Woman Deemed World's Oldest Person Dies at 116 in Michigan

[Amph]

There are only two living people now who were born in the 19th century - both of whom were born in 1899. Just two years ago, that number was six. It's likely that there will be nobody born in the 19th century who is still living in a year or two from now.

Yup... there are two of them. Susannah Mushatt Jones (b. 6 July 1899) from the United States and Emma Morano (b. 29 November 1899) from Italy. The former will be 116 years old, in two weeks from now.

One interesting fact which I have noticed is that 20 out of the 45 oldest living people (as of now) are from Japan. What is the secret behind their longevity? Organic food? or better medical care?

emma morano was the one i was talking about, she eats 3 eggs per day, but raw

for japan it could just be that their genetic is different, they belong to a different kind of people

some say that it is for their food, other that it is because their life is less stressfull, it must be a combination of multiple factors

[deisik]

There are only two living people now who were born in the 19th century - both of whom were born in 1899. Just two years ago, that number was six. It's likely that there will be nobody born in the 19th century who is still living in a year or two from now.

Surely it's just a genetic lottery win? Humans certainly aren't designed to live that long and people with perfectly respectable lifestyles drop dead in their 50s and 60s every day.

I am not sure whether the secret for longevity lies in the genes or in the lifestyle. But you can't say that humans aren't designed to live that long. There are references from 400 or 500 year ago, about people living up to 100 year or more. As the living standards increase, along with the advancement in the medical science, longevity will increase further.

There are some physiological limits. Approximated limit of average lifespan is about 250 years. If we solve genetic issues then there still would be another limitation due to nature of our brain. To be exact, there is no possibility to remember more than 4000-5000 years of living experience. You won't die but you'll forget anything what happened before last 4000-5000 years of your hypothetically unlimited life. And there will be no way to recover these memories.

Where did you get that number from? Even with huge advances in medical technology and a significantly larger population, the maximum lifespan of humans seems to have a hard limit of about 120 years - not 250. The oldest people today aren't significantly older than the oldest people who lived 100, 200, or 300 years ago even though far more people are now reaching old age than previously. Jeanne Calment was the only person to live past 120 years and she was definitely an outlier.

I also heard that number. It is thought that 250 years (or something around that) is the potential longevity of the brain, that is, how long humans would live if their bodies didn't deteriorate with age. Though it is nothing more than speculation of course

A cure for all cancers (ignoring the fact that cancer is a collection of diseases with a myriad of causes far too complex to have a single cure) would increase the average lifespan by approximately 10 years. Curing heart disease would probably increase it by another 10 years. But even with the average lifespan at close to 100, I would still expect the oldest humans living in such a world to be no older than 120 years old.

I read that the total elimination of all forms of cancer would only add up 3 to 4 years to the average lifespan. On the hand, the naked mole-rat, the only mammal (with a few species of other mole-rates) which doesn't suffer from cancer at all due to its very special immune system, lives up to amazing 30 years (given that rats live only a few years)...

[shevon]

THAT'S OLD NEWS!

[bryant.coleman]

THAT'S OLD NEWS!

Jeralean Talley died just 5 days ago, and that is old news for you? With her death, just two individuals who were born in the 19th century remains alive. It will be better if you vent your anger against a particualr person, who has been bumping dozens of 1-year and 2-year old threads in this section for the past 2-3 weeks.

[Bizmark13]

There are only two living people now who were born in the 19th century - both of whom were born in 1899. Just two years ago, that number was six. It's likely that there will be nobody born in the 19th century who is still living in a year or two from now.

Surely it's just a genetic lottery win? Humans certainly aren't designed to live that long and people with perfectly respectable lifestyles drop dead in their 50s and 60s every day.

I am not sure whether the secret for longevity lies in the genes or in the lifestyle. But you can't say that humans aren't designed to live that long. There are references from 400 or 500 year ago, about people living up to 100 year or more. As the living standards increase, along with the advancement in the medical science, longevity will increase further.

There are some physiological limits. Approximated limit of average lifespan is about 250 years. If we solve genetic issues then there still would be another limitation due to nature of our brain. To be exact, there is no possibility to remember more than 4000-5000 years of living experience. You won't die but you'll forget anything what happened before last 4000-5000 years of your hypothetically unlimited life. And there will be no way to recover these memories.

