Oldest Living Person Ever Documented

[zoobyshoe]

FRASQUIA, Bolivia (AP) — If Bolivia's public records are correct, Carmelo Flores Laura is the oldest living person ever documented.

They say he turned 123 a month ago.

The native Aymara lives in a straw-roofed dirt-floor hut in an isolated hamlet near Lake Titicaca at 13,100 feet (4,000 meters), is illiterate, speaks no Spanish and has no teeth.

He walks without a cane and doesn't wear glasses. And though he speaks the Aymara language with a firm voice, one must speak directly into his ear to be heard.

"I see a bit dimly. I had good vision before. But I saw you coming," he tells a group of journalists who visited after a local TV report about him...

http://news.yahoo.com/bolivia-records-aymara-herder-123-years-old-202553434.html

One of my grandmothers lived to be 103. She would have gotten to 123, but broke both her hips in her 90's and this forced her to become physically inactive the rest of her life. She went downhill steadily after the bone breaks.

I have to wonder how these long-lived mountain peasants avoid the bone deterioration that leads to hip breaking in the very elderly. Is it simply walking? My grandmother never walked, but she cleaned the house everyday, and did the usual amount of leg use of a homeowner.

 

[Astronuc]

http://news.yahoo.com/bolivia-records-aymara-herder-123-years-old-202553434.html

One of my grandmothers lived to be 103. She would have gotten to 123, but broke both her hips in her 90's and this forced her to become physically inactive the rest of her life. She went downhill steadily after the bone breaks.

I have to wonder how these long-lived mountain peasants avoid the bone deterioration that leads to hip breaking in the very elderly. Is it simply walking? My grandmother never walked, but she cleaned the house everyday, and did the usual amount of leg use of a homeowner.

I think it is mobility and daily use. My paternal grandfather lived to 103.5, but the last 6 months, he went downhill quickly after recurring repiratory infections landed him in bed in hospital. During his 3rd severe infection, it was decided not to resuscitate per his wishes. He did not want extraordinary measures and didn't want to live bed-ridden. He survived his wife by more than 20 years, so he was ready to go.

 

[mfb]

One of my grandmothers lived to be 103. She would have gotten to 123 [...]

That is very unlikely - mortality rates are above 50%/year at the age of 115.

There are many claims of extremely old people. As the age distribution of those is different from the age distribution of the confirmed ages, most of the 120+-claims are probably wrong.

 

[amos carine]

I think the lady in France was documented at 120 and some years. A lot of age slowing discussion is currently over calorie restrictive diets. The main principle there is that diseases take energy to form (think of hbp or diabetes, more pumping force or pumping greater viscosity takes more calories) and also that eating more is bad for dna by mutations or some mechanism. Her life was unstressful I think. As for diet, she said lots of olive oil "smothered on all her food" was why she lived so well. She also drank red wine, and smoked (I'm not sure what brand) modernity for some time. But I think the main thing to it was being active, and having a guaranteed roof over one's head. I'm sure genes had something to do with it. It's my opinion, not based on any research studies, that the time of being alive is pre determined, and damage by life style or environment is the only shorting factor, i.e. you can't make yourself live longer, but rather die slower. Living to be one hundred would be great, but trying to control what is not in your own ability is not a way to live care free.

 

[arildno]

The only currently accepted 120+ claim is that of Jeanne Calment, a French woman from the upper class who was born in 1875, and died in 1997, 122 years and 164 days old.

An earlier 120+ claim is that of Shigechiyo Izumi, who died in 1986, and reputedly born in 1865.
However, it transpired that he most likely was named after an older brother who had died earlier, and that Izumi was only 105 years old when he died.