The most famous centenarians in the world. Reference. Interesting facts about the world's centenarians Who is 100 years old now

One of the oldest women in Italy, Theresia Staffler, died on Monday evening in the mountain town of Santa Valpurga in the northern Italian region of Trentino-Alto Adige at the age of 112. Staffler was far from the only famous centenarian whose age exceeded 100 years.

The length of human life depends on many reasons. This is a genetic predisposition, and the environment, and a person’s mood, his desire to live. Only a small fraction of one percent of the total number of people on Earth lives to be a hundred years old.

According to gerontological experts, the life expectancy of a modern person is 40% less than that allotted to him by nature: 100-120 years of active and fulfilling life is not the limit for the human body.

According to the World Health Organization classification, long-livers include elderly people who have crossed the 90-year mark.

According to the Guinness Book of Records, the limit for human life expectancy is 122 years. Jeanne Louise Calmat, a resident of France, born on February 21, 1875 in Arles, lived this long. Japanese resident Shigechio Izumi, who was born in 1865 and died of pneumonia in 1986, lived two years less.

But many scientists and journalists believe that the Guinness Book of Records does not have all the data on centenarians. Thus, a reporter from the Cairo newspaper Al-Akhbar talks about a man who, according to him, is 195 years old and perfectly remembers the opening of the Suez Canal.

The population census in Vietnam in 1991 also made its own adjustments to the question of centenarians. A man aged 142 was discovered in Cun Khol County, Nget Tinh Province. There, in Vietnam, they found a centenarian who was born in 1847, outlived her three husbands and has four children who are already over 100 years old.

According to unverified data, one of the oldest inhabitants of the planet was Chinese citizen Li-Chung-yang, who was born in 1680 and died in 1933 at the age of 253 years. However, these reports are not documented.

One of the oldest inhabitants of Colombia, Javier Pereira, lived to be 169 years old. A special postage stamp was issued in his honor. On the day Pereira turned 146 years old, government officials and senior officials came to congratulate him. They asked the hero of the day for his consent to issue a commemorative stamp with his image in his honor. Pereira agreed, but set a condition: at the bottom corner of the stamp it should be written: “I drink and I smoke.”

In the Soviet Union, a postage stamp was also issued in honor of the long-lived Mukhamed Eyvazov (he was 148 years old at the time). After this, Eyvazov lived for another three years. He died in August 1959.

An interesting case is described by English historians. In 1635, the peasant Thomas Parr came from the provinces to London to appear before King Charles as a miracle of longevity. Parr claimed that he had outlived nine kings and was 152 years old. In honor of the long-liver, the king threw a magnificent feast, after which Thomas Parr suddenly died. It was opened by the famous English doctor William Harvey, who discovered blood circulation. According to Harvey, Parr died of pneumonia, but, as legends say, the cause of his death was the rich treat at the king's table. Parr was buried with honors in Westminster Abbey.

Of the most famous centenarians, the following can also be noted:

Zoltan Petridzh (Hungary) - 186 years old.

Peter Zortai (Hungary) - 185 years old (1539-1724).

Cantigern is the founder of Glasgow Abbey. Known as Saint Mungo. Lived 185 years.

Tense Abziva (Ossetia) - 180 years old.

Huddiye (Albania) - 170 years old. His offspring numbered 200.

Hancer Nine (Türkiye). Lived 169 years. Died in 1964.

Sayyad Abdul Mabud (Pakistan) - 159 years old.

In the developed countries of the world there is a constant struggle for the survival and improvement of the nation, for increasing the life expectancy of each person. Increasing life expectancy in all countries of the world is achieved by reducing child mortality and reducing mortality from cancer and heart diseases. Thus, by defeating diseases, humanity strives to move closer to achieving the upper limit of human life.

Leonard Hayflick, a professor of anatomy at the University of California, based on his charts of human survival for individual countries and different periods, obtained a theoretical curve with an upper limit of 115 years. At the same time, Hayflick discovered another interesting pattern: it turns out that human life expectancy is proportionally related to the ratio of brain weight to body weight. The greater this ratio, the longer life, and this has changed quite dramatically at certain periods during evolution. The last time it significantly increased occurred 100 thousand years ago, after which it practically did not change, just as the ratio of brain weight to body weight did not change.

Leonard Hayflick also expressed an original point of view on the aging of the body. According to him, aging occurs after growth stops, and those creatures whose growth does not stop over time (shark, sturgeon, Galapagos tortoise) age very, very slowly.

Different scientists around the world speak differently about the upper limit of human life. The famous medieval physician Paracelsus believed that a person could live 600 years. Albrecht von Haller and Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland (scientists of the 18th century) considered the age of 200 years to be the limit of human life. Russian scientists Ilya Mechnikov and Alexander Bogomolets spoke about 160 years.

As paradoxical as it may sound, rarely do any long-livers die a natural death directly from old age. Almost always the cause of death is various diseases - cardiovascular, oncological, infectious.

In his “Etudes of Optimism,” Mechnikov pointed out that “in 1902 in Paris, out of 1000 deaths between 70 and 74 years, only 85 people died of old age. Most old people died from contagious diseases: pneumonia and consumption, from heart disease, kidney disease or cerebral hemorrhage." Even the famous long-livers, the Englishman Thomas Parr (152 years old) and the Turk Zara Aga (156 years old), died not from age, but from disease (the first from pneumonia, the second from uremic coma caused by prostate disease).

Among centenarians, drunkards are often found. The surgeon Politiman died at 140 years old (1685-1825); From the age of 25, he used to get drunk every day after finishing his studies. Gascony, a butcher in Trieu (Pyrenees), who died in 1767 at the age of 120, got drunk twice a week. The example of one Irish landowner Brown, who lived to be 120 years old, is striking. He bequeathed a tombstone inscription to be made for him, stating that “he was always drunk and so terrible in this state that death itself was afraid of him.”

But some centenarians loved wine, others coffee. So, for example, the famous Voltaire loved coffee very much, and when one doctor began to tell him that coffee is poison, Voltaire replied: “It will be 80 years since I have been poisoned by this poison.” Coffee lover Elizabeth Durien lived to be 114 years old.

They say that smoking shortens life. However, many centenarians smoked. Ross, who received the Longevity Award at age 102 (1896), was a heavy smoker.

Scientists have always been interested in the so-called “foci of longevity,” isolated areas where people live much longer than in other places and retain vitality and energy until the end of their lives. One such region is Abkhazia, where almost 3% of the population are centenarians, over 100 years old.

In 2000, there were an estimated 70,000 to 80,000 people in the United States aged 100 years or older. Centenarians represent one of the fastest growing age groups in the US population.

The average life expectancy in Cuba, a neighbor of the United States, is one of the highest in the world: 76 years. At the same time, for the country's 11 million population, there are about 3 thousand people who have crossed the century mark.

Taiwan boasts the number of its centenarians over 100 years of age. According to the Xinhua Agency as of October 2009, there are 1,223 of them in the state. Among the elderly people, 853 are women and 370 are men. The oldest of them are a 116-year-old resident of Kaohsiung City and a 113-year-old resident of Lianhua County, Taipei City.

In November 2009, peasant Halima Solmaz, the oldest woman on the planet who lives in eastern Turkey in the highland province of Diyarbakir, turned 125 years old. In confirmation of this, a representative of the provincial census bureau showed the identity card of the ecumenical hero of the day, which recorded the date of birth of grandmother Halime - 1884.

