In Part 4, we see stereotypes about age are falling as healthy elders emerge. Diabetes, heart disease and the rest are not automatic with age. These dis-eases are largely biochemical imbalances caused by life-style choices. Education can turn this daily choice into Health again, instead of infirmity. Grab your birth-right — a long and healthy life.
CATCH-UP RESEARCH:
As I have prepared these articles, I have been struck by the apparent pomposity and snail’s-pace processing of these “oldest person” claims. The fact that Guinness will not approve anyone who does not have a legal birth-certificate as a candidate for being “oldest person” is preposterous.
I have read about at least a half-dozen people in third-world countries, mostly, who have not got the luxury of a birth-certificate, but whose national identity cards meted out decades ago OR unaltered church registers AND usually living in the same village all their lives SHOWS reasonably that these people are not lying.
More to the point, most often the person and even their family are often not even the ones applying to Guinness; others are doing so on their behalf. Why is Guinness SO wary? When they drag their feet, many of these elders die before hearing even an acknowledgment of their application.
So, I am going to list a few and let you draw your own conclusions. I think the far greater sin is not a recognizing their achievement due to bureaucracy.
I also think that, for the period of time, a century or so ago, before birth-certificates were always applicable, Guinness should have 2 categories – “fully-documented” and “reasonably-documented“, so both groups can be acknowledged.
Possibly, in some countries, even today, people are not being “issued” birth-certificates. Won’t their lives “count” either?
=======================================================================
Who Was The Most Likely REAL Oldest Person In The Modern-Day ?!
After weeks of reading, I do not think Jeanne Calement, the 122 year old, fully-documented, Guinness “official” title-holder is correct.
I am inclined to believe the claim of former Brazilian slave, Maria do Carmo Jeronimo, who died in 2000 at 129 years old earned that title.
According to Catholic Church baptismal records, Maria was born on March 5, 1871 in the southeastern town of Carmo de Minas, in Minas Gerais state.
At that time, Brazil was a monarchy under Emperor Pedro II, and Jeronimo, who was black, was born into slavery. Slaves’ births were never registered in civil records, so her family and her “owner” were never issued a birth-certificate.
She was 17 when Brazil finally abolished slavery, but she never left Minas Gerais. For six decades of her life, Maria worked as a housemaid for the Guimaraes family, which recently had tried unsuccessfully to have her recognized by the Guinness Book of Records.
Guinness insisted there must be a birth-certificate. Baloney!
In this case, no one has altered the Church records; they are in proper chronological order AND she worked for the same family for 60 years and then they took care of her for all the succeeding decades after she could no longer work.
So, there are plenty of other people to verify Maria’s long life, and that should count! It is not her fault that Brazil did not afford her the human-right to have her birth officially noted.
Maria received a personal blessing from Pope John Paul II during a visit to Rio. And, at the age of 127, she finally saw the ocean. Local record books listed Maria as the world’s oldest person, and she was honored at the Carnivale parade in Rio commemorating the abolition of slavery.
Finally, on June 16, 2000, Maria succumbed after several strokes, but Thereza Guimaraes, her family’s spokes-person, said “We saw her go through many crises, many delicate situations and survive.”
“We ended up thinking that it would go on forever.”
=================================================
Who Is Also Currently Deserving Of The Title “Oldest Human”?
Moloko Temo
Moloko Temo of Bochum, Mohodi Ga-Manthatha outside Polokwane in South Africa’s northern Limpopo province turned 133 years old this summer. She was reportedly born on July 4, 1874 according to a government identity document issued to her in 1988.
Temo has eight children, 29 grandchildren, 59 great-grandchildren, and five great-great-grandchildren. She has been blind for the last 54 years and is wheelchair-bound, though “healthy in every other way.”
The province’s Elderly People’s Forum applied in 2004 to Guinness World Records to have her deemed world’s oldest person, but so far their effort has gone unanswered.
Evidently, news24.com reports Guinness quoted “people rarely became older than 113 years”. “Present indications are that nobody has ever celebrated their 123rd birthday.” Are they looking?
============================================
Other long-lives I want to acknowledge, even if Guinness will not:
Cruz Hernandez
128 years old El Salvadore Died March, 2007
Ms Hernandez gave birth to 13 children and ended up with at least 60 grandchildren, 80 great-grandchildren and 25 great-great grandchildren.
At age 127, “national birth registry officials sent her documents to the Guinness World Records organisation last year, but did not get a reply.”
