When Josefa Maria’s da Conceicao didn’t want her cigarettes that day, her family understood that something had changed.
It was early 2022. Conceicao, who has been a farmer in Brazil for most of his life, had just celebrated his 120th birthday.
Cicera, one of Conceicao’s four surviving daughters (who had 22 children), says: “My mother has smoked all her life. We tried to discourage her when she got older. But she started threatening us saying, ‘I’m going to go get my cigarettes.'”
“WORLD’S OLDEST PERSON” Sister ANDRE
His family says Conceicao is less active now than in past years. Conceicao was ‘discovered’ by a local television station a few years ago and became famous as the ‘oldest woman in the world’.
Conceicao’s birth date appears on his identity card as February 7, 1902. But it was not included in the Guinness Book of Records. The title of oldest living person currently belongs to 118-year-old French citizen Lucile Randon. Randon is better known as ‘Sister Andre’.
The oldest man is 113-year-old Venezuelan Juan Vicente Mora.
But Sister Andre may soon lose that record to others. In recent years, the number of people over the age of 100 has been increasing rapidly around the world.
NUMBER EXCEEDED 621 THOUSAND
According to the United Nations Census Bureau, by 2021, the number of people over the age of 100 worldwide has exceeded 621 thousand. This number is expected to exceed one million by 2030.
The number of people reaching the age of 100 in 1990 was only 92,000. Even that was a huge number back then.
Humanity has made great strides in life expectancy thanks to advances that have given us better medicine, food, and living conditions than our ancestors.
In 1960, when the UN began keeping records in this area, the average person’s life expectancy was 52.
Again, according to 2021 data, the ratio of people over the age of 100 to the world population is 0.008 percent.
The global life expectancy is 75.
This table differs from country to country. However, life expectancy in Japan is 85. In the Central African Republic, it is only 54.
Older people are also more likely to develop chronic diseases. Cell biologist at the University of Birmingham Prof. “Living long may not necessarily mean living well,” she says.
prof. According to Lord, a man spends an average of 16 years of his life with diseases ranging from diabetes to dementia. For women, this period is 19 years.
THE SECRET OF THE 110 YEARS OLD
Reaching 110 years old is even harder.
Only one in five million Americans reaches the age of 110, according to a long-term study by Boston University.
The number of 110-year-olds in the US in 2010 was around 60-70. In 2017, this number increased to 150.
This age group is of interest to scientists who study naturally aging.
prof. “These people are challenging things that happen to a lot of people in old age. We still don’t know how that happened,” Lord says.
The 110-year-olds are in relatively good health compared to their age.
For example, according to his family, Josefa Maria’s da Conceicao does not take daily medication. She can also say meat and sweets.
“I’M SURPRISE TO LIVING SO LIVE”
He can’t remember things though and his eyes are weak. “My mom can’t walk like she used to,” says her 76-year-old daughter, Cicera.
Josefa Maria’s da Conceica has smoked for most of her life, as we just mentioned. His childhood was spent in poverty.
A 2011 study by the American Geriatrics Society of more than 400 95-year-old Jewish Americans produced striking results.
About 60 percent of these people were heavy smokers. Half of them were overweight throughout their lives. Only 3 percent were vegetarian. Many were not even doing light exercise.
Professor of biogerontology at the University of Brighton. “We should first tell those who want to live that long that they shouldn’t seek longevity advice from people over 100 or 110,” says Richard Faragher.
“They have an inherently exceptional condition because they do the complete opposite of what we know helps a person live long.”
GENETIC SHIELD?
Scientists think genetics may play a big role in longevity.
People over the age of 100 or 110 seem to be able to protect themselves against aging.
Moreover, they are more immune to the bad habits that send many of us to the early grave.
Again, according to a 2020 study of Jewish Americans over the age of 100, they have a similar proportion of bad genetic variants to that of the general population.
The longest living person to date was a French national named Jeanne Calmet, who died in 1977 at the age of 122. Calmet is the only person known to have lived beyond 120 years of age.
However, Washington University experts think that within this century, humanity may see the age of 125 or even 130.