On January 11, 2010, at the age of 112, one of the oldest women in Italy, Theresia Staffler, died in the mountain town of Santa Valpurga in the northern Italian region of Trentino-Alto Adige.

Staffler, who was born in 1898, managed to live in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. She ranked 45th on the world list of centenarians.

Teresia will be buried by her two daughters, who are 88 and 85 years old, as well as numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources

Many factors influence life expectancy. It has been proven that only 25% is due to genetics, the remaining 75% depends on lifestyle.

In fact, the key to longevity is in our hands! If you improve your quality of life, eat in moderation, give up bad habits, make physical activity an integral part of your life and stop worrying about trifles, you can completely increase your chances of a long and happy life. But there are other rules. We have collected here the secrets of longevity of the oldest people in the world who lived more than 100 years.

Scientists have come to an unexpected conclusion: if you look at the world with optimism, it increases your chances of living a long life. Positively-minded people are friendly, know how to forgive insults, meet many difficulties with laughter, and laughter, as is known, improves health, as it lowers blood pressure and reduces the risk of heart attacks.

Ksenia Tripolitova (102 years old), Russian ballerina

This woman is distinguished by optimism and a great will to live, and this, she believes, is the main secret of her longevity.

Quote from a centenarian

Perhaps God gave me such a long life because of my character. I am a big optimist! If you look at life with a positive attitude, then you will live a long time! I always smile and very rarely cry. And I really want to live! But don't take this for impudence. I just love life in all its manifestations. I love to travel and want to visit beautiful places, which are still unknown to me. I like to drive a car myself, and I also really like to fly on airplanes.

Another “recipe” for longevity from Ksenia Tripolitova says that discipline and the ability to work hard also work wonders, forcing you to keep yourself in good shape. The only downside is that when you are no longer doing “the work of your life,” it becomes a little more difficult to pull yourself together.

Quote from a centenarian

I have always worked hard, including on myself. When you look at the stage as a spectator, ballet is beautiful! But in reality, this is hard, exhausting work, a kind of “hard labor in lace,” as Maya Plisetskaya often said. You know, I still have dreams in which I dance, and I wake up with the realization that something is not working out for me. While she continued to dance, she held herself, after all, ballet disciplines. And now no gymnastics and, especially, no diet. She turned into a terrible lazy woman! I tell myself that I’ll take charge of myself starting Monday, but time passes and I still can’t make up my mind!

Ksenia Arturovna Tripolitova was born on April 24, 1915 in the city of Vilna, but in her historical homeland I practically didn’t live. First the revolution, then civil war, and ballet brought her to Paris, where she spent almost her entire life. But she stayed in this city for another reason: a fateful meeting took place there. This was her future husband, dancer Nikolai Tripolitov.

He considers the most important secret of his longevity to be his special, inherent outlook on life. But other factors also play a significant role, for example, playing sports, which a man continues to do despite his age.

Quote from a centenarian

I don’t hold any grudges or grudges against anyone, I try to forget about troubles, and I look into the future with hope and faith! I go in for sports: cycling, volleyball, tennis, I like to play chess, shoot at the shooting range, and my hand still doesn’t shake. And at home I have an exercise bike. I am convinced that when a person moves, it means he lives!

But I never followed any special diet, but there was moderation in food. I didn’t smoke, I wasn’t a drunk either, but on occasion I wouldn’t refuse a glass of real moonshine.

Alexey Nikolaevich Botyan was born on February 10, 1917. During the Great Patriotic War he was a scout. In 1983 he retired due to age. In 2007, he received the title of Hero of the Russian Federation for courage and heroism. Lives in Moscow. Until now, many of the events of his life are classified as “secret”. He became the prototype for the main character of the popular Soviet television series “Major Whirlwind”.

Emma Morano (117 years old), Italian centenarian

She herself believed that it was partly a matter of genetics, because the woman’s pedigree had previously encountered long-livers. For example, her mother, aunt, and some sisters and brothers lived for more than 90 years, and her sister Angela died at the age of 102. But this woman called her innate optimism the most important reason for her longevity.

Quote from a centenarian

I managed to maintain a positive attitude despite all the trials in life that befell me. And an important role, in my opinion, was also played by the fact that I was married very little. I no longer had to waste my energy on relationships with men. Besides, I couldn’t allow anyone to boss me around again, so I chose to remain single.

However, the diet that Emma Morano followed throughout her life baffles proponents of a healthy lifestyle. Her attending physician admitted that the woman’s diet was low in vegetables and fruits.

Quote from a centenarian

I ate meat and at least three eggs every day (according to different sources - raw or soft-boiled), quite often I indulged myself in chocolate, and sometimes I allowed myself to drink a glass of brandy.

Emma Martina Luigia Morano was born on November 29, 1899. The personal life of the centenarian was not cloudless. Her fiancé, whom she loved very much, died during the First World War. Then she was married to Giovanni Martinuzzi, but did not find happiness with him. After the death of their six-month-old son, the woman plucked up courage, kicked her husband out of the house and since then never remarried. She was proud of her independence from men and was completely self-sufficient, continuing to work until she was 75 years old. She died on April 15, 2017.

Everyone knows how important the principles of rational nutrition are, but few adhere to them. But eating really healthy foods and eating in moderation can prolong life, while an unbalanced diet, overeating and, as a result, excess weight shorten it. Diet crazes, which mostly recommend limiting fats or carbohydrates, also do not add to your health. As a result, we deprive our body of important nutrients. The only thing you need to minimize in your diet is easily digestible carbohydrates and “bad fats.” In the second case, we are only talking about too fatty or fried foods; do not forget that fats should be present in a reasonable amount in the nutrition menu.

Sergei Ivanovich Protopopov (102 years old), Moscow culinary specialist

Sergei Ivanovich considers adherence to the principles of proper nutrition to be his most important secret to longevity. He hasn’t eaten fatty, spicy or sweet foods for a long time, doesn’t overeat and chooses only natural foods. In his opinion, it was his eating habits that helped him maintain his health.

Quote from a centenarian

I start my morning with porridge, and most of all I like lentil and buckwheat. At lunch I treat myself to soup with vegetables, but I haven’t cooked it with broth for a long time. I eat fish and meat only boiled or stewed. I like to add dried herbs or chopped roots (my favorite herbs are parsley, celery, dill) - they add richness to the taste of the dish. I try not to eat after six in the evening, but at night I always drink 200 ml of kefir. Besides this, I move a lot. In the mornings I have a physical education session, in the evenings I have a half-hour walk in the fresh air, and in the summer I add a vegetable garden.

The culinary specialist also believes that the reason for his longevity was the fact that he found his calling. It would be difficult to go to work as if it were hard labor, because we spend a lot of time there.

Quote from a centenarian

I was not mistaken in choosing a profession, although I went into it to eat my fill. This is what I thought at the age of 14, when my sister and I were riding in a cab and on the street we saw cooks in snow-white caps.

Another activity that Sergei Ivanovich considers important and which, in his opinion, also makes him a long-liver, is communication with the younger generation and the transfer of accumulated experience. The interest of the listeners is understandable. Who else can tell in vivid colors about the history of Russian cuisine of the 19th-21st centuries, if not the one who saw it all with his own eyes? He teaches on a voluntary basis and does not take money for his lectures.

By the way!

It is believed that modesty is also a factor in longevity. Great wealth promises an extra headache. You will have to expend energy to maintain it.