Fulla Nayak
120 or 125 years old India Died November, 2006
Fulla Nayak, a resident of Kanarpur village in the coastal district of Kendrapada, Orissa died of old age. The grand old woman lived in a small mud-walled thatched house. She is survived by two of her four daughters and around two dozen relatives. Her eldest daughter, Jamuna, 92, lives in the same village. Her son applied to Guiness, but never had a response.
Pasikhat Dzhukalayeva
A Chechen great-great-grandmother whose passport states she was born in 1881, Russian state television has reported.
Pashikat has nine grandchildren, 18 great-grandchildren, and seven great-great-grandchildren who call her ‘Granny Asi’.
“I do not know why I have lived so long. I have buried five brothers and sisters, and four children,” the wrinkled Dzhukalayeva, who moves around in a wheelchair.
=======================================================================
Who was the longest-lived American?
That honor likely belongs to Mary Ramsey Wood. She was born on a farm near Knoxville, Tennessee May 20, in 1787, and she crossed the plains with her family to settle in Hillsboro, Oregon, where she lived until her death Jan. 01, 1908.
At that time, Mary was probably the oldest woman in the United States, if not in the world, as she was well past her 120th birthday.
Isn’t it amazing that a baby girl was destined to witness the marvelous changes that have since transformed the world and to survive out of the old time into ours?
Mary Ramsey is the child who learned to lisp when Washington was president in the18th century and then lived to talk of President Roosevelt in the 20th century.
To put it into historical perspective another way, Mary was a laughing school-girl of 7 when Tennessee was admitted as a state to the Union; she was a blushing bride when the Napoleon ceded Louisiana to the United States, and she was a proud young mother when Lewis and Clark trampled over the breadth of the North American continent to “where rolls the Oregon” next to the Pacific Ocean.
=======================================================================
FABULOUS “ELDERS”!
I am totally amazed by the accomplishments of the following people and I am grateful that, at 61, I am here to see stereotypes changing and “barriers” falling.
“Age” is Nothing!
After all, the original human cell is alive in all of us.
Technically, we are a self-renewing, always renewing life-form. Why would you ever subscribe to the fallacy of being “old”?
Who Is The World’s Oldest Champion Marathon Runner?
(This information about Bhai* Fauja Singh is from 2005) – at 94 years old, Fauja is regularly spotted flying down the streets of Ilford, Essex in his spikes. Why?
At 94, 5 ft 11 inches and about 116 pounds, he’s run at least seven marathons, countless half-marathons and Fauja was recently part of the world’s oldest marathon team in Edinburgh, Scotland where the team’s combined age for the four runners was 397 years!
Fauja was honoured as the “starter” for the race. Their turban-charged, 4 Sikhs relay-team placed 730 out of 912 teams.
Bhai Fauja developed his jogging skills on a farm in Punjab, India and then, at the magical age of 81, when he moved to England, he found his love for the sport became more “serious”.
What’s next? He set his sights on being a record breaker.
At London’s Mile End Park Stadium this great man attempted to set world-best records for men over 90.
And Fauja came up with five new records in 94 incredible minutes. He decided to try his hand at shorter distances: 100m, 200m, 300m, 800m, 1500m, 1 mile, 3,000m and 5,000m.
In the senior category, he not only set a new 200m record, but halved it from 76.8 seconds to 49.28 seconds! He also set the British record for 400 meters, 800m, 1 mile, and 3000m.
“He is an inspiration because he has set five UK records. He has achieved more in one day than an athlete normally does in a lifetime,” said Bridget Cushen, Secretary, British Masters Athletic Federation. “If that wasn’t enough, he attempted all the records in under 94 minutes.”
And, he still officially holds the Marathon World Record for his age 90+ group, set in Toronto September 2003, at 5 hours 40 minutes 01 second. He races for Great Britain.
“Fauja” is the Sikh name meaning “Army General” and he is true to his proud roots as the Sikhs are famous for their military prowess. They turn marvelous skill to peaceful activities, too, and many are great athletes.
He is 180 per cent fitter than an average man of his age, with a bone density in his left leg of a 50-year-old and a “20-year-old’s right leg”. He walks or runs 7 to 10 miles every day and has a training session with his coach once a week, although, he confesses, “When I am tired I do use my bus pass.”
Bhai Sahib also is a great Humanitarian, and all of his Adidas sponsorship money is given to charity.
He also ran one of his 5 London Marathons for the British Heart Foundation and Bliss, a premature baby charity. Bhai Fauja said, “I think that it is a good thing for the oldest runner in the race to run for the youngest people in our world.”
What a wonderful sentiment!
Fauja has found the delicate balance aspired to by Sikhs between being a great Khalsa soldier and a great Khalsa saint.
