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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhy The Oldest Person In The World Keeps Dying
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When she died, Weaver was the seventh-oldest person in verified history. The woman who preceded her as the oldest living person in the world, Japans Misao Okawa, died a month after she turned 117 older than all but four other people in verified history. (Okawa credited her longevity to lots of sleep and lots of sushi.) The current oldest living person in the world, Jeralean Talley, is one of 11 children of Georgian farmers and is the 12th-oldest verified person in history; Brooklyn resident Susannah Mushatt Jones is only 44 days younger than her.
No one in the past 15 years has gotten anywhere close to the longevity of Sarah Knauss and Jeanne Calment, however. Knauss lived to be 119 years old, while Calment, a chain-smoking Frenchwoman and our modern Methuselah, was 122 years old when she passed away in 1997. (She was the oldest living person in the world for more than nine years.) They are the only two people known to have lived past 118.
Supercentenarians people who have lived past their 110th birthday generally come from a heartier stock than most people. They tend to have few age-related health issues and are much physically and mentally sharper than their peers during their 80s and 90s. Weaver, for example, didnt move into the rehabilitation home until she was 109. As we enter an age with less war and infection and fewer accidents, more and more people with these superior aging genes have been able to make it to a point in time when they can show them off. Its getting crowded at the top.
Aside from Knauss and Calment, however, the cutoff for mortality has remained relatively firm. Robert Young, a guy with a remarkable name considering hes the senior claims researcher for the Gerontology Research Group and the senior gerontology consultant for Guinness World Records, refers to this phenomenon as the rectangularization of the mortality curve. People are getting older on average, but the oldest are still dying around the same age as ever. Thus, when one of them does take over as the oldest, she doesnt have much time left. The average age of the oldest-ever people has increased over the past 40 years from around 112 to around 114.
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As the number of these super supercentenarians grows, we should expect even shorter reigns from the oldest of them all. Perhaps thats not necessarily a sad thing. In one of her last interviews, Weaver said that after gaining the title, there was simply nothing left to check off of her earthly bucket list.
538. No really, 538
When she died, Weaver was the seventh-oldest person in verified history. The woman who preceded her as the oldest living person in the world, Japans Misao Okawa, died a month after she turned 117 older than all but four other people in verified history. (Okawa credited her longevity to lots of sleep and lots of sushi.) The current oldest living person in the world, Jeralean Talley, is one of 11 children of Georgian farmers and is the 12th-oldest verified person in history; Brooklyn resident Susannah Mushatt Jones is only 44 days younger than her.
No one in the past 15 years has gotten anywhere close to the longevity of Sarah Knauss and Jeanne Calment, however. Knauss lived to be 119 years old, while Calment, a chain-smoking Frenchwoman and our modern Methuselah, was 122 years old when she passed away in 1997. (She was the oldest living person in the world for more than nine years.) They are the only two people known to have lived past 118.
Supercentenarians people who have lived past their 110th birthday generally come from a heartier stock than most people. They tend to have few age-related health issues and are much physically and mentally sharper than their peers during their 80s and 90s. Weaver, for example, didnt move into the rehabilitation home until she was 109. As we enter an age with less war and infection and fewer accidents, more and more people with these superior aging genes have been able to make it to a point in time when they can show them off. Its getting crowded at the top.
Aside from Knauss and Calment, however, the cutoff for mortality has remained relatively firm. Robert Young, a guy with a remarkable name considering hes the senior claims researcher for the Gerontology Research Group and the senior gerontology consultant for Guinness World Records, refers to this phenomenon as the rectangularization of the mortality curve. People are getting older on average, but the oldest are still dying around the same age as ever. Thus, when one of them does take over as the oldest, she doesnt have much time left. The average age of the oldest-ever people has increased over the past 40 years from around 112 to around 114.
....
As the number of these super supercentenarians grows, we should expect even shorter reigns from the oldest of them all. Perhaps thats not necessarily a sad thing. In one of her last interviews, Weaver said that after gaining the title, there was simply nothing left to check off of her earthly bucket list.
538. No really, 538
Strangest headline. Why the oldest person in the world keeps dying? Because they're old.
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Why The Oldest Person In The World Keeps Dying (Original Post)
Capt. Obvious
May 2015
OP
HassleCat
(6,409 posts)1. Dubious Distinction
As soon as you gain that title, you have to ask yourself, "How long can that last?"
yeoman6987
(14,449 posts)3. Not on my bucket list
Those that have it good on you but after the last 30 years I can hardly imagine the next 30 much less the next 60.
fasttense
(17,301 posts)2. Very weird headline.
My great grandmother died at 112 years old, I didn't know it was a remarkable age to reach. She was a very happy person even when she could no longer walk. But she was very fat. She was so fat, they had to build a special wheelchair for her. She sure loved her ice cream.
sufrommich
(22,871 posts)4. You must have genes of steel in your family.
Obesity isn't usually a great harbinger of longevity.
fasttense
(17,301 posts)13. I know, that's why I thought reaching the ripe old age of 112 was old hat.
But my grandfather (her son, not obese) died at age 68. So, it obviously didn't get passed on to him.
Major Nikon
(36,827 posts)5. I blame the BFEE
ileus
(15,396 posts)6. The oldest person in the world curse strikes again.
Capt. Obvious
(9,002 posts)8. That's up there with the Madden curse
SheilaT
(23,156 posts)7. Jeanne Calment was hardly a chain smoker.
One or two cigarettes a day.
NV Whino
(20,886 posts)10. It was a short chain.
randome
(34,845 posts)12. Or did she, literally, smoke chains?
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Everything is a satellite to some other thing.[/center][/font][hr]
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)9. World's Youngest Person is even tougher to hang on to
But everybody gets to be the World's Youngest Person for a fleeting moment.
caraher
(6,278 posts)11. I just love that this thread was started...
by a DUer named "Captain Obvious." I salute you, Captain, well done!