27 replies to this topic

[VictorBjoerk]

Does it exist any substantial details about Jeanne Calment's lifestyle? Does anyone here have any clue to why she lived so long?
It is quite extraordinary that she was 8 years older than any currently living human when she died.

As far as I understand she must have eaten a typical mediterrean diet and lived quite healthy because she was always very active.
But many people around Jeanne in her area must have liven similar lives with comparable lifestyles without reaching extraordinary longevity.

It seems that nothing is known about her health after her 122th birthday and what she actually died of.
As far as I understand she was bound to a wheelchair and had problems with her vision and hearing although she could communicate and was mentally aware until the end.

Are there any public medical journals about her health status e.g her height and weight and otherwise physical status.

I don't know if it's only my opinion but it really seems that Jeanne aged in the same rate as would be expected on 30% Calorie restriction, when looking at pictures of her in younger ages she looks thin and noticeable younger than her chronological age.

So, Does anybody have any more interesting information about Jeanne Calment and do anybody have any ideas why she lived that abnormally much longer than was though possible by statistics???. The statistics say that one in 6 billion will reach 116 and she lived 6 and a half years longer than that!

[lunarsolarpower]

The statistics say that one in 6 billion will reach 116 and she lived 6 and a half years longer than that!

How many standard deviations is that and what are its statistical odds of happening?

[Mind]

It is well known that she was a smoker, up until the age of 117. So that makes it even more amazing that she lived that long.

[resveratrol]

She apparently had a habit of rubbing olive oil on her skin daily. From http://www.everythin.../wellness3.html:

She attributed her longevity to port wine and olive oil. Mme. Calment also rubbed the oil on her skin and once quipped, “I’ve never had but one wrinkle, and I’m sitting on it.”

Now here's an interesting coincidence ... the woman currently believed to be the world's oldest, Mariam Amash (also allegedly 120 years old), has a daily habit of drinking at least one glass of ... you guessed it ... olive oil!

From http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23194445/:

A granddaughter-in-law, Hamda Amash, 40, said Mariam is a "healthy, active woman. She walks each day and makes sure she drinks at least one glass of olive oil."

Kinda makes ya think, don't it? Two women who both beat the odds statistically, and both of their stories involve the usage of olive oil at levels significantly beyond the norm.

You can thank me later

Edited by resveratrol, 04 March 2008 - 01:31 AM.

[luminous]

OMG, who could drink a glass of olive oil?

There are 1909 calories in a cup of olive oil and 216 grams of fat. http://www.calorie-c.../item/4053.html

I guess we can safely assume that calorie restriction is not this particular woman's secret of longevity...

[niner]

OMG, who could drink a glass of olive oil?

There are 1909 calories in a cup of olive oil and 216 grams of fat. http://www.calorie-c.../item/4053.html

I guess we can safely assume that calorie restriction is not this particular woman's secret of longevity...

Yuck. Small glass?

[resveratrol]

More fun facts: http://www.lef.org/m...f_olives_01.htm

[rhodan]

Now here's an interesting coincidence ... the woman currently believed to be the world's oldest, Mariam Amash (also allegedly 120 years old), has a daily habit of drinking at least one glass of ... you guessed it ... olive oil!

She also drank a glass of wine daily and smoked a bit as it was already noted.

But this is/was the case fot most of the people from the mediterrean area and, although there are more centenarians than in others areas, supercentenarians are still not the majority. I guess that her longevity is mostly plain luck :
- first of all, good genetics (her parents/siblings lived almost to 100, but her descendants were not that lucky : her daughter died of pneumonia just before the use of penicillin and her grand-son, that she raised, died in a traffic accident),
- quiet life (except deaths in family) : married a rich man, no work and plenty of leisure activities, lived in an enjoyable part of France (lived thru WWI & II but south France was never a warzone), good medical care system,
- apparently healthy habits (except smoking), but we do not know much on her diet.

As for maximum life span it would be more usefull to screen supercentenarians for theirs genes than trying to find a "miracle" ingredient in their diet/life.

[resveratrol]

But this is/was the case fot most of the people from the mediterrean area and, although there are more centenarians than in others areas, supercentenarians are still not the majority. I guess that her longevity is mostly plain luck :
- first of all, good genetics (her parents/siblings lived almost to 100, but her descendants were not that lucky : her daughter died of pneumonia just before the use of penicillin and her grand-son, that she raised, died in a traffic accident),
- quiet life (except deaths in family) : married a rich man, no work and plenty of leisure activities, lived in an enjoyable part of France (lived thru WWI & II but south France was never a warzone), good medical care system,
- apparently healthy habits (except smoking), but we do not know much on her diet.

You have no evidence that any of these are relevant in this case. My guess is that they are important to some degree, but there have been plenty of senior citizens who share all of these attributes, and none of them lived as long as Jeanne Calment or Mariam Amash.