Quote from a centenarian

“If my knowledge is in demand, how can I not pass it on?” Sergei Ivanovich is sincerely surprised. – “I never chased big money. I have always believed that excessive ambition is harmful to health. After all, we don’t need much: a roof over our heads, clothes and food. Believe me, this is not philosophical reasoning on my part; nevertheless, over the past 100 years I have seen a lot, and times have been different.”

Sergei Ivanovich Protopopov was born on February 15, 1915. Just 3 years after graduating from culinary school, he became the youngest chef (at that time he was only 18 years old). For 20 years he was the chief culinary specialist in Moscow. He has awards for his work during the war years.

A healthy lifestyle is an important part of our life. The basis here is giving up bad habits and physical activity. Don't like sports, but working out in the gym makes you bored? Don't exercise for the sake of exercise, look for something you like. This could be swimming, hippotherapy, cycling, dancing or running in the fresh air. Continue the list yourself! And, as an option, just make adjustments to your usual lifestyle. Skip the car and walk or bike, and instead of using the elevator, just take the stairs. Let physical activity become an integral part of your daily life.

Ivan Fedorovich Voloshin (106 years old), engineer and chess player

Quote from a centenarian

“A healthy lifestyle is my recipe. Maximum movement, morning exercises, swimming in the sea, physical labor, and also food grown with your own hands in the garden. On holidays - a shot of vodka and salted tomatoes for a snack, but in moderation.

You also need to try to do only good to people and avoid stress! Chess helps me with this - when I play, my nerves return to normal!” - the long-liver admits.

Ivan Fedorovich Voloshin was born on August 23, 1910. He graduated from the Polytechnic Institute, receiving the profession of engineer. He worked in the ship repair industry, including during the Great Patriotic War. Marked by the government (there are awards for conscientious work). Currently lives in Vladivostok.

As a child, Ivan Fedorovich became interested in chess and carried his love for it throughout his life. He won the Far Eastern championships, then became known throughout the country - it was the Vladivostok-Leningrad radio match in 1949. He also passed on his knowledge to young people and taught them how to play chess.

Vasily Mikhailovich Kiporuk (101 years old), rose from a simple village worker to the head of a collective farm

This man considers a healthy lifestyle to be the key to his longevity.

Quote from a centenarian

I never smoked, I only drank alcohol on holidays. Every morning I do exercises, until I complete my usual exercises, I don’t sit down at the table for breakfast.

Another reason for longevity, according to Vasily Mikhailovich, lies in the attitude towards life and the world in general.

Quote from a centenarian

You should not experience negative emotions, and even better, you should try never to be angry or offended at anyone. You should take care of your nerves, then your health will be stronger, but you should try to find a compromise with people.

Vasily Mikhailovich Kiporuk was born on October 4, 1913. His whole life is connected with the village. He learned the basics from his father, but always wanted to learn for real, so he later entered an agricultural technical school, where he received the profession of agricultural technician. Now he lives in the Omsk region and is an honorary citizen of his district.

Surprisingly, smart people live longer. By the way, like people of creative professions. This is probably because they are happy to get involved in new projects. If you want to live long, train your brain and memory from a young age!

Fruma Polevik (102 years old), Russian centenarian

This is exactly what Fruma Polevik does. She believes that the main secret to her longevity is mental clarity.

Quote from a centenarian

Train not only your body, but also your mind. Of course, it is very useful to monitor your health and lead a healthy lifestyle. This is what I do: I start the morning with gymnastics and measuring my blood pressure. But I also read a lot of books, because they are a great memory trainer!

In addition, the woman believes that all the hardships that she had to experience hardened her and instilled in her an unbending will to live.

Quote from a centenarian

If you don't want to die, no one will force you to do it! Always maintain good spirits, be cheerful and good-natured.

Fruma Polevik was born on July 21, 1914. She had to endure many trials: war, the death of her husband. The woman raised two children on her own. Despite her age, she can hardly be called elderly - she still carefully looks after herself. Now lives in the city of Stavropol.

Yuliy Porfirievich Ksyunin (103 years old), submariner

By his example, the veteran shows that it is never too late to learn, and the thirst for knowledge, as he believes, prolongs life. When he was over 80, he mastered the computer. It all started with the fact that he was persuaded to start working on his memoirs.

Quote from a centenarian

I asked my grandson to show me how to use the computer and mastered it quite quickly. This is not such a difficult matter after a submarine! Even despite my age. I wrote the book “Notes of a Submariner” for about 5 years. Everyone was surprised how a person with my education and mentality could do this without a staff of editors and proofreaders. But my wife always helped me. We lived together for 60 years (she died almost immediately after we celebrated our diamond wedding). She supported me in everything and was my main critic.

When asked about other reasons for longevity, he says that everything is the will of Providence and there is a place for miracles.

Quote from a centenarian

I thought about this question, even wrote scientific papers. But then I realized that if you take my life as an example, it’s just a miracle. I spent the entire war on a submarine. The conditions were almost hard labor and people could not stand it for long: we slept little, in a “half-lying, half-sitting” position, and went out to sea in the winter. As a result, I was demobilized for health reasons. The bouquet of sores was truly impressive. I thought I’d come home and my wife would bury me almost immediately. Doctors recommended changing the climate. I liked it in Tambov - I settled there! And then the diseases disappeared somewhere. What was this if not a miracle!?

But he immediately adds that a healthy lifestyle, proper nutrition and lack of stress also play an important role.

Quote from a centenarian

I was interested in fishing and hunting, and enjoyed gardening. I used to douse myself with cold water, I liked it because it gave me a boost of energy for the whole day. I consciously quit smoking when I had lived a little more than half my life, although I had been a heavy smoker since I was 17 years old. I always watched my diet: I didn’t overeat, I ate little fatty foods. My diet is now quite simple: oatmeal in the morning; for lunch - fish or chicken soup, but without a second course; I also make sure to eat 2-3 apples a day, and at night I drink fermented baked milk or kefir. And we also need to remain human in any situation, swear and get angry less, because this affects not only our body, but also the education of the future generation.

Yuliy Porfirievich Ksyunin was born on February 10, 1914. I got into the navy by accident, but spent a total of 26 years. After demobilization he became a teacher. He taught descriptive geometry and technical drawing for 48 years.

Hard work is also considered a factor influencing life expectancy. It is believed that this way a person retains clarity of mind and the will to live longer. Idleness and laziness, on the contrary, can cause a loss of interest in life and, as a consequence, death.

He sincerely believed that a person's life expectancy depends on his ability to work.

Quote from a centenarian

If the Lord protects me, it means that I have not done everything in my life yet. But there must be moderation in everything. You can't turn yourself into a cornered horse. It is imperative to rest, so I sleep for a long time, although I go to bed late, and I always take a break before the performance.

A healthy lifestyle also plays, in his opinion, an important role and delays old age. Vladimir Mikhailovich to other species physical activity I preferred walks in the fresh air and tried not to overeat.

Relatives say

“Popular rumor attributed to him a love for buckwheat porridge, but in fact he ate any food, as long as it was appetizingly prepared. However, the portions were always small, one might say, childish,” recalls the actor’s third wife, Zeldina Ivetta Evgenievna (nee Kapralova).

And he had never smoked in his entire life, so he could not stand tobacco smoke. Out of respect for him, no one smoked in his presence.

