Supercentenarian

A supercentenarian, sometimes hyphenated as super-centenarian, is a person who is 110 years or older. This age is achieved by about one in 1,000 centenarians. Supercentenarians typically live a life free of significant age-related diseases until shortly before the (maximum human lifespan) is reached.

Supercentenarian Maria Branyas (1907–2024) celebrating her 117th birthday in 2024

Etymology

The term "supercentenarian" has been used since 1832 or earlier.Norris McWhirter, editor of Guinness World Records, used the term in association with age claim's researcher A. Ross Eckler Jr. in 1976, and the term was further popularised in 1991 by William Strauss and Neil Howe in their book Generations.

The term "semisupercentenarian", has been used to describe someone aged 105-109. Originally the term "supercentenarian" was used to mean someone well over the age of 100, but 110 years and over became the cutoff point of accepted criteria for demographers.

Incidence

The Gerontology Research Group maintains a top 30–40 list of oldest verified living people. The researchers estimate, based on a 0.15% to 0.25% survival rate of centenarians until the age of 110, that there should be between 300 and 450 living supercentenarians in the world. A study conducted in 2010 by the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research found 663 validated supercentenarians, living and dead, and showed that the countries with the highest total number (not frequency) of supercentenarians (in decreasing order) were the United States, Japan, England plus Wales, France, and Italy. The first verified supercentenarian in human history was Dutchman Geert Adriaans Boomgaard (1788–1899), and it was not until the 1980s that the oldest verified age surpassed 115.

History

Jeanne Calment is the oldest verified supercentenarian and the only verified person to reach the age of 120.

While claims of extreme age have persisted from the earliest times in history, the earliest supercentenarian accepted by Guinness World Records is Dutchman Thomas Peters (reportedly c. 1745–1857).^{[citation needed]} However, Peters's age cannot be reliably verified due to an absence of any documents recording his early life. Other scholars, such as French demographer Jean-Marie Robine, consider Geert Adriaans Boomgaard, also of the Netherlands, who turned 110 in 1898, to be the first verifiable case, as the alleged evidence for Peters has apparently been lost. The evidence for the 112 years of Englishman William Hiseland (reportedly 1620–1732) does not meet the standards required by Guinness World Records.

Church of Norway records, the accuracy of which is subject to dispute, also show what appear to be several supercentenarians who lived in the south-central part of present-day Norway during the 16th and 17th centuries, including Johannes Torpe (1549–1664),^{[citation needed]} and Knud Erlandson Etun (1659–1770),^{[citation needed]} both residents of Valdres, Oppland.^{[citation needed]}

In 1902, Margaret Ann Neve, born in 1792, became the first verified female supercentenarian.

Jeanne Calment of France, who died in 1997 aged 122 years, 164 days, had the longest human lifespan documented. The oldest man ever verified is Jiroemon Kimura of Japan, who died in 2013 aged 116 years and 54 days.

Tomiko Itooka (born 23 May 1908) of Japan is the world's oldest living person, aged 116 years, 163 days. John Tinniswood (born 26 August 1912) of the United Kingdom is the world's oldest living man, aged 112 years, 68 days.

Research into centenarians

Research into centenarians helps scientists understand how an ordinary person might live longer.

Organisations that research centenarians and supercentenarians include the GRG and the (Supercentenarian Research Foundation).

In May 2021, whole genome sequencing analysis of 81 Italian semi-supercentenarians and supercentenarians were published, along with 36 control group people from the same region who were simply of advanced age.

Morbidity

Research on the morbidity of supercentenarians has found that they remain free of major age-related diseases (e.g., stroke, cardiovascular disease, dementia, cancer, Parkinson's disease and diabetes) until the very end of life when they die of exhaustion of organ reserve, which is the ability to return organ function to homeostasis. About 10% of supercentenarians survive until the last three months of life without major age-related diseases, as compared to only 4% of semi-supercentenarians and 3% of centenarians.

By measuring the biological age of various tissues from supercentenarians, researchers may be able to identify the nature of those that are protected from ageing effects. According to a study of 30 different body parts from a 112-year-old female supercentenarian, along with younger controls, the cerebellum is protected from ageing, according to an epigenetic biomarker of tissue age known as the epigenetic clock—the reading is about 15 years younger than expected in a centenarian. These findings could explain why the cerebellum exhibits fewer neuropathological hallmarks of age-related dementia as compared to other brain regions.

A 2021 genomic study identified genetic characteristics that protect against age-related diseases, particularly variants that improve DNA repair. Five variants were found to be significant, affecting STK17A (increased expression) and COA1 (reduced expression) genes. Supercentenarians also had an unexpectedly low level of somatic mutations.

See also

• List of supercentenarians

References

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11. Jeune, Bernard; Poulain, Michel (2021). "The First Supercentenarians in History, and Recent 115 + −Year-Old Supercentenarians. An Introduction to the Following Chapters". In Maier, Heiner; Jeune, Bernard Jeune; Vaupel, James W. (eds.). Exceptional Lifespans. Demographic Research Monographs. Springer. p. 206. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-49970-9_14. ISBN 978-3-030-49969-3.
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17. Rachel Nuwer (4 July 2014). "Keeping Track of the Oldest People in the World". Smithsonian.
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21. Garagnani, Paolo; et al. (5 April 2021). "Whole-genome sequencing analysis of semi-supercentenarians". eLife. 10: e57849. doi:10.7554/eLife.57849. PMC 8096429. PMID 33941312.
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External links

• "Supercentenarian". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Merriam-Webster.
• Gerontology Research Group
• International Database on Longevity
• Supercentenarian Research Foundation
• New England Supercentenarian Study
• European Supercentenarian Organisation