Officially the oldest person ever
Jeanne Calment of France lived to be 122. She is the oldest person ever to have lived with a fully authenticated birth record. She died in 1997. In her youth she was a friend of Van Gogh's.

Jeanne was always healthy, riding a bike until she was 100. She smoked until she was 110, when she said, "it was becoming a habit." Until two years before her death she had a glass of port and a piece of her favourite chocolate every day.

The oldest person ever?
Elizabeth Israel, known as Ma Pampo on the Caribbean island of Dominica, is said to be 127. This should make her the oldest person alive today, however, there is no documentation to confirm her age. Ma Pampo gave up smoking in her 90s and was still working at 104. She attributes her long life to eating organically grown crops.

Oldest man in the world
Antonio Todde from Sardinia died just before his 113th birthday in January 2002. On his 112th birthday, Todde spoke about the secret of a long life. “Just love your brother and drink a good glass of red wine every day,” he said. Before his death, Todde held the Guinness world record for Oldest Living Man. 112 year old Yukichi Chuganji from Japan, now holds this title.

Oldest woman in the UK
Amy Hulmes, Britain's oldest woman, died at the age of 114 in 2001. Born in the year of Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee, she put her longevity down to drinking four bottles of Guinness every night and taking cold baths.

Previous oldest men in the UK
Harry Halford was the UK’s oldest man until he died in 2000 aged 109. Harry smoked until he was 65. He believed that the secret of his long life was that he started every day with a cooked breakfast.

Retired farmer David Henderson was the UK’s oldest man until he died in 1998, just shy of his 110th birthday. Mr Henderson attributed his long life to porridge, prunes and never going to bed on a full stomach.

The Okinawan Way
The inhabitants of Okinawa, Japan, have the longest life expectancy on the planet. Okinawan longevity is attributed in part to a healthy diet rich in vegetables and grains. But there’s more to it than that. Most lead active lives through into old age. Activities such as dancing, walking, gardening and gentle martial arts such as T'ai Chi are all popular among the middle aged and elderly.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/genes/future_human/health_agein g/longest_lived_people.shtml

That is very interesting!! Thank you, Harish

I wonder what it must be like to live until the age of 110 or more, it's amazing, really. To think those people lived an entire century is already amazing, and then they lived even more! Great info, thank you again!

My grandma actually could reach the magic 100 as well. She is now 93 years old and she is still in really good shape.

Harish, you did it again!...You amaze me with everything you can and usually do find out.


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Agnes (JTJ)

Chris,
I had one last to the age of 95 and the other to 99.5, both still living at home and looking after themselves. I think Meals-on-Wheels came in for one of them, but the other insisted on making apple pies for my father and mother. WOW!

However, my maternal grandmother wasn't very considerate. She didn't hang until she was 100, but we still got the telegram from the Queen and all the other dignitaries.