Where did you get that number from? Even with huge advances in medical technology and a significantly larger population, the maximum lifespan of humans seems to have a hard limit of about 120 years - not 250. The oldest people today aren't significantly older than the oldest people who lived 100, 200, or 300 years ago even though far more people are now reaching old age than previously. Jeanne Calment was the only person to live past 120 years and she was definitely an outlier.

I also heard that number. It is thought that 250 years is the potential longevity of the brain, that is, how long humans would live if their bodies didn't deteriorate with age. Though it is nothing more than speculation of course

A cure for all cancers (ignoring the fact that cancer is a collection of diseases with a myriad of causes far too complex to have a single cure) would increase the average lifespan by approximately 10 years. Curing heart disease would probably increase it by another 10 years. But even with the average lifespan at close to 100, I would still expect the oldest humans living in such a world to be no older than 120 years old.

I read that the total elimination of all forms of cancer would only add up 3 to 4 years to the average lifespan. On the hand, the naked mole-rat, the only mammal which doesn't suffer from cancer at all due to its very special immune system, lives up to amazing 30 years (given that rats live only a few years)...

Hmm... You're right. I remembered seeing that 10 years figure on a blog/forum somewhere and never bothered to check it. It seems that curing cancer would only increase the average lifespan by slightly over three years while a cure for cardiovascular disease would increase it by just under seven years.

I wonder if curing both at the same time would yield a far better result, however. The reason why a cure for cancer only results in a three year increase in life expectancy is because of Taeuber's Paradox which states that those who would have died from cancer but didn't would have died from cardiovascular disease or some other age-related condition shortly afterwards anyway (and vice versa).

[Mehek]

How many of you guys think you can make it till 70?  

I will easily make it to 70, I have been exercising and eating well. I visit the doctors often, have a stable life and have my amount of fun. An occasional drinker of red wine, nothing else. So until I die due to accidents or one of my old bitches come try to kill me, I think my health will somehow make it till the 70 border line.

[deisik]

How many of you guys think you can make it till 70? 

I will easily make it to 70, I have been exercising and eating well. I visit the doctors often, have a stable life and have my amount of fun. An occasional drinker of red wine, nothing else. So until I die due to accidents or one of my old bitches come try to kill me, I think my health will somehow make it till the 70 border line.

It is actually beneficial to your health that you are thinking that you will make it to 70 (80, 90, or just believing in living forever). I understand that I will sound like a wet blanket, but I knew a few guys (among my personal acquaintances) who died really young (in their twenties and early thirties), all of a sudden, due to some unsuspected heart problem (otherwise being completely healthy and sporty)...

And one of them died of a stroke

[jayce]

I will easily make it to 70, I have been exercising and eating well. I visit the doctors often, have a stable life and have my amount of fun. An occasional drinker of red wine, nothing else. So until I die due to accidents or one of my old bitches come try to kill me, I think my health will somehow make it till the 70 border line.

That's great buddy. I think you can reach 80 if you do that routinely.

Living a healthy life in today's time is very tough and since we are used to eating the "unhealthy" food, we obtain a carefree nature that "When our time comes, we'll die. Why should we deprive myself of good food." Fruits, vegetables and milk is the best diet we can adopt but if you ask me to eat only boiled food stuffs or fruits everyday, I will not do it as I'm so used to my daily food that I can't give it up even for a healthy and long life. I've heard of women who exercise daily even when they cross 70-80 yrs. That's because they have been doing it all their life and can manage to walk without any support.

lol I'm not forcing you to eat the healthy food, I just gave you my opinion about the key of live longer    And yeah, we will face our die someday, but I think it would be better if we don't shorten our life with eat unhealthy food everyday. Atleast we can eat healthy food in one time per week. Btw, I have one advice else; don't be stress, and just laugh 

[ObscureBean]

Seriously though, why anyone would want to prolong their stay on earth? If you naturally live to be 100 or more fine but actively trying to avoid death feels kinda warped to me. I suppose everyone has their own reasons why they want keep on living.

