Long livers of the planet

  • 2010-08-11

According to the Guinness Book of Records the world’s oldest living person is Sarah Clarke Knossos. She was born on September 24th, 1880 in Hollywood (USA), and currently resides in Allentown. The woman, who is older than the Eiffel Tower, got married in 1901. She has a daughter, a grandson, three granddaughters, five great-great-grandsons and one great-great-great-grandson.

The oldest of long lived women, whose age was not doubted, was a French woman Jeanne Calment. She was born on February 21st, 1875, lived for 122 years and 164 days and died on August 4th, 1997. The oldest of male long livers was Shigechiyo Izumi, a Japanese man who lived 120 years and 237 days. He was born on June 29th, 1865 and at the age of six was registered in the first census in Japan. Izumi worked until the age of 105, liked to drink a glass or two of barley vodka and at the age of 70 he become addicted to smoking. He died on February 21st, 1986 from pneumonia.
In addition to cases of longevity that are proven by documents, quite often there are cases when long-living persons have lost their documents and they could not get into the Guinness Book of Records. Here are just some of them:

* Lee Tsinyun lived for 256 years (1677-1933, an urban legend)

* According to his passport, Shirali Muslimov lived for 168 years and was one of the oldest inhabitants of Azerbaijan.

* Another long-lived person was registered in that same country - Mahmud Oglu Bagir Eyvazov (1808-1960), who lived for 152 years.

* Sarhat Ibragimovna Rashidova – a long-liver-Azerbaijani. She lived in Dagestan. Born in 1875, under Alexander the Second and lived in three centuries. She was 42 years old when the revolution took place. The long-liver was found during passport exchange after the collapse of the USSR. The officials, exchanging her passport, did not believe at the beginning, but after an investigation they found out that the date of her birth is genuine. She died in 2007 aged 132 years.

* Nasir al- Hajry is a long-liver, who lives in the city of Al-Ain in the United Arab Emirates. In 2008, he was already 135 years old.

* Emey Hu is a long-liver from Taiwan (Republic of China). She died in August 2009 at the age of 125.

* Mohammed Khoja Duridi – long-liver born in 1887. He lives in Beit Lid (west bank of Jordan).

In Japan, people live longer than in most countries of the world: the number of people who have overstepped the centenary age is 36,276 (4,000 people more than in 2007) and the overwhelming majority among the long-livers are women.
There are many long-livers in the mountain town Karachaevsk (Karachay-Cherkessia). In this regard, the city opened a club called “The society of centenary jubilees”. All members of the club are over the age of 100.

There are many myths about the good physical form of long-livers. For example, there is the legend about the American nutritionist Paul Bragg who drowned at age of 95 while surfing. The first translator of Bragg’s books in the USSR – S.B. Shenkman took part in the spreading of this legend. In particular, he wrote: “Paul Bragg died in December 1976 at age 95. But he didn’t die from old age. The death of this man was a tragic accident: he was hit by a huge wave while surfing on the coast of Florida. However, according to the official documents, by the time of the death his age was 81. Bragg died in the South Coast hospital in Miami Beach (Florida) on December 7th, 1976. The official cause of death is heart attack after an accident while surfing.