Census Records 157 Year Old Women in Sumatra

This is a great story that may well fold.  However, the second story tells us that it may not be impossible at all.

 

Another plus must be Indonesia which is as close as one can get to ideal human living conditions.

 

It is just too easy to recall a grandmother’s tales for the oral history to be trustworthy and the benefits for holding forth are obvious in today’s world of commercial celebrity.

 

However we need a bunch of local septuagenarians to confirm her age in their own childhoods.  She would have been in old age even then.  If that can be made to stand up, we have at least enlarged the conspiracy to disprove.

 

I wonder if she sells clove cigarettes?

 

Census records 157-year-old woman

 

Posted Mon Jun 7, 2010 10:23pm AEST

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/06/07/2920850.htm

Estimates of the size and composition of Indonesia's booming population may remain just that despite an ongoing census, if the "discovery" of a 157-year-old woman is anything to go by.

Census officials have said they believe the woman's claims to have been born in 1853, when Giuseppe Verdi's La Traviata debuted in Venice, the Crimean War erupted and San Francisco got its first street signs at intersections.

"There's no authentic data to prove her age but judging from her statements and the age of her adopted daughter, who's now 108 years old, it's difficult to doubt it," statistics bureau official Jhonny Sardjono said Monday.

The only person verified to have lived past 120 years of age was Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997 at the age of 122.

South Sumatran villager Turinah would be fully 35 years older than Calment when she died, according to officials. Even more incredible, she still works around the house and has smoked clove cigarettes all her life, Mr Sardjono said.

"Despite her age she still has an incredible memory, clear sight and has no hearing problems. She speaks Dutch quite fluently," he said.

Indonesia was a Dutch colony for hundreds of years until 1945.

He said Ms Turinah burnt all her identification documents to avoid being linked to an alleged communist coup in 1965.

Indonesia is the world's fourth most populous country with a population of around 240 million people. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has said the census results will be important for future governance.

JUNE 08, 2010

Supercentenarian Lifespan is not Fixed and Mortality is Similar to Centenarians

http://nextbigfuture.com/2010/06/supercentenarian-lifespan-is-not-fixed.html

The Max Planck Institute recently published a book on supercentenarians (people who live beyond 110 years of age)

The International Database of Longevity (IDL) offers detailed information on thoroughly validated cases of supercentenarians. These data are used to estimate human mortality after age 110. The procedure properly accounts for the country-specific sampling frames in the IDL. The analysis confirms that human mortality after age 110 is at at a level orresponding to an annual probability of death of 50%. No sex-speci c differences in mortality could be found, and no time trend in supercentenarian mortality between earlier and later cohorts could be detected.

There are about 400,000 centenarians in the world now. There are a confirmed 77 supercentenarians but with 50% mortality there should statistically be probably 400-600 supercentenarians. Assuming that current progress against aging is maintained (progress does no slow and there are no breakthroughs) then the expectation is for one million centenarians in 2030. 

If no progress is made against the 50% annual mortality rate of centenarians and supercentenarians then one would expect the age of longest lived person to be 120 years. There was a french women who lived to 122 but she is a statistical outlier. 

If there was progress to enable more and more people to live to 100 and then the 50% annual mortality rate was still present, then when there were 4 billion centenarians one would statistically expect the longest lived to be 132 years of age. 

If you could halve the annual mortality rate of centenarians and supercentenarians then the expected maximum lifespan of one billion centenarians would be 160 years. 

Causes of Death of Centenarians

A study of causes of death of centenarians:

Forty centenarians (11 men, 29 women) were identified with a median age of 102 ± 2.0 (range: 100–108) years. Sixty percent were described as having been healthy before death. However, an acute organic failure causing death was found in 100%, including cardiovascular diseases in 68%, respiratory illnesses in 25%, gastrointestinal disorders in 5%, and cerebrovascular disease in 2%. Additionally, centenarians suffered from several comorbidities (cardiac antecedents, neurologic disorders, liver diseases, cholecystolithiasis), which were not judged to be the cause of death.

This suggests that successful tissue  engineering to replace defective organs or stem cell or simple regenerative treatments might reduce the annual mortality rate by 60%.

Exoskeletons like Japan's Hal 5 suit could help centenarians remain mobile and could be used to enable safe exercise and active lifestyles to be maintained.

 

The SENS life extension research and other life extension research would more directly address increasing longevity for everyone.