LIVING TO BE 115 YEARS OLD AND MORE

THE OLD RUSTY NAIL

AN E-JOURNAL FOR OLD PEOPLE

Russell Burton, an Old Person

On the Web on January 20, 2015 I saw an article showing pictures of five women all born in the 1800s.  Yes these are the oldest living people in the world.  The oldest was 116 years of age and the others were ll5.  All were women which should not surprise anyone for several reasons the main one which has to do with the specific body functions of women.  And, of course genes enter into the equation I am sure.

Three of these super-centurions were Americans the other two were from Japan and Italy. Apparently all of them were still mentally alert and some had ideas on why they were still alive.  One noted that eating and sleeping was the secret and another reason was proper diet and eating a raw egg each day.  Living by the Golden Rule was important to one of these ladies.

I was surprised that 60% of these survivors were from America and only one from Japan.  I always thought that because of their low meat diet with loads of fiber, Japanese live by far the longest.  Still, Japan has a smaller population than America so looking at the ratio it appears that both countries are about even regarding long life.

The other country was Italy which once again was surprising to me suggesting that their diet heavy in pasta would be conducive to long life.  She was the person who mentioned her diet including a raw egg each day as contributing to a very long life.  Oh my, so much for this cholesterol thing.

Of course some political conservatives will argue that it is our health programs which are superior to other countries.  You know not having a universal health system is really healthy and conducive to long life.

Asking old people what is their secret in staying alive suggests that they are experts in this aging process.  In a sense that is silly for there are many reasons why they are still alive and eating an egg a day is not one of them.  Still, it is fun to listen to successful agers as in the back of our minds is the thought that hey one of them could be me!  You know if they can do it why can’t I do it?  Well for me it is because I am a man which eliminates the single most important reason that these women have lived this long.

Still, let’s take a look at their ages as they might relate to me.  I am now 83 years old (as I publish this I am now 86 years old) so if I live to be ll6 that leaves me with 23 years to go.  Now my present mind set has me living into my 90s which is a little more than 17  

years to go.  And, why not think that for my mother lived to be 92, my father 87 (both should have lived longer) and my uncle is 93 ()he is now 96) and going strong.

Now twenty three years left of my life sounds a lot better than 17.  Hey, I look back 23 years and I was just 60 years of age.  Wow, what a young kid I was then, still working at my job which I loved and retirement was not in my thoughts. But thinking about those 23 years and the next 23 years is much different which got me thinking do I really want to live that long.  And, looking at these women who looked pretty frail does not appeal to me for my future.

This many people staying alive at the age of 115 and older is a new phenomenon.  When I was young reaching 100 was quite an event. But not any more for in 2000 the total number of Americans reaching that centurion mark was 50,544 or about 18 per 100,000 people.   In 1900 and through the Great Depression that number was only about 4 so now there are nearly five times more people 100 years of age and older.  Of course statistically, the more people living to be that old means that there will be more people living to become super-centurions.

Of course the alternative is dying which has very little appeal for me right now but I am sure sometime the challenge of life will become too great to handle so when it comes it will be an interesting event.  I write an ‘interesting event’ which can have many meanings some fun and some not so fun. I looked up ‘interesting’ in my e-thesaurus and found many meanings for that word.  Some had a positive (fun) tone such as: attractive, appealing, exciting, and motivating.  Of course I had none of those in mind when I used that word about dying instead I like the other definitions such as: attention-grabbing (especially when it will involve me), out of the ordinary (since it occurs only once in one’s life this one works really well), remarkable (absolutely) and worthy of note (ah yes the obituary).

Back to those five women, I wish something had been written about their physical and mental conditions.  Like I noted before here that they all looked rather frail and I suppose they were in that condition.  One thing for sure I do not wish to live until I am frail.  I just enjoy life too much to be in that condition which once again my e-thesaurus defines as: weak, fragile, delicate, feeble, and in poor health.  None of those definitions really appeal to me just to stay alive.

Still, that survival gene that tells us not to die is very powerful.  So, being frail is a matter of interpretation that is a frail person can always find a frailer person.

What was not addressed was the number of the survivors who suffered from some form of dementia that I have read is found in a significant number of old people beginning at age 80.

The one thing which was not noted is the large number of their loved ones who have died.  I wonder how someone handles these many sad events.  I would suppose that most if not all of their children had died and perhaps some of their grandchildren.  Certainly, such events would make someone ask in their minds ‘why me?’

Of course ‘why me’ question can be answered many different ways.  Certainly, some people will think that it is God’s will.  Well, this answer brings me back to the original question, you know ‘why me?’  My answer is simply ‘lots of luck’ and ‘dodging that deadly bullet’.  Of course like I wrote before genes play a big role and none of these women smoked cigarettes.  Well that wasn’t mentioned but I didn’t see a cigarette dangling from any of their mouths.

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