Quote from a centenarian

The environment where you grew up, that is, your family, leaves an imprint on your entire future life. There was never any smoking or drinking in our house, and no one got into trouble with anyone.

Being a creative person, he often depicted love on stage. And this, in his opinion, also affected life expectancy for the better.

By the way!

Interest in beauty, including caring for a woman, is as useful as going on excursions to a museum, because this way a positive attitude is formed and the inner world is enriched. The main thing is to know when to stop and not turn into the most common womanizer.

Quote from a centenarian

I consider myself a very amorous person, but this often happens due to my profession. This is necessary for the viewer to believe me, so when I play the role, I fall in love.

Vladimir Mikhailovich Zeldin was born on January 28 (according to other sources - February 10), 1915. Lived in Moscow. He worked at the Moscow Academic Drama Theater for more than half a century and celebrated his 100th anniversary on stage, remaining in the profession. Passed away on October 31, 2016.

Tanzilya Nasikhanovna Bisembeeva (121 years old), ethnic Kazakh, Russian centenarian

The children of this woman primarily associate her longevity with her ability to work, but at the same time note her responsiveness and ability to notice only the good in people.

Relatives say

Our mother is very hardworking and worked tirelessly until she was very old. She is also always kind to people and looks at life only positively.

Surprisingly, during her long life, the woman first turned to doctors only after she turned 100 years old. Then her eyesight failed her and she needed eye surgery. She herself believes that the key to her good health also lies in a weekly bath (she likes it hot) and her favorite home-made dishes - milk, kefir and cream.

Tanzilya Nasikhanovna Bisembeeva was born on March 14, 1896. Since childhood, she was accustomed to working: she helped her parents run the household, looked after younger brothers and sisters. Then she worked on a collective farm.

The woman was married twice. The first husband was declared missing during the Great Patriotic War. She met her second husband when she was 50 years old, and at that time he was over sixty, but this did not stop them from becoming parents and raising three sons. Now she lives with the family of her youngest son. Her name was included in the Russian Book of Records in 2016.

Leila Denmark (114 years old), American pediatrician, was one of the developers of the whooping cough vaccine

Leila Denmark didn't like to talk about her age, but she could talk for hours about children and how to make them healthier and happier. She was an outstanding pediatrician and devoted her entire life to this profession, continuing to work until she was 103 years old. She never stopped seeing patients.

Many believe that the secret to her longevity is her love of work.

Quote from a centenarian

I've never worked a day in my life. If you love what you do, it's no longer work, it's just a game!

She believed that the key to children's health lies in family relationships and encouraged parents to love each other. Perhaps the reason for this philosophy is that she herself was a happy woman, having been married to her husband for more than 60 years. And a happy person lives longer! She took his death seriously and even wanted to leave her job for this reason, but then continued her medical practice.

Quote from a centenarian

I enjoyed every minute of my life with him and, if I had a chance to become young again, without hesitation, I would again accept his marriage proposal.

Leila Alice Denmark was born February 1, 1898. Having decided to connect her career with medicine, she was the only woman at that time to graduate from the Medical College of Georgia. Soon after, she became the wife of bank employee John Eustace Denmark, and they later had a daughter. She has many awards in the field of medicine. She passed away on April 1, 2012.

Alice Herz-Sommer (110 years old), pianist, music teacher, memoirist

She never tired of repeating that it’s all about the music. It was from her that she drew strength. It was not a job, but a calling, her life’s work. She gave people a feeling of beauty.

Quote from a centenarian

“I had such a wonderful life. Everything about her was beautiful: love, nature and music. I believe that people don't need food if they have something spiritual in their lives. Music was our food, our food. Through her we maintained life. I also laughed constantly. Always! Music made me happy. I knew we would play. And when you have the opportunity to play, nothing can be truly terrible,” she said about her time spent in a concentration camp.

She loved what she did, and when you are passionate about something, it can also prolong your life.

Quote from a centenarian

The worst thing that can happen in human life is boredom! If people don’t know what to do with themselves, it means they are truly poor.

The secret of her longevity is also her inexhaustible optimism. It seems that she gets more joy from one ordinary day than some people do in their entire lives. After the death of her son, in order to survive the bitterness of loss, she became interested in philosophy, which helped her understand everything that happened to her and come to terms with it, as well as maintain boundless good spirits and optimism.

Quote from a centenarian

We are all good and bad, but I try to notice only the good. There's no point in complaining, because when people do that, nothing changes. Yes, I survived many wars, there were many losses in my life, including the death of my husband, parents and only son. Nevertheless, life is beautiful, it is given in order to learn and enjoy. I have no time for pessimism and hatred. After all, hatred eats the soul of the one in whom it lives. Everything we experience is a gift and we should appreciate it, be grateful for it and pass it on to those we love.

Alice Herz-Sommer was born on November 26, 1903. She became the wife of entrepreneur Leopold Sommer in 1931. Their son Raphael was an outstanding cellist.

At 39, she was at the pinnacle of success, but in 1942 her life turned into a real tragedy. Being a Jew, she and almost all her relatives ended up in a concentration camp. Only she and her son managed to survive. They were saved by the music and talent of this amazing woman. After the end of the war, Alice Hertz-Sommer gave music lessons. She died on February 23, 2014.

Adequate sleep is very important for the body. You need to properly distribute your strength, alternating periods of sleep and wakefulness. If you work continuously, irreparable things can happen, even at a young age. In addition, during night sleep a hormone called melatonin is produced. Its deficiency is responsible for premature aging and many diseases. In addition, you should follow a daily routine. Due to this, the body adapts to living conditions, the necessary stereotypes are developed, which, in general, contributes to longevity.

Misao Okawa (117 years old), Japanese centenarian

Quote from a centenarian

To live long, you need to sleep at least 8 hours a day (and, if possible, also rest during the day), be able to relax and eat well.

Until her last days, the Japanese centenarian maintained a good appetite and drank a cup of coffee every day. Her favorite dish was sushi, which she was ready to eat three times a day. Her other favorite dish was ramen (traditional Japanese wheat noodle soup in fish or meat broth). She also loved rice with mackerel.

Let us note that Misao Okawa has never been seriously ill in her entire life, and doctors claim that her strong psyche also helped her live to an old age.

Misao Okawa was born on March 5, 1898. When she turned 21, she married businessman Yukio Okawa. This woman considers the happiest event in her long life to be marriage and the birth of children (they had two daughters and a son), and the saddest event is associated with the death of her husband, who left her very early - in 1931. She died on April 1, 2015.

Chronic stress suppresses the immune system, while the absence of this condition is the key to good health and, as a result, longevity.

His strength was not weakened and his strength was not exhausted"), Joseph the Beautiful and Joshua lived 110 years each.

True, some scientists believe that the age of the patriarchs could be measured according to the ancient Egyptian calendar - at the rate of one month per year, or according to the custom of the ancient Jews - two months per year. Then there is nothing unusual about the age of these centenarians. As the Bible says, subsequently people began to sin more and more, gradually reduced and finally, according to Moses, it was established in “three terms and ten years” (3 times 20 years and 10 years, that is, 70 years).

An interesting case is described by English historians. In 1635, the peasant Thomas Parr came from the provinces to London to appear before King Charles as a miracle of longevity. Parr claimed that he had outlived nine kings and was 152 years old. In honor of the long-liver, the king threw a magnificent feast, after which Thomas Parr suddenly died. It was opened by the famous English William Harvey, who discovered blood circulation. According to V. Harvey, Parr died from, but, as legends say, the cause of his death was the abundant treat at the king’s table. Parr was buried with honors in Westminster Abbey.

