years.
- Sarah Knauss - lived 119 years.
- Lucy Hannah - lived 117 years.
- Nabi Tajima - lived 117 years.
- Maria Louise Meyer - lived 117 years.
- Violet Brown - lived 117 years.
- Emma Morano - lived 117 years.
- Misao Okawa - lived 117 years.
- Kane Tanaka - 117 years old, alive.
- Chiyo Miyako - lived 117 years.
There are no men in the top 10 centenarians, because the oldest of the verified centenarians (Jiroemon Kimura) lived 116 years and 54 days.
How long can a person live theoretically
According to the Bible, a person can theoretically live to the Methuselah century - 969 years. If you believe Li Qingyun, you can live over 250 years.
But an expert on aging at New York College of Medicine Albert Einstein, Jan Vidge doubts that we will again see long-livers like Jeanne Kalman. Over the past few decades, human life spans have increased. But now, Vij believes, we have reached the upper limit of human longevity and people will not cross the 115-year limit.
Dr. Vidge and his graduate students published evidence of this pessimistic prediction in Nature magazine in 2016.
Scientists analyzed how many people of different ages were alive in a particular year. Then they compared the numbers from year to year to calculate how fast the population grew in each age range. The fastest growing part of society is the elderly. For example, in France in the 1920s, the fastest growing group were 85-year-old women. And by the 1990s, the fastest growing group of French women had already reached 102 years of age. If this trend continued, the fastest growing group today could well be 110-year-olds. Instead, growth slowed and seems to have stopped.
Dr. Vidge and his students examined data from 40 countries and found the same general trend. Scientists felt that the reason is that people have finally reached the upper limit of their longevity.
With rare exceptions, such as Mrs. Kalman, people do not live to be 115 years old. This "wall" is obvious to the most long-lived people on Earth. “When you look at the second super-long-liver, and then the third, fourth and fifth, the trend is always the same,” said Dr. Vij. In the researchers' chart, Mrs. Kalman is an anomaly. Vija's team calculated how likely it is that someone will be able to survive it, given the current trends. Sentence: almost no one.
