A very interesting question Aqua_naut Chalk and one I’m going to try and to some research on.

As you’ll know, a fairly common cause of death for S/C’s id multiple organ failure or similar, essentially where one (say 114 year old) organ  begins to fail and others go down as well, because they are not up to the additional work and stress of carrying the one that may be dying.

As you suggest how much longer may each have lasted without that additional stress?

The other problem of course is that transplanted organs often do not last long in their new home, and with our current scientific expertise it’s logically unforeseeable that the remaining organs (in my hypothetical 114 year old) would go to another human.

I just wanted to ask, how long was Christian Mortensen the oldest living man in the United States?

@aquanaut_chalk From 14 June 1993 (death of Frederick Frazier) to his death on 25 April 1998, so 4 years and 315 days.

@charlesm09 thank you Charles! Was he the longest title holder for men in the United States?

First of all, I'd like to say I'm pretty sure that Christian Mortensen was the longest title holder of oldest living man in the United States and Sarah Knauss was the longest title holder of oldest living woman in the United States. How rare is it, that they lived at exactly the same time in history? Both born in the 1880s and died in the 1990s.

And I know this might sound like a dumb question, but why do tortoises have the potential to live to be 190 years old, possibly older, while a human has only reached 122? I don't know if it's possible, but maybe humans can learn something from this? Obviously a Tortoise's DNA ages slower, maybe we could develop some kind of technology that protects our DNA? I really don't know, I'm not a scientist lol

@aquanaut_chalk Knauss was the OLP in the US from the death of Georgie Ella Jordan (18 Sep 1880 - 9 Feb 1995) until her own death almost five years later. Filkins potentially held the title of OLP for a longer period than Knauss.

Also remember that animals such as turtles have a much slower metabolism and that this affects how quickly their internal mechanisms work. This is also an example for why many people believe that things such as fasting and calorie-restriction could lead to longer lives in humans (which hasn't been observed).

Posted by: @930310

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Knauss was the OLP in the US from the death of Georgie Ella Jordan (18 Sep 1880 - 9 Feb 1995) until her own death almost five years later. Filkins potentially held the title of OLP for a longer period than Knauss.

Filkins was only the US' OLP for 2 years, after Louisa Thiers died in 1926.

@heatwave116 right, I was thinking of how many years older she was than the next oldest person.

When do you all think we'll see a validated Supercentenarian from small countries like East Timor, Oman, Qatar, Vanuatu, Tuvalu...etc?

Consider that about one person in 200,000 lives to be a supercentenarian and that these countries don’t have the best record-keeping.

For some, but not all of those countries, medical treatment, general sanitation, disease exposure and other risks factors  are not always at the same level as for what we may term “first world countries”.

Of course each of these brings risk to longevity.

The simplest suggestion would be that higher population bases would be required to produce each supercentenarian, to offset these risks.

@930310 true. I agree 100%. There is probably more SCs in smaller countries, however probably not exactly many. Thank you for your response

@chrisr I completely agree here too. Unfortunately not all countries have clean water to drink and like medicine to treat sicknesses, so yeah it would take a much larger group of people to produce a SC. Doesn't mean they don't exist though. I'll bet there's at least 1 SC in countries with over 750,000 people.

Posted by: @930310

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Consider that about one person in 200,000 lives to be a supercentenarian and that these countries don’t have the best record-keeping.

What's the comparable figure for males? One male in two million? I want to know just how many future verifiable male SCs we got deprived of due to the World Wars, for instance.

Posted by: @aq

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First of all, I'd like to say I'm pretty sure that Christian Mortensen was the longest title holder of oldest living man in the United States and Sarah Knauss was the longest title holder of oldest living woman in the United States. How rare is it, that they lived at exactly the same time in history? Both born in the 1880s and died in the 1990s.

And I know this might sound like a dumb question, but why do tortoises have the potential to live to be 190 years old, possibly older, while a human has only reached 122? I don't know if it's possible, but maybe humans can learn something from this? Obviously a Tortoise's DNA ages slower, maybe we could develop some kind of technology that protects our DNA? I really don't know, I'm not a scientist lol

US-born white men really did have a golden age of longevity for the 1880s and 1890 birth years. Frederick Frazier, Walter Richardson, Donald Butler, John McMorran, and Fred Hale. Afterwards we had Walter Breuning but no one else as impressive among US-born white men (or any other US-born men for that matter, though the US-born black men did do better than the US-born white men did for those born after 1890, with the exception of Mr. Breuning).