Of the most famous centenarians, the following can also be noted:

Zoltan Petridzh (Hungary) - 186 years old.

Peter Zortai (Hungary) - 185 years old (1539-1724).

Cantigern is the founder of Glasgow Abbey. Known as Saint Mungo. Lived 185 years.

Tense Abziva (Ossetia) - 180 years old.

Huddiye (Albania) - 170 years old. His offspring numbered 200.

Hancer Nine (Türkiye). Lived 169 years. Died 1964

Sayyad Abdul Mabud (Pakistan) - 159 years old.

200-300 years ago, many centenarians were found in Russia. Now there are few of them in our country and we rank one of the last in terms of life expectancy. Places in Europe. If you look into history, you can find quite a lot interesting facts about the centenarians of our country . Captain Margeret, who hired himself to serve Tsar Boris, wrote with surprise in his book “The State of the Russian State” (1606): “Many Russians live to be 90-100 and 120 years old and only in old age are they familiar with diseases. With the exception of the king and the most important nobles, no one recognizes medicine. Feeling sick, a commoner usually drinks a good glass of vodka, pouring a charge of gunpowder into it, or mixing the drink with crushed garlic, and immediately goes to the hospital, where he sweats in extreme heat for two or three hours.”

The average life expectancy of the Russian population in 2003 was 65 years, with 59 years for men and 72 years for women.

In the developed countries of the world there is a constant struggle for the survival and improvement of the nation, for increasing the life expectancy of each person.

An increase in life expectancy in all countries of the world is achieved by reducing child mortality and reducing mortality from and. In this way, by defeating diseases, humanity strives to get closer to achieving the upper limit of human life.

Leonard Hayflick, a professor of anatomy at the University of California, based on his charts of human survival for individual countries and different periods, obtained a theoretical curve with an upper limit of 115 years. At the same time, Hayflick discovered another interesting pattern: it turns out that human life expectancy is proportionally related to the ratio of brain weight to body weight. The greater this ratio, the longer life, and this has changed quite dramatically at certain periods during evolution. The last time it significantly increased occurred 100,000 years ago, after which it practically did not change, just as the ratio of brain weight to .

Leonard Hayflick also expressed an original point of view on the aging of the body. According to him, aging occurs after growth stops, and those creatures whose growth does not stop over time (shark, sturgeon, Galapagos tortoise) age very, very slowly.

Different scientists around the world speak differently about the upper limit of human life. The famous medieval physician and chemist Paracelsus believed that a person could live 600 years. Albrecht Haller and F. Hufeland (scientists of the 18th century) considered the age of 200 years to be the limit of human life. Russian scientists Ilya Mechnikov and A. Bogomolets spoke about 160 years.

As paradoxical as it may sound, rarely do any long-livers die a natural death directly from old age. Almost always the cause of death is various diseases - cancer, cancer.

In his “Etudes of Optimism” I. Mechnikov pointed out that “in 1902 in Paris, out of 1000 deaths between 70 and 74 years, only 85 people died of old age. Most of the old people died from contagious diseases: pneumonia and consumption, from diseases , kidney or cerebral hemorrhage."

Even the previously mentioned famous long-livers, the Englishman Thomas Parr (152 years old) and the Turk Zara Aga (156 years old), died not from age, but from illnesses (the first from pneumonia, the second from uremic in 1888 in the newspaper “New Time” he wrote with irony: “ ... It turns out that among the centenarians there are all kinds of subjects - fat and skinny, straight and hunched, strong and weak, smokers and non-smokers, with and without them, plethoric and anemic, rich and poor. More than 2/3 of these centenarians are women. ...

...How they glorified, for example! And yet, almost all hundred-year-old Englishmen ate animal food and sometimes large quantities. One hundred-year-old woman had such a nice meal that she went so far as to eat three fried chickens for breakfast. But she drank little and never drank wine. In contrast, one of the men in the English collection was drinking more than he could at 104 years old.”

Each of the factors that, at first glance, can seemingly be attributed to influence durability, eludes when considering a sufficient number of examples. Moderation is undoubtedly one of the reasons for longevity, although, of course, not the only one.

Among centenarians, they are not very rare. Politiman died at 140 years old (1685-1825); From the age of 25, he used to get drunk every day after finishing his studies. Gascony, a butcher in Trieu (Pyrenees), who died in 1767 at the age of 120, got drunk twice a week. The example of one Irish landowner Brown, who lived to be 120 years old, is striking. He bequeathed a tombstone inscription for him, stating that “he was always drunk and so terrible in this state that death itself was afraid of him.”

But some centenarians loved wine, others. So, for example, the famous Voltaire loved coffee very much, and when one doctor began to tell him that coffee is poison, Voltaire replied: “It will be 80 years since I have been poisoned by this poison.” Another long-liver, Elizabeth Durien, lived to be 114 years old. Contemporaries testified: “Her main food was coffee, she drank up to 40 cups of it a day. She was of a cheerful disposition, ate well and drank so much black coffee every day that the most ardent Arab could not keep up with her. The coffee pot was always on the fire, like the English teapot.”

They say that smoking shortens life. However, many centenarians liked to abuse the poisonous potion. Ross, who received the Longevity Award at age 102 (1896), was a heavy smoker. In 1897, the old widow Lazennek died. She lived all her life (104 years) in a slum and with early years smoked a pipe. She died with her.

Scientists have always been interested in the so-called “foci of longevity” - isolated areas where people live much longer than in other places and retain vitality and energy until the end of their lives. One such region is Abkhazia, where almost 3% of the population are centenarians, over 100 years old. The American scientist A. Leaf examined the mountainous regions of Abkhazia and mountainous regions in the Andes (Ecuador) and came to the conclusion that the living conditions of people in these areas are very similar, and longevity here can be attributed to heredity and the absence of so-called “harmful genes” in some residents ", increasing the risk of diseases. In small closed communities, like isolated mountain villages, some individuals who lacked these genes became the ancestors of separate clans of centenarians.

Even 300 years ago, it was noticed that residents of the same family often become centenarians, and this gave reason to consider this phenomenon hereditary. The son of the long-lived Thomas Parr lived to be 127 years old and died in 1761, maintaining clarity of mind to the end.

In 1654, Cardinal D'Armagnac, walking down the street, noticed an 80-year-old man crying. When the cardinal asked who had offended him, the old man replied that his father had beaten him. The cardinal decided to look at this man. He was presented with an old man, 113 years old, very vigorous for his age. “I beat my son,” said the old man, “for disrespecting my grandfather. He walked past him without bowing.” The cardinal also saw his 143-year-old grandfather.

Thus, it becomes obvious that heredity plays a very important role in the matter of longevity. Based on this, many fortune tellers try to predict life expectancy by lines. In the official journal of the English Royal Society in 1991, an article appeared in which Dr. Paul Newrick from Bristol argued that there is a direct connection between the length of the “life line” and life expectancy. He made this conclusion based on an examination of 100 corpses.

On August 29, 2001, the human gene for longevity was discovered.

Find something else interesting:

Man has always dreamed of living long, approaching eternity. So many attempts have been made to achieve immortality. Previously, they tried to get the philosopher's stone, which gives eternal life, are now on diets, following recommendations from all over the world that promise to prolong life. But there is no evidence of any method; no one has yet managed to extend their life for many years. But still, people who seem to have made an agreement with death exist. Let's find out who they are, the longest-livers of the planet.