Fauja also is very aware about being a role model, and it is inspirational for young Sikh’s the world over, to see their proud military heritage, ability and training can be transformed into other healthy past-times, too.
Fauja Singh hopes to return in 2009 to break the record for the oldest marathon runner – presently held by a 98-year-old Greek athlete.
I wish you well, Bhai Fauja Singh Ji !
*Note: Bhai and Ji are an honorifics of respect.
=========================================================
Who Hold The Senior Records For “Fastest Master’s Runner”?
Kozo Haraguchi of Japan is one of the fastest senior runners. He is holder of the official world record for the 100 meter dash set in Osaka, Japan for the 95 + year old group with a time now of 21.69 seconds.
Philip Rabinowitz of Russia is officially the fastest human in the 100+ year category with a 100 meter dash time of 30.86 seconds. Philip also holds the 200 meter world-record in his age group.
=========================================================
Third Japanese Holds Title to Being Oldest Person To Climb Mt. Everest (Sagarmatha).
Katsusuke Yanagisawa, 71 years, 2 months and 2 days, has become the oldest person to scale 29,035 foot Mt. Everest, beating the previous record set by Takao Arayama in 2006. Both Mr. Arayama and the previous record-holder, Yuichiro Miura, were 70. Takao was 13 days older than Yuichiro when he gained the title.
The present title-holder to climb Sagarmatha (the traditional name for the mountain), is a former school teacher from Nagano, in the mountains of Japan. Katsusuke Yanagisawa reached the summit May 22, 2007, from the Tibetan side, and spent about 30 minutes on top of the world. He survived the rigorous descent, which often kills those who have summited, and at the time, he said it was the last mountain he’d climb.
In addition to Sagarmatha, he has also climbed North America’s tallest mountain, 20,300 foot Mt. McKinley (locally called Denali in Inuit).
====================================
Who Is The Oldest Woman To Climb Mt. Everest (Sagarmatha)?
One of the most famous Japanese conquerors of Everest was Junko Tabei, who in 1975 became the first woman on top of the peak.
In 2002, Tamae Watanbe of Japan, set a record among the 70 women Everest climbers, by becoming the oldest woman mountaineer to scale the peak. She was 63 years old.
Formerly, the oldest woman to climb Sagarmatha is famed, highly-regarded mountaineer Anna Czerwinska (born 7/10/49) who climbed Everest from the Nepalese side on 5/22/2000. Anna is also one of the elite who has climbed the seven highest mountains on our planet.
Next time, we’ll learn about more Amazing Elders.
Best to all — Em
(c)2007 Em http://diabetesdietdialogue.worpdress.com
If you wish to use or quote my article, please include the full copyright citation, and my website’s address. Thanks!
Excellent stuff. I landed up here after reading about old men and how they keep healthy and this post was a good read!
Cheers.
Hello ;)!
Absolutely wonderful! Keep it going!
I grew up in a family of raw-food-ist’s and its our personal belief that DIET and biochemistry truly is EVERYTHING!
My Mom’s an ex-nurse & dad was a pre-med student.
Both quit the profession because they believe that medicine, while not ungrateful for the many lives it has saved, doesn’t deal with the causes; the WHY and HOW, of disease in the body.
And many in my family including very close friends have received MORE problems from medicine & surgery then benefits.
Both my parents almost died in the hospital due to medical mismanagement and my dads mom did.
“Dis-ease” i.e. the body -NOT at ease-, is one of my moms favorite terms and isn’t a joke.
While it is pretty much becoming illegal to promote natural health as it’s competition for the multi-billion dollar industry of drugs and pharmasuticals, individuals like my family and many others, who’ve lived a life directed by nature rather then a “Phd”, prove that natural medicine is a powerful force with a lot less side effects!
3rd = to add to the list of long living healthy individuals:
I would like to mention Dr. Norman Walker who invented Carrot Juice, and who was dying at age 40 from Dis-ease (= sclerosis of the liver – from junk processed foods NOT alcohol.) and ended up dying in 1986 at 118 years of age. Very healthy, active till he died peacefully in his sleep.
Being a homeschooling family who talks and interviews a lot of interesting individuals: We met a lady who had met Dr. Norman Walker when he had been the guest speaker at her college graduation when he was -114-!
He was very mentally AND physically alive and alert. Spoke on stage, told jokes AND ran in a marathon and left the young 28 year olds breathless -behind him-.
Go ahead and research him, he wrote a book called “Live Food Juices” which is full of Real case testimonies of people who resolved things naturally.