[deisik]

Yup... there are two of them. Susannah Mushatt Jones (b. 6 July 1899) from the United States and Emma Morano (b. 29 November 1899) from Italy. The former will be 116 years old, in two weeks from now.

One interesting fact which I have noticed is that 20 out of the 45 oldest living people (as of now) are from Japan. What is the secret behind their longevity? Organic food? or better medical care?

According to this article, it's likely to be a mix of different factors at play - including food and medical care:

http://www.agewatch.org.uk/secrets-of-longevity/japanese-longevity/

It is noteworthy that in Japan the highest rate of centenarians is on the island of Okinawa (22 centenarians per 100,000 inhabitants), being the highest in the world, save for one place only, the Italian island of Sardinia, where the rate is the same. But the total population of Sardinia (as of 2011) is 1,639,362, while the population of Okinawa is 1,301,462 (as of 2014). Thereby Sardinia has more centenarians than Okinawa in absolute strength...

[jayce]

Seriously though, why anyone would want to prolong their stay on earth? If you naturally live to be 100 or more fine but actively trying to avoid death feels kinda warped to me. I suppose everyone has their own reasons why they want keep on living.

I think it would be great if we can live longer, watch everything that is being happening year by year, and then we tell what we experienced to our grandchild even to great-grandchild. But, the main point is keep healthy, I don't want keep on living sickly, because it's a just self-suffering and we would be a burden to our family.

[gentlemand]

Seriously though, why anyone would want to prolong their stay on earth? If you naturally live to be 100 or more fine but actively trying to avoid death feels kinda warped to me. I suppose everyone has their own reasons why they want keep on living.

My grandma absolutely loved to tell us all about how she couldn't wait to shuffle off her mortal coil. If you caught her first thing in the morning you'd see an entire kitchen table filled with vitamins ready for her to slurp up so she could dramatise another day.

It's like everything. You'll never know how it feels until you get there. I'm very intolerant of my body going wrong but if I was 100 and could still bench 15,000 pounds I'd probably still be curious to see what tomorrow had in store.

[greBit]

RIP Jeralean Talley. She was just 6 years short of the all time record, currently being held by Jeanne Calment of France (1875–1997), who died at the age of 122. The medical sector is getting more and more innovative now, and new drugs are being found. So in the future, it won't be unusual for people to live up to 120 years.

Yes but will the medical community be able to improve the quality of life at that age? Living that long would be great! Spending 30+ years as very elderly with limited mobility or freedom would be a challenge. (Not awful, just a challenge).

How long could you, would you want to, live elderly?

I agree, the quality of life is important indeed. My aunts got so frustrated with not being able to do the simplest of things like picking up the TV remote and changing the channel themselves, because they weren't sick. They were just weak. They had lived their lives fully, and their quality of life had fallen to such a level that they wished they would leave for their heavenly abode as soon as they could.

[deisik]

Surely it's just a genetic lottery win? Humans certainly aren't designed to live that long and people with perfectly respectable lifestyles drop dead in their 50s and 60s every day.

I am not sure whether the secret for longevity lies in the genes or in the lifestyle. But you can't say that humans aren't designed to live that long. There are references from 400 or 500 year ago, about people living up to 100 year or more. As the living standards increase, along with the advancement in the medical science, longevity will increase further.

There are some physiological limits. Approximated limit of average lifespan is about 250 years. If we solve genetic issues then there still would be another limitation due to nature of our brain. To be exact, there is no possibility to remember more than 4000-5000 years of living experience. You won't die but you'll forget anything what happened before last 4000-5000 years of your hypothetically unlimited life. And there will be no way to recover these memories.

This wouldn't a problem at all if we are able to prolong our life even 10-15 years beyond our genetic limits (which would be a huge advancement and step forward, still not possible today). The signal patterns that constitute memory can be recorded and duplicated later in a neural implant. Rats have already been successfully tested with such artificial memory brain implants substituting for their long-term memory, thus the technology, however rudimentary as of now, is already here...

Besides, we seem to forget insignificant details of our life and remember the most important (emotional) ones. In short, brain is not a primitive FIFO memory device