In 1933, a note about the death of Lee Ching-Yun, who was 256 years old, appeared in the most famous magazines. Perhaps this is the world's longest-living person in history. During his long life, he changed more than twenty wives and became the father of one hundred and eighty children.

As stated, the secret of Lee Ching-Yun's longevity lay in the fact that he tried to be calm and balanced in any life circumstances. The centenarian tried to maintain a special diet; his diet consisted mainly of rice and wine. Unfortunately, there is no reliable information about the childhood and adolescence of the centenarian. What is known for certain is that his homeland is China, Sichuan province. Lee lived there all his life. At the age of ten, he was educated beyond his years and managed to travel around many beautiful places, where he collected medicinal herbs. What the longest-living person on earth did next is unknown.

Lee Ching-Yun at his advanced age looked surprisingly young, and no one could give him more than 60 years of age. It is this striking circumstance that raises doubts about his true age. Lee himself claimed that he was born in 1736, allegedly he was 197 years old. But research by a professor from Minkuo University, Wu-Chang-shin, proved that Li’s real date of birth was 1677, and the Chinese rulers managed to congratulate him on both his hundred and fiftieth and bicentenary.

Jeanne Kalman (1875 – 1997)

This woman has earned the title of the oldest representative of the fair sex. She may not be the longest-living woman, but she has no equal among women. Her age was 122 years 164 days. Its homeland is the town of Arles, in France. Over her long life, she was lucky to witness many discoveries: Zhanna saw the first car, cinema at the very beginning, stainless steel, television and the first airplanes.

This is not the only amazing event in her life. At the age of thirteen, Jeanne had the opportunity to meet Van Gogh, whom she did not like at all.

Jeanne Kalman had a certain natural defense against anxiety, and it was she who became the reason for such a long life. Her contemporaries also said that Jeanne had an amazing sense of humor, which, as she herself believed, was the secret of longevity.

Zhanna was very active and did not lead a very “exemplary” lifestyle; until her century, she pedaled and indulged in alcohol and cigarettes and did this until the end of her days. Kalman believed that humor, mobility and good digestion helped her live for such a long time.

Sarah Knauss (1880 -1999)

The second longest-living woman among women, reaching the age of 119 years 97 days. This amazing lady did not live very long until the new century; she ended her journey on December 30, 1999. By the way, Sarah was not at all affected by the fact that she was the record holder among centenarians; her reaction was always unambiguous: “So what?”

As Sarah's daughters say, she was always surprisingly calm; it seemed that nothing could agitate her. Who knows, perhaps this is the secret of longevity, because, as you know, stress significantly shortens the days of our life.

Sarah had the opportunity to witness seven wars and bury her husband, with whom she had been together for 64 years.

Lucy Hannah (1875 -1993)

Lucy was not awarded the title of oldest woman only due to the fact that she lived during the same period as record holder Jeanne Calment. But we cannot fail to note the woman who lived 117 years and 248 days; by the way, this is an absolute record among African Americans.

Hannah lived in Alabama, United States. She managed to give birth to eight offspring, six of whom she buried. By the way, Lucy is not the only long-liver in her family. Her own mother lived to be 99 years old, and her two sisters lived to be a hundred years old.

Maria Louise Mailer (1880 – 1998)

Another representative of the fair half of humanity, who delayed her death, ended her life at the age of 117 years 230 days, almost equal in age to Lucy Hannah. An interesting fact: Maria lived in a nursing home with her son, and her daughter at that time was ten years shy of a hundred.

Marie Louise was born in Quebec, Canada. During her life, she managed to get married twice and give birth to ten children. As the centenarian herself believed, she owed her long life to hard work. Although her lifestyle cannot be called absolutely healthy. Maria could drink a glass of wine, and she smoked almost all her life, quitting almost thirty years before her death.

Maria Capovilla (1889 - 2006)

A resident of Ecuador, Maria Capovilla, was born in 1889, which is when the Eiffel Tower was introduced to the world. Despite the fact that she is the last on our list, since she lived 116 years and 347 days, Maria still had the chance to become a record holder. It is considered the oldest not only among South Americans, but throughout the entire southern hemisphere. Maria died a month before her 177th birthday.

Maria was born into a military family and lived among the Ecuadorian elite. As witnesses to her life say, Maria could boast of powerful health, and anyone could envy her energy. Capovilla never smoked, although she could occasionally afford alcohol.

At the age of 99, Maria suddenly found herself on her deathbed. But she managed to survive, and, despite the proximity of death, Maria continued to walk on her own, studied the press, was interested in news on TV, and was generally famous for her excellent health. She had five offspring, two of whom she buried. The remaining children were 78, 80 and 81 years old at the time of Mary's death.

How long did people who actually lived live?documented centenarians?

Our list of long-livers is deservedly headed by the legendary figure of Ancient China, the supposed creator of the world, who, according to legend, grew 3 meters per day and lived to be 18 thousand years old. His name was Pan Ku.

Methuselah himself lived 969 years.

Adam allegedly lived for 930 years.

The Illyrian Dandon lived 500 years.

Nestor is 300 years old, which he owes to Apollo.

The Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu lived for 200 years. There are still data that are difficult to verify.

Hungarian resident Charten lived 185 years

185 years old - man named Kitaki from Iran

182 years old - a certain Solis from Colombia.

180 years old - Mr. Yorath, subject of Her Majesty the Queen of England.

His faithful wife Murphy Yorath lived for 177 years.

168 years old - Shirali Muslimov from Russia.

167 years old - funny man Pereira from Colombia.

159 - Pakistani Sayaz Abdul Mabud.

The famous centenarian Thomas Parr from England lived 152 years and 9 months.

150 years old - Morsi Suleiman Daoud.

139 - Kitako Kingamkono from Tanzania.

137 - Namkaso from Tahiti.

135 - Nefisa Abdalah from Egypt.

12 1 year - Mary Duckworth from the USA.

120 - Jose Lawrence Fsrreira from England.

112 years old - virgin Suzanne Ferreira from the USA.

Mustafa Buhamedien from Bukhara celebrated his 105th birthday in 1983. That same year, he visited a doctor for the first time to obtain a certificate... for the police, that he could drive a car.

The Illyrian Dandon supposedly lived 500 years.

Zoltan Petraj, 186 years old, died in Hungary in 1724. Ages over 120 years are usually recorded based on the person's personal statement and the testimony of others and are not always confirmed by actual documentation.

History knows many examples of amazing longevity. Scottish fisherman Henry Jenkins (1501-1670) lived 169 years and died in Yorkshire. From English court records it is known that in 1665 he was a witness at the trial in a case 140 years ago. One of his sons lived to be 109 years old, the other to 113. Turkish woman Fatma Khanum lived to be 164 years old. Hungarian Janos Roven lived to be 172 years old, his wife to 164. They lived in marriage for 117 years, their youngest son was 116 years old. The Englishman Thomas Parr, a tenant farmer, lived 152 years and 9 months (1483-1635), was married twice (the first time at 80 years old), entered into a second marriage at 120 years old, and had a son who lived to be 123 years old. At the age of 105, he was subjected to church repentance for illegal cohabitation, and in September 1635 he was invited to dinner with Charles I. The king decided to get acquainted with the English “wonder of the world,” but this ruined the venerable old man. According to some, he could not stand the damp London weather, others are inclined to think that Thomas simply overate.

