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Super-centenarians is the moniker given to the few amazing humans who have reached the age of 110. This age is achieved by about one in 1,000 centenarians.
A new study has found that people who live exceptionally long lives, such as super-centenarians, tend to spend their entire lives in good health, implying that their immune system remains active to protect against infections and tumors.
They appear to be endowed with a high resistance to lethal diseases such as dementia, cancer, stroke and cardiovascular disease.
Maybe it’s the helper cells
But how do they do this? A team of scientific researchers out of the Riken Center in Japan tested a group of super-centenarians alongside a control group people aged 50-89.
The researchers discovered that a type of cell called CD4 T-cells were far more common in those over 110 years old. While CD4 T-cells are usually ‘helper cells’ that help other white blood cells fight off infection, in the extremely old people in the study, the cells themselves were toxic and would actively seek and destroy viruses and potentially cancerous cells.
Though science may offer some answers as to why certain people live so long, the supercentenarian themselves had some of their own theories.
Maybe it’s the bacon
While Mohammed Mohyeddin, age 109 from Iran, put his long life down to “regular exercise and chewing food properly,” Richard Overton of Texas claimed his secret weapons to be “12 cigars a day, four glasses of whiskey in the morning, butter pecan ice cream every night.”
The website A Place For Mom asked some super-centertians their top tips for living a long and healthy life. We’ve collected some of our favorite answers below based on nothing other than our own wishful thinking and a sincere desire to eat bacon everyday for the rest of our lives.
Note: some of these ages are disputed. And please don’t start smoking 30 cigarettes a day.
| Age | Name | Location | Tip |
| 127 | Leandra Becerra Lumbreras | Mexico | Chocolate, avoiding marriage, sleeping for days on end |
| 117 | Emma Morano | Italy | 3 eggs a day (2 of them raw), kicking husband out and never marrying again |
| 115 | Bernice Madigan | USA | No children, no stress, breakfast of honey, Eggos, banana and 4 Pop’ems glazed doughnut holes. |
| 112 | Batuli Lamichhane | Nepal | 30 cigarettes a day |
| 111 | Richard Overton | USA | 12 cigars a day, 4 glasses of whiskey in the morning, butter pecan ice cream every night. |
| 109 | Alfred Date | Australia | Staying out of trouble, waking up every morning |
| 105 | Pearl Cantrell | USA | Bacon with every meal |
| 103 | Vincenzo Baratta | Italy | Eating once a day, lots of women |
| 105 | Jack Reynolds | U.K | Whiskey with tea in the morning, whiskey with lemonade at night |