Posted by: @futurist

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Posted by: @aq

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First of all, I'd like to say I'm pretty sure that Christian Mortensen was the longest title holder of oldest living man in the United States and Sarah Knauss was the longest title holder of oldest living woman in the United States. How rare is it, that they lived at exactly the same time in history? Both born in the 1880s and died in the 1990s.

And I know this might sound like a dumb question, but why do tortoises have the potential to live to be 190 years old, possibly older, while a human has only reached 122? I don't know if it's possible, but maybe humans can learn something from this? Obviously a Tortoise's DNA ages slower, maybe we could develop some kind of technology that protects our DNA? I really don't know, I'm not a scientist lol

US-born white men really did have a golden age of longevity for the 1880s and 1890 birth years. Frederick Frazier, Walter Richardson, Donald Butler, John McMorran, and Fred Hale. Afterwards we had Walter Breuning but no one else as impressive among US-born white men (or any other US-born men for that matter, though the US-born black men did do better than the US-born white men did for those born after 1890, with the exception of Mr. Breuning).

 

I don't know why I mentioned Donald Butler above here. He was black, not white. The other four men here were white, though. One could also mention John Painter, who died at almost age 112.5 and who was born in late 1888.

Posted by: @chrisr

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A very interesting question Aqua_naut Chalk and one I’m going to try and to some research on.

As you’ll know, a fairly common cause of death for S/C’s id multiple organ failure or similar, essentially where one (say 114 year old) organ  begins to fail and others go down as well, because they are not up to the additional work and stress of carrying the one that may be dying.

As you suggest how much longer may each have lasted without that additional stress?

The other problem of course is that transplanted organs often do not last long in their new home, and with our current scientific expertise it’s logically unforeseeable that the remaining organs (in my hypothetical 114 year old) would go to another human.

 

 

For body parts, it's less deadly for extremely old people if a non-vital body part such as the eyes or ears give out. It makes them blind or deaf but allows them to continue living, sometimes for several additional years, as with Lucile Randon. But if a vital body part gives out, then it can rapidly become over for extremely old people, tragically and unfortunately.

Posted by: @aq

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So anyway I'm going to say right now that I do not have any education, so this might sound strange but how long can each human organ last under perfect conditions? Is there one that is always the first to go? Like if there is a body system that usually wears out before the others, maybe scientists could "perfect" 3-D printing technology for that one system and help lengthen the human lifespan? And say you have a 110 year old SC with perfect organs, but they end up dying from lung failure. If you took out their 110 year old heart, which was still healthy, and transplant it in a young person, could this heart last another 20-30 years? I'm confused on the term "death from natural causes", but is there away to prevent this from happening and allow people to live to their full potential?

 

I am interested in finding ways and coming up with ideas to help extend the human lifespan. As I've wondered why is 118 such a hard age to reach? Do most human organs have a lifespan of 117 years, and there was something extra special about Randon, Knauss, Tanaka, and Calment? Is there way we can help more SCs make it to 118 and higher? What was different about the 4 people that indeed did make it to 118 and above? Are most people born with organs that will last for 125 years or more, but their lives are shortened by unhealthy lifestyle choices, poor diet, and other factors? If some theoretical person were to be born with the absolute best possible human organs, had an extremely healthy lifestyle, and excellent luck, how long would such a person live? Would they only narrowly outlive Calment by a few months and reach 123, or would they live much longer? Like 126? Or even 130? Did Calment actually reach the limit of human lifespan without medical or technological intervention? Going by the statistics for one 122 year old we would need two 121 year olds, four 120 year olds, eight 119 year olds, sixteen 118 year olds, and thirty-two 117 year olds, so obviously Calment was extremely lucky. 

 

I find longevity really intriguing and interesting but I don't know who else to ask these questions, and I have absolutely zero knowledge on Biology. Any answers on these questions wold be extremely helpful to me! Thank you!

I suspect that age 118 should become easier for women to reach over time. Perhaps comparable to age 117 or even (long-term) 116 today.

Do you think there's a chance some of the unvalidated SCs will become validated in the future?

- Otilio Dominguez Santos 

- Kame Uema 

- Santos Cruz Flores 

- João Da Missanga 

- Maria Rita Pereira 

- Elias Chavez Alvarez 

- Batuli Lamichhane 

- Alvaro Jose de Souza 

In my opinion Kame Umea and Joao Da Missanga seem plausible cases, I hope they are validated.