Long life has always attracted the attention of mankind. Recall at least attempts to create a philosopher's stone, one of the functions of which was to be immortality. Yes, and in modern times there are a lot of diets, recommendations about life and numerous pseudo-secrets that supposedly allow a person to live longer than fellow tribesmen. However, no one has yet been able to guarantee a lifespan increase, which is why people are curious about those who have succeeded.
Define in terms
First of all, it is necessary to figure out who should be classified as "long-livers of the planet". The most common definition is those whose age has exceeded 90 years. In this case, these people are quite a lot. Only in Russia there are about 350 thousand of them. Some sources suggest that long-livers are those whowho have already celebrated their centenary. And this is not a record either - there are almost seven thousand of them among Russians.
Second difficulty: who to believe and how to check. Any person can claim that he has turned, say, 150, and do it quite convincingly if he knows the history of his native land well. So the long-livers of the planet are conditionally divided into two groups: verified (that is, those whose age is documented) and conjectural - those who cannot accurately prove the date of birth.
And the third problem: choose a winner from those who are still alive, or take into account all those who have crossed the mark of 110 years? After all, many centenarians of the planet, the list of which is not so short, still managed to die.
Official record holder
The proven winner, who survived until 2012, was Georgian Khvichava, who was a little short of 133 years old. The documents confirming her birth in 1880 were found to be authentic, so that this oldest person (woman) was awarded an entry in the Guinness Book of Records and received a certificate. It is noteworthy that Khvichava maintained a lively mind until the last day. Despite the fact that her entire work experience was connected with agriculture, she was invariably interested in cutting-edge innovations: already shortly before her death, she wanted her relatives to teach her how to communicate with a computer. We can say that at the moment it is the oldest long-liver of the planet. No one has yet broken the record for the duration of earthly existence.
Second winner
And this is also a woman. She died even earlier than Khvichava, in 1997, but until that time she confidently held the championship. This time, the former oldest person was born in France, five years earlier than the Georgian, but, alas, she died, nine years short of the next record. Her life span was limited to 122 and a half years. The name of Jeanne Calment in the list of "Long-livers of the planet" was also noted for an indefatigable sense of humor, demonstrated until the last day. In addition, the Frenchwoman was just a volcano of energy: at 85 she started fencing seriously, at 100 she became interested in cycling, and almost professionally.
The most common age
In the summer of 2013, another one of those who are called long-livers of the planet died. He lived to be 115 years old, a Japanese from Kamiukawa named Jiroemon Kimura. He received the title of winner in 2012 due to the fact that there are no older people in the world who have evidence of their age in their hands. The recipes of centenarians, I must say, are diverse. If for Jeanne it was cheerfulness and activity, then for Kimura, first of all, a moderate and balanced diet.
By the way, the same number of years (115) lived the previous record holder - Christian Mortensen, a Dane by origin and an American in citizenship. His contributions to longevity recipes are no red meat, lots of fish, optimism, friends and singing.
115 seems to be the most popular age for long-lived people. Puerto Rican del Toro also lived up to these years and was also among the champions. But for the time beingno one has reached this milestone, so now the oldest is again considered the Japanese Tomoji Tanabe, born in 1895. However, there is not much left for him before the cherished date.
General statistics
It is noteworthy that there are many more women who are centenarians than men. So, in 2007, 84 people were officially registered in the world, who were over 110 years old, and only nine of them were male.
Those who are more than 100, but less than 110 years old in the world are almost two hundred thousand, and the sex ratio is again not in favor of men, although not so depressing.
A lot of centenarians are given by Japan and mountainous countries, including Abkhazia, Georgia, Circassia, Azerbaijan. In Karachaevsk, a club has even been created called the Society of Centennial Anniversaries, which includes eight members, the youngest of whom is 104 years old. And in Japan, there are more than 28 thousand of those over 100, and this figure is growing every year.
Unofficial Centenarians
However, so far we have listed those who, without any doubt, managed to prove their age. This list does not include other "most-most" - long-livers of the planet who did not have the opportunity to prove it for very objective reasons: wars, destroyed churches with records of newborns, small villages where there were no literates … However, the likelihood of their declared age real is very high. Therefore, it is still worth mentioning the Hungarians Petrij and Zortai, who lived 186 and 185 years respectively, the Ossetian Tense Abzive, who reached 180, the AlbanianHanger, who died at the age of 170, and Pakistani Sayyad Maboud, who was only a year short of 160.
Absolute record
If you do not require absolutely accurate evidence from the contender for the title, then the oldest long-liver of the planet has definitely already been established. The record belongs to a Chinese named Li Ching-Yun, who died in 1933. He himself considered the year of his birth 1736, that is, at the time of his death he was 197 years old. However, this age was refuted, and, oddly enough, in a big way. University professor Wu Changshin discovered documents showing Li's birth as early as 1677. Moreover, reliable, documented data on the congratulations of this person by the Chinese emperor have been preserved, and they refer to his anniversaries of 150 and 200 years. Such a double confirmation needs painstaking research, so Lee's title in the category "Centenarians of the planet" has not yet been proven, but not refuted.
Mysterious Country
However, this is not the only and not the biggest mystery regarding the life span of individual representatives of humanity. For more than a decade, scientists have been haunted by the mystery of the Indian Hunza tribe. Its members do not get sick, do not suffer from caries, have excellent eyesight and live more than 110 years all without exception. And this despite the fact that the neighboring tribes have a complete set of all modern (and even forgotten by civilization) diseases, and the average old age does not even reach 60. The Hunza have their own recipes for centenarians: meat - only on holidays, vegetables- raw, and a lot of fruit. The main thing in these principles of nutrition is to never deviate from them. Even in spring, in the absence of fresh fruit, they do not deviate from the chosen path. Instead of breakfast-lunch-dinner in these difficult months, the hunza drink a glass of fruit juice harvested last summer once a day.
Perhaps, the reasons for the longevity and relative youth of this people include their habit of swimming in ice water, as well as extreme physical activity. As a result, Hunza women and well over 60 give birth to he althy, viable offspring. And the researchers also noted the high natural cheerfulness of the Hunza, who attribute a significant part of their longevity to its account.
Scientists have not figured out why some people live longer than others. There are no recipes for longevity applicable to all: someone did not deny themselves bad habits, someone ate only fish or fruits, someone led an active life, and someone allowed himself to be lazy … The only common feature of all centenarians is optimism and cheerfulness. Maybe this is the cherished philosopher's stone?