His death occurred from an accidental cause, and all organs turned out to be healthy according to the testimony of the famous English doctor William Harvey who performed the autopsy. In the protocol, Harvey noted that the body of the deceased was muscular, no abnormalities were found in the digestive organs, there were no stones in the kidneys and liver, and if the old man had remained on his usual diet, he could have lived for some more time. Thomas Parr was buried in Westminster Abbey, where the ashes of prominent people of England rest. Thomas Parr outlived 10 English kings and lived from the 15th to the 17th centuries.

The English postal worker Robert Taylor, at the age of 133, received a portrait of Queen Victoria with the inscription: “A gift from Queen Victoria to R. Taylor in memory of his deep and unheard of old age.” This gift excited the old man so much that he soon died.

One of the oldest people in our country was Yegor Koroev in Georgia, he lived 157 years, participated in wars and was engaged in physical labor all his life. Azerbaijani collective farmer Mahmud Eyvazov lived 152 years. His work experience was 133 years. At the age of 163, Shirali Muslimov (1805-1973) made the first air trip in his life, and he lived only 169 years. Pomor K. G. Popov fished in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk for 11 years. Arzhgiri Khazitov and Tepse Abzieva lived in our country for 180 years. But the record of longevity is retained by the Englishman Thomas Carne, who, according to records in church books, lived 207 years, who was born in 1588 and happily outlived 12 kings, the oldest person in recent times (1980-1985) was considered the Iranian Said Abu Taleb Mosavi, he is 190 years old. His wife is 105 years old (this is his 5th marriage). A Japanese monk supposedly lived 250 years, and this is recorded in church books.

The most reliable is the case of the Dane Christen Jacobsen Drakenberg, who died at the age of 146.

Among the modern ones, the most famous is the example of the Turk Zaro Agha (1778-1934), who, according to his own statements and some unofficial documents, lived to be 156 years old. It is difficult to establish his exact age, but comparing his age with the ages of his children, one could assume that he really lived that long.

Thus, one of his sons died in 1918 at the age of 90, while Zaro Aga himself died 16 years later. Zaro Aga was born in the village, was married 13 times, had 25 children and 34 grandchildren. He led a quiet lifestyle, smoked a little, drank soft drinks, ate a lot of bread, curdled milk, sweets and little meat. He was sanguine and cheerful, but his development was slightly below average. He died in hospital from uremic coma as a result of prostate hypertrophy.

According to the latest data, the Irish woman Katherine Plunkett, an old maid who lived to 111 years and 10 months, actually achieved maximum longevity.

Most recently, the Portuguese shepherd Nunes Jose, who was considered one of the oldest people in Western Europe, died at the age of 120.

Manuel Peñarda from Bolivia was born in La Paz 153 years ago. At least that's what it says in her metrics. It is for this reason that Manuela is considered the “number one” long-liver on the planet. Recently, Bolivian television organized a program with her participation; a special commission wants to once again check the authenticity of the old woman’s documents certifying “overcoming” the sesquicentennial milestone.

An example is the oldest inhabitant of the planet, Jeanne Calment (France), who recently died at the age of 122 years of “natural death,” according to doctors. She was born in 1875, led a quiet, moderate life, and did not overeat. Even at the age of 100, she rode a bicycle and maintained a clear head until the end of her life. Her intelligence level at 120 years old was comparable to that of an older woman.

In 1963, Mahmoud Varan died in Damascus at the age of 163. At that time he was considered the oldest inhabitant of Syria. It is known that the Kenyan Matayo Achungo was well known throughout Africa. He died in 1976 at the age of 132, and was mourned by dozens of children and 125 grandchildren. And the Iranian Mohamed Ayubu had 170 grandchildren, and in 1970 they claimed that he was the oldest person on Earth because he was 180 years old.

The previous world champion in longevity, Japanese Shiketio Izumi, died after living 120 years and 237 days. Literary sources cite cases of even higher life expectancy, such as the Azerbaijani Shirali Muslimov, who lived for almost 168 years (1805-1973). This man was a shepherd and worked all his life outdoors in the high mountain village of Tikeband, Lerik region.

In Guizhou province, 147-year-old Gong Life, the oldest centenarian in China and possibly the world, died of hepatitis. Gun lived his entire life as a bachelor, never drank or smoked, ate rice and corn twice a day (“Trud”, 04/04/1993)

In 1999, it was reported that the oldest person on earth lives in Africa - a woman who is 146 years old.

In May 2000, it was announced that a 150-year-old woman had died in Arkansas (USA).

In the literature one can find many more examples of rare longevity. The oldest inhabitant of the planet today is the Japanese woman Kamato Hongo.

In mid-September 2002, she celebrated her 115th birthday. Back in March 2002, the Guinness Book of Records listed a completely different name - the American Maud Farris-Loose, who died in her home state of Michigan at the age of 122.

The official title of the oldest man on Earth again belongs to Japan, or rather to its 113-year-old citizen, Yukichi Chuganzi. However, his primacy is disputed by the Jordanian Fankhir Ziyad Al-Fawaz, whose relatives claim that he is already 125 years old. To date, the highest documented age is 121 years, this is the age of the French woman Mrs. Jeannette Calmin. It is possible that the name of Pelageya Zakurdaeva from Altai will be entered into the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest inhabitant of the planet. On June 6, 2002, she turned 116 years old. She lives in the city of Zarinsk, Altai Territory.

The list of published longevity records can be continued indefinitely, but a rather funny phenomenon should be taken into account. Mature people, especially women, tend to underestimate their age, and old people tend to exaggerate (old men more often exaggerate their age). Respectable age is called such because it has a certain social weight in the eyes of others.

Currently, information and factual material are being collected, observations and research are being conducted on this issue. There are areas on earth that are most favorable for longevity, where people live much longer and remain more energetic and vital in old age than in most developed countries. The most famous of these places are located in the middle mountains. For example, the village of Vilcabamba in the Andes (Ecuador), the mountainous country of Hunza (Pakistan) with a population of about 40 thousand, located on the Karakoram range in Kashmir on the border with China and Afghanistan. In the province of Hunza, people do not know many “diseases of civilization” and are in good health. With constant monitoring of them for 14 years, not a single case of the disease was identified, although Pakistanis living nearby often got sick.

The regions with the highest level of longevity also include the Transcaucasus (Azerbaijan - Nagorno-Karabakh), the North Caucasus (Abkhazia and South Ossetia), some regions of Siberia and Central Asia. However, long-livers are also found in other geographical areas, for example, in Bashkortostan.

On this occasion, back in 1960, the republican newspaper “Soviet Bashkiria” published an article entitled “Centenarians of Bashkiria.” There, in particular, it is written that on the initiative of the assistant of the Department of Social Hygiene and Health Organization of the Belarusian State Medical Institute N.S. Makhmutzyanova conducted a study of elderly people. The sources for the study were the lists of voters who participated in the elections to local bodies of Soviet power on February 22, 1953, presented by the district and city Councils of Workers' Deputies in the 61st rural district and seven cities of republican subordination. 86,407 people over the age of 70 were registered, of which 1,951 people were aged from 90 to 99 years and 135 people were aged 100 years and older. Unfortunately, the results of this study have not been fully published.