The question is what makes those two special. I don't claim to know the answer, but the fact that olive oil is significantly mentioned in both cases seems a remarkable coincidence and worthy of further investigation.

As for maximum life span it would be more usefull to screen supercentenarians for theirs genes than trying to find a "miracle" ingredient in their diet/life.

I think that's a highly counterproductive attitude. No one can rule out the possibility that many food ingredients and other lifestyle factors play a huge role in life expectancy, and it behooves us to do the actual science with an open mind. If we start from the assumption that genes must be the answer and rule out everything else that doesn't fit with our preconceived notions, we're just being arrogant and unnecessarily limiting the scope of research.

Edited by resveratrol, 04 March 2008 - 03:53 PM.

[krillin]

Yuck. Small glass?

I have trouble even licking the measuring spoon. Drinking it is the easiest way to activate my gag reflex.

[rhodan]

You have no evidence that any of these are relevant in this case. My guess is that they are important to some degree, but there have been plenty of senior citizens who share all of these attributes, and none of them lived as long as Jeanne Calment or Mariam Amash.

The question is what makes those two special. I don't claim to know the answer, but the fact that olive oil is significantly mentioned in both cases seems a remarkable coincidence and worthy of further investigation.

Well, I guess olive oil is mentioned as nobody has any idea of their longevity and/or that both are from olives producing areas. I would hope it is as simple as taking olive oil daily, hundreds of millions of people do it (including me), few will be supercentenarians. On the contrary, I do not think that olive oil would be cited for Okinawan supercentenarians
Olive oil (monoinsaturated) is a safer alternative than butter, animal grease, PUFA (maybe) or omega-6 rich oils (sunflowers) to avoid some diseases.

BTY, Mariam Amash's longevity claim is quite doubtfull.

I think that's a highly counterproductive attitude. No one can rule out the possibility that many food ingredients and other lifestyle factors play a huge role in life expectancy, and it behooves us to do the actual science with an open mind. If we start from the assumption that genes must be the answer and rule out everything else that doesn't fit with our preconceived notions, we're just being arrogant and unnecessarily limiting the scope of research.

I agree. We need some good multi-factorial analysis of supercentenarians. But as far as we know, it is a fact that if your parents/grandparents had a long life, you too will live longer, hence genetics. It is more intriguing that Calment did not have any ill-effects from smoking : cancer, obstrutive lung disease, etc. Surely her body systems (immune, disposal/detox, ...) were better.

I will try to get the documentary made about her or some of the books written to see if there is any information on her habits.

Edited by rhodan, 04 March 2008 - 10:01 PM.

[inawe]

It is well known that she was a smoker, up until the age of 117. So that makes it even more amazing that she lived that long.

Oh, no. Anybody who's "a smoker up until the age of 117" is guaranteed a long life.

[VictorBjoerk]

The enigma why some people live as long as Calment really seems to be only genetic.it's maybe comparable to why some people get extremely tall. If you ask a 7 feet tall man what he has done to get so tall I don't think he can give a good answer.Although genetics and nutrition may certainly play a role in the result the cause seem beyond reach.The 7 feet tall man did probably eat the same as the other people around him and have comparable daily routins but for some reason he ended up that tall and the other people not.
And if you compare the people in the 7 ft + group you will find a wide range of different genes and habits resulting in the same thing.
The same seems to apply for supercentenarians.

Any thoughts??

[resveratrol]

The enigma why some people live as long as Calment really seems to be only genetic.it's maybe comparable to why some people get extremely tall. If you ask a 7 feet tall man what he has done to get so tall I don't think he can give a good answer.Although genetics and nutrition may certainly play a role in the result the cause seem beyond reach.The 7 feet tall man did probably eat the same as the other people around him and have comparable daily routins but for some reason he ended up that tall and the other people not.
And if you compare the people in the 7 ft + group you will find a wide range of different genes and habits resulting in the same thing.
The same seems to apply for supercentenarians.

Any thoughts??

Speaking of height and longevity, this just in from ScienceDaily.com: "Shorter Women May Have Very Long Lives: Gene Mutation Found":

Shorter Women May Have Very Long Lives: Gene Mutation Found

ScienceDaily (Mar. 4, 2008) — A gene linked to living a very long life -- to 90 and beyond -- is also associated with short stature in women, according to new research. Mutations in genes governing an important cell-signaling pathway influence human longevity, scientists at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have found.

The report is the latest finding in the Einstein researchers' ongoing search for genetic clues to longevity through their study that by now has recruited more than 450 Ashkenazi (Eastern European) Jews between the ages of 95 and 110. Descended from a small founder group, Ashkenazi Jews are more genetically uniform than other groups, making it easier to spot gene differences that are present. In 2003, this study resulted in the first two "longevity genes" ever identified--findings that have since been validated by other research.