Also want to recommend two books we have come across lately =
“Diet, Crime and delinquency” by Dr. Alexander Schauss
And “Dyslogic syndrome” By Dr.Bernard Rimland.
DO YOUR RESEARCH, stop the insane radiation, alteration, and chemical-ization of our food. Live longer and more naturally.
You may want to check out something called MonaVie …
Also I just stumbled upon a neat natural living site called http://www.NaturalNews.com .
Great resource.
Bye.
(c)2008-2029 By: Vanessa-C:Krage(tm)
Please note that to be recognized by the Gerontology Research Group, a birth certificate is not enough on its own. Official state documentation from different points in life (census, marriage certificate, etc.) are required and testimonies of private individuals do not count.
Here is the website.
http://www.grg.org/calment.html
Keep it up!!
You are a legend! We need to learn from you how you’ve lived your life.
I’m also very proud of Bhai Fauja Singh!!
The reason Guinness will not accept any of the claims you are talking about is that they are not believable. All civilizations (including European and American ones) have had claims of 135 and far higher before consistent recordkeeping. However, when record keeping improves, the record age drops well 120 in nearly all cases. That is with the same race of people. That suggests that age exaggeration was rampant. Of course, many have circumstantial evidence problems. One important question is whether there was a major 100th birthday celebration. A claim is likely false if there was not. Mariam Amash (claimed 120) had a 54 year old son, which would have made her 66 at his birth, nine years older than any other person on earth. This piece below has a good discussion.
Click to access young_robert_d_200808_masters.pdf
Plus, age exaggeration often begins well before old age. Sometimes it is a mistake. Carrie White (who Guinness accepted, but probably mistakenly) was alleged to be 116. Her first piece of evidence was a record from when she was first abandoned by her family and institutionalized. She was estimated to be 35, but she had a disorder that pocked her face, interfering with age estimation efforts. The only credible match in the 1900 census suggests that she was only 21 when admitted in 1909, meaning she died at 102 (there appears to be no credible 1880 census match, and her alleged birthdate matches the admission day and month, suggesting that her age was made up).
Motives for intentional age exaggeration include avoiding military service (or more rarely, to be allowed to serve), collecting a pension early, hiding or making more respectable a teenage pregnancy, etc.
Regarding Mary Ramsey Wood, her claim was proven false. The only reasonable match in the 1880 census suggests she died at age 96.The same is true for Susie Brunson (she passed the 100th birthday test, but was shown to have demonstrably exaggerated her age long before that time). Here is the important link (look for the “false and exaggerated claims” table).
http://www.grg.org/Adams/G2.
Please note that a birth certificate is not automatically required to start verification, only proof from within the first 20 years of life, such as an ORIGINAL baptismal certificate or a CENSUS match (example: Elizabeth Bolden had no birth certificate, but was listed as nine years old in the 1900 census and 19 years old in the 1910 census). Maria Esther Capovilla’s authentication started with a baptismal certificate. Many documents are then required to prove that the person on the early-life record is the same one as alive. The documents I mentioned before help do that (church marriage records and other church records can work as well). In fact, many of Marie Louise Meilleur’s records were church records. The article below describes the process.
http://www.demogr.mpg.de/books/odense/6/11.htm
Maria Do Carmo Geronimo could not prove the baptismal certificate in the registry actually belonged to her and not another person with the same or similar name. Many have used the records of older relatives (possibly even other people) to support similar claims. That is what might have happened in the disputed case of Shigechiyo Izumi (he might have been named after an older sibling who died young, and the older sibling’s birth certificate might have been the one used to support his claim).
Regarding Mary Ramsey Wood, her claim was proven false. The only reasonable match in the 1880 census suggests she died at age 96.
Here is the link, and you can see Carrie White in the list as well:
You should join the yahoo group “World’s Oldest People” to learn more.
wa this full information is so effective and im so proud that at that old age also those people are still in such a enthusiyasm to achive still so many things in their life they are the inspiration to the youths like us and even should try to be like them
I can believe Jeanne Calment’s record, and certainly Sarah Knauss too. If you look at the accepted records, they “tail-off” predictably when men pass 113 years, and women pass 116 years. Only 3 men ever lived to the 115 year mark. And for women just a handful made it to the 117 year mark. Calment’s record is astonishing, and photos of her smoking make her record all the more incredible. It was common though for women to not inhale tobacco smoke in those days. Anyway, when someone claims “129” or “133”, that’s off the charts. Calment outlived everyone except Knauss by 5 years. It’s just too incredible to believe people from the 3rd world outlived the handful of 117 year old women by over 15 years – is too incredible.