Until 1966, the newspaper “Soviet Bashkiria” informed its readers about the long-livers of the republic. She covered everyday interests, lifestyle and the reasons for their longevity. The article by S. Erikeeva “Long-Livers of Meleuz” describes in detail the life path of the oldest resident of the republic, the mother of twelve children, 109-year-old Tabaeva Guleysha Kutluakhmetovna. In 1966, the newspaper also spoke in detail about the long-livers of the republic: Mukminova Asmabike - 106 years old and Yushkov Evdokim Nikiforovich - 103 years old, natives of the Baymak region.

In principle, people of respectable age are found everywhere where the habitat has been preserved in at least relative purity - water, land and air, where there is a calm and measured way of life, moderation and simplicity in diet and the absence of bad habits.

Researchers of the essence of human longevity have put forward many hypotheses that converge on a set of common reasons: the characteristics of a person’s personality, climatic conditions the area where he lives, the nature of his work and life, the characteristics of relationships, the style of communication with others, heredity.

Nowadays, many elderly people live in the Republic of Bashkortostan. According to the State Statistics Committee of the Republic of Belarus, in 2001, within the republic there were 9,190 people aged 90 years and older, including 475 people aged 100 years or more. Indicators of age and sex groups of longevity and areas with higher and lower longevity data in the republic are presented in the table.

Significant differences in the number of centenarians have been identified among men and women. The total number of male centenarians in 2001 in the Republic of Bashkortostan as a whole was 1,138 people, and among women - 8,052 people. Higher rates of longevity among women than among men were observed among both urban and rural populations in all areas without exception. A higher number of centenarians has been established among the urban population. Of the 9,190 centenarians of the republic, 4,159 (45,261 live in rural areas; 5,031 (54.74%) live in cities and towns. 1,138 (12.38%) are male centenarians, of which 453 (39.8%) live in rural areas ), in cities and towns - 685 (60.2%) Long-lived women - 8052 (87.629, of which 3706 (46.03%) live in rural areas, in cities and towns - 4346 (53.97). %).

The rural areas of the republic stand out for their high longevity indices - Ilishevsky, Miyakinsky, Kushnarenkovsky, Buraevsky, Aurgazinsky, Chekmagushevsky, Buzdyasky, Sharansky, Bakalinsky, Nurimanovsky and others. It is in these regions that almost all long-lived areas are located, and here there is a kind of “peak” of longevity - over 100 years: in Ilishevsky - 6, Miyakinsky - 7, Kushnarenkovsky - 4, Buraevsky - 6, Aurgazinsky - 5, Chekmagushevsky - 7, Buzdyaksky - 4, Sharansky - 4, Bakalinsky - 4, Nurimanovsky - 1 person.

In 2001, 475 people aged 100 years and older were registered in the republic, which amounted to only 5.17% of all long-term residents of the Republic of Bashkortostan, or per 100,000 population there is an average of 11.6 people who have reached 100 years of age. Of these, 81 people belong to the rural population and 394 to the urban population; by gender: 93 men and 382 women.

Muhammad Eyvazov was 148 years old and in 1956 a postage stamp was issued in honor of this, Shirali Muslimov was 168 years old and, by 1978, Majid Agayev was 143 years old and Afruz Hasanova was 135 years old. According to official data in the USSR in 1970-1980. There were about 30 thousand people over 100 years of age.

Among those who have long since crossed the 80- and even 90-year mark and at this age remained a world leader in their profession, one can cite the names of such long-lived giants as: Hippocrates, Titian, Janacek, Plato, Sophocles, Confucius, Ho Chi Minh , Korzhik, Jahir, Shvabinekiy, Hussein J., Grus, Newton, Shaw, Cuba, Edison, Miro, Bezruch, Pavlov, Schweitzer, Kubin, Tolstoy, Verdi, Michelangelo, Chaplin, Qi Bai Shi, Voltaire, Goethe, Casals, Stravinsky , Rubinstein, Kovarzyk, Kohout E., Stech V.

Some researchers believe that life expectancy allegedly increases by a year every 10 thousand years. Over the past 100 thousand years, it has become a little larger thanks to the development of thinking and speech, and most importantly, thanks to polygamy (Yaroslav Govorka, The Road to Longevity, Moscow, 1990).

In 1972, Dr. Alex Comfort, the famous gerontologist, better known, however, as the author of The Joy of Sex, stated at a meeting of the American Gerontological Society: “I am confident that ways to slow down and reverse the aging process will soon be found.” And a year later he said: “If it were possible to mobilize the scientific and medical reserves of the United States of America alone, then old age would be over in just ten years.”

This may seem like unjustified optimism. But here is one example of assessing the progress of medicine and related technical sciences over the past few decades, given by the French philosopher and physician Jean Bernard. According to Bernard, if a doctor were to fall asleep in 1900 and wake up 30 years later, he, in all likelihood, could almost immediately return to the interrupted medical practice - so little has changed. But if he had fallen asleep in 1930 and woke up in 1960, he would have been unable to figure anything out and would have been out of work. In three decades, medicine has made such a giant leap forward that a doctor at the turn of the century would have been worse able to treat patients than most modern first-year students. Suffice it to say that in 1930 there were no antibiotics to treat diseases such as syphilis, pneumonia, scarlet fever and meningitis, to name just a few. And in less than the next two decades, the development of medical science and technology proceeded at an even faster pace. Particular advances have been made in the treatment of diseases associated with aging: hypertension, glaucoma, arthritis, cataracts and heart failure. In areas where only a few years ago there was no treatment at all, successful methods of disease control have now become commonplace.

Life expectancy is clearly influenced by two factors: heredity and environment. You don't have to be born into a family of long-livers to live a long time, but it's still not bad. People whose ancestors were distinguished by longevity, in each at this age have more low performance mortality, and they are more likely to live to 80 and beyond. However, heredity is not everything. As Alex Comfort writes, human longevity is “inherited” in the sense that it is akin to some kind of family tradition... There is a certain connection between the age to which parents lived and the likelihood of life expectancy for their children. “However, this relationship is not as natural as, for example, in relation to growth.” According to Comfort's observations, children of centenarians have less chance of long life than children of lanky parents who are tall.

Heredity is responsible for about 2,000 diseases and defects, including some forms of blindness and deafness, mental retardation, hemophilia and metabolic disorders. But such diseases are statistically insignificant as a cause of death. According to Galton, “If any serious diseases are inherited, they are all rare. Heredity usually predisposes to diseases, but does not make the disease inevitable.”

As you know, we don’t choose our parents and everything they pass on to us. As for the second factor - our environment, we can control it to a certain extent. We can try to change our environment so that the traits we have inherited develop in a more favorable environment.

In 1973 National Center The US Department of Health published a table showing how long we could live if the main “killers” of humanity were eliminated. If we deal with cardiovascular diseases, we will gain an average of 17.5 years of life. If in our country (USA) the incidence of cancer were reduced by 80%, then another 2.5 years would be added to our life. If we manage to sharply reduce the number of deaths from accidents, murders, suicides, cirrhosis of the liver, influenza and diabetes, we can add another 2.5 years to these figures. Having destroyed all the “devourers” of life, most of which we impose on ourselves with our ugly lifestyle or treatment environment, we could extend the life of each person by an average of 22.5 years: men would live on average to 92.5, and women to 97.5 years. And this can largely be achieved without the invention of any new drugs , procedures or technical innovations in medicine. Most of these influences are entirely subordinate, being merely a function of man's daily habits, as a review of them will clearly show.

Possible increase in life expectancy when the cause of death is eliminated