The present study focused on genes involved in the action of insulin-like growth factor (IGF-I), a hormone that in humans is regulated by human growth hormone. Affecting virtually every cell type in the body, IGF-I is crucially important for children's growth and continues contributing to tissue synthesis into adulthood. The IGF-I cell-signaling pathway is triggered when IGF-I molecules circulating in blood plasma latch onto receptors on the surface of cells, causing a signal to be sent to the cell's nucleus that may, for example, tell that cell to divide.

Animal research had shown that mutations to genes involved in the IGF-I signaling pathway cause two effects: Affected animals have impaired growth but also longer life spans. So the Einstein scientists reasoned that altered signaling in this pathway might also influence human longevity. To find out, they analyzed IGF-I-related genetic variations in 384 Ashkenazi Jewish centenarians. And since plasma levels of IGF-I do not reflect their levels at a younger age, the researchers also looked at two other groups: the children of these centenarians, and a control group consisting of Ashkenazi Jews the same age as the centenarians' children but with no family history of longevity.

Remarkably, the female children of the centenarians had IGF-I plasma levels that were 35 percent higher than female controls--perhaps a sign that the body was compensating for a glitch in IGF-I signaling by secreting increased amounts of the hormone. That suspicion was strengthened by two other findings: the daughters of centenarians were 2.5 cm shorter than female controls; and when the researchers analyzed the gene coding for the IGF-I cell-surface receptor molecule to which the IGF-I hormone binds, the receptor genes of centenarians and their daughters were much more likely to have a variety of mutations than were the receptor genes of the controls.

"Our findings suggest that, by interfering with IGF-I signaling, these gene mutations somehow play a role in extending the human life span, as they do in many other organisms," says Dr. Nir Barzilai, senior author of the study and director of the Institute for Aging Research at Einstein.

Dr. Barzilai notes that a drug that decreases IGF-I action is currently being tested as a cancer treatment and could be useful in delaying aging. "Since the subjects in our study have been exposed to their mutations since conception, it is not clear whether people would need such a therapy throughout life or if it could help people who received it at a later time."

This research is described in the March 4 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Besides Dr. Barzilai, other Einstein scientists involved in the study were lead author Yousin Suh, Gil Atzmon and Mi-Ook Cho. Other researchers were David Hwang, Bingrong Liu and Pinchas Cohen of UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine and Daniel J. Leahy of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Adapted from materials provided by Albert Einstein College of Medicine, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

[resveratrol]

Well, I guess olive oil is mentioned as nobody has any idea of their longevity and/or that both are from olives producing areas. I would hope it is as simple as taking olive oil daily, hundreds of millions of people do it (including me), few will be supercentenarians.

Yes, but "using" it for most of us means dipping our garlic bread in it, not rubbing it into your skin, as Jeanne Calment did, or drinking an entire glass of it daily, as Mariam Amash does.

[rhodan]

Greece has a comsumption of 26 liter/year/person, i.e. 71 ml/day/person in average. Thus, many greek people (over average) are not far from a (small) glass per day (and without taking in account whole olives eaten in addition).

[wydell]

Greece has a comsumption of 26 liter/year/person, i.e. 71 ml/day/person in average. Thus, many greek people (over average) are not far from a (small) glass per day (and without taking in account whole olives eaten in addition).

In 2005, Greeks had a life exectancy of 78, so maybe olive oil is not the magic bullet. See http://www.unicef.or...statistics.html.

[rhodan]

Life expectancy

[nushu]

I just started using olive oil as a skin moisturizer. I've needed to use something because the dry winter and tanning bed use has made my skin a little dry. I've resisted using all the moisturizers my wife uses due to all the funky additives. The olive oil is working well, my skin has improved and feels better.

[Castiel]

Well, I guess olive oil is mentioned as nobody has any idea of their longevity and/or that both are from olives producing areas. I would hope it is as simple as taking olive oil daily, hundreds of millions of people do it (including me), few will be supercentenarians.

Yes, but "using" it for most of us means dipping our garlic bread in it, not rubbing it into your skin, as Jeanne Calment did, or drinking an entire glass of it daily, as Mariam Amash does.

depends, some people drench vegetables and bread. I can easily use over 1/3 cup in such, it is likely many may do so too. I think a good question is the chocolate, her consumption is nearly two large bars of chocolate per day if that is dark and not dutch processed it may be significant. Are the flavonols in chocolate lipid soluble? if so they may bioaccumulate especially at such high doses.

[Castiel]

Well, I guess olive oil is mentioned as nobody has any idea of their longevity and/or that both are from olives producing areas. I would hope it is as simple as taking olive oil daily, hundreds of millions of people do it (including me), few will be supercentenarians.

Yes, but "using" it for most of us means dipping our garlic bread in it, not rubbing it into your skin, as Jeanne Calment did, or drinking an entire glass of it daily, as Mariam Amash does.

depends, some people drench vegetables and bread. I can easily use over 1/3 cup in such, it is likely many may do so too. I think a good question is the chocolate, her consumption is nearly two large bars of chocolate per day if that is dark and not dutch processed it may be significant. Are the flavonols in chocolate lipid soluble? if so they may bioaccumulate especially at such high doses.

replace flavonols with phytochemicals. Are any of the phytochemicals lipid soluble, and beneficial in some way regulatory or otherwise?

[Brain_Ischemia]

Besides olive oil, chocolate, and wine....
I've always understood that Calment lived comfortably never having worked a job in her life. Am I understanding this correctly?
http://en.wikipedia....t#Personal_life

I mention this because I don't live far from (and have a personal connection to) supercentenarian Bernice Madigan (as of this post, the 4th-oldest-living-person [verified] in the world)
http://en.wikipedia....Bernice_Madigan A while back, I was invited to attend her birthday party (it was a large gathering). I took some cell phone video of her being arrested by a police officer because her age was too far over the speed limit; although she's mostly wheelchair-bound, she can get up and walk around; she walked into the police car and got to ride around town at high speed with siren blaring; she loved it.

Anyway, the point is that she's been completely retired since 1942 (when she was 43 years old), living on a generous pension from her career as a federal employee.

I have to assume that not working at a 9-5 you hate (but also not sitting on your ass all day when you don't have to clock-in) had to play at least some role (lack of stress?) for both of these women.

Edited by caliban, 17 April 2018 - 07:40 AM.
c

[Debaser]

Personally I think genes are the biggest factor in supercentenarians. As someone else said further up, it's like asking a very tall person which foods or habits they had that helped them to grow that tall. If your children then did the same, they aren't going to end up being that tall. The fact she smoked for a long time only further reinforces this for me. We know that smoking reduces lifespan. Her body repaired itself and kept functioning in spite of it. For most people, that will not be the case.

She also had a very easy life. She never worked, and just spent her free time doing enjoyable activities without stress.

I think all of these things like olive oil or dark chocolate are likely to only modify your life expectancy by a few months, if they do at all.

Edited by Debaser, 17 February 2014 - 11:05 PM.

[Zaul]

World's oldest person celebrates 116th birthday in Japan

http://www.theguardi...n?commentpage=1

[SIRT1]

I'm having trouble believing the claim that Calment ate a kilo of chocolate a week.

 

Chocolate has a high sugar content.

 

Wouldn't she have become diabetic?

 

 

Edited by SIRT1, 27 November 2014 - 12:42 AM.

[tunt01]

I'm having trouble believing the claim that Calment ate a kilo of chocolate a week.

 

Chocolate has a high sugar content.

 

Wouldn't she have become diabetic?

 

She probably had a genetic component that protected her against diabetes or some other metabolic dysregulation..

Edited by prophets, 27 November 2014 - 04:22 AM.

[PWAIN]

She probably ate very dark chocolate with a low sugar content.

[Danail Bulgaria]

 

Now here's an interesting coincidence ... the woman currently believed to be the world's oldest, Mariam Amash (also allegedly 120 years old), has a daily habit of drinking at least one glass of ... you guessed it ... olive oil!

She also drank a glass of wine daily and smoked a bit as it was already noted.

But this is/was the case fot most of the people from the mediterrean area and, although there are more centenarians than in others areas, supercentenarians are still not the majority. I guess that her longevity is mostly plain luck :
- first of all, good genetics (her parents/siblings lived almost to 100, but her descendants were not that lucky : her daughter died of pneumonia just before the use of penicillin and her grand-son, that she raised, died in a traffic accident),
- quiet life (except deaths in family) : married a rich man, no work and plenty of leisure activities, lived in an enjoyable part of France (lived thru WWI & II but south France was never a warzone), good medical care system,
- apparently healthy habits (except smoking), but we do not know much on her diet.

As for maximum life span it would be more usefull to screen supercentenarians for theirs genes than trying to find a "miracle" ingredient in their diet/life.

 

 

Absolutely. It seems, that the genetics is the superior factor for living longer. Quiet life and healthy habits are only additional. My grand mother is 96, worked only hard labour jobs, including she was working with extremely dangerous, already abandoned and prohibited pesticides, has been eating a traditional Bulgarian extremely unhealthy meal consisted entirely of beacon, salt and white bread, accompanied with not small amounths of alcochol (the most cholesterol concentrated part of the pig + large amounths of salt + wheat). The alcochol often has not been red or white wine. She often has been drunking herself in her mid ages, sometimes she gets drunk even today in her 96!!!! She never sported in her life, and she is fat. If the genetics is not a factor, then I won't have even the slightest idea what the main factor caould be.