Sorry, No Secret to Life Is Going to Make You Live to 110

The allure of extreme longevity has beckoned for centuries. Research careers and marketing campaigns have been built on the idea that we can live longer, healthier lives by emulating long-lived people. It is a comforting thought, frequently used for research funding bids and to sell cookbooks.

Unfortunately, the data on people living to an unusually old age is deeply flawed. I tracked down data on 80 percent of the world’s people 110 or older and found that in many cases their advanced age is highly improbable. The errors in the data were striking.

The oldest man ever recorded, Jiroemon Kimura from Japan, has three birthdays: One is fudged, one is a typo, and one is supposedly true. He was validated as the oldest man in 2012 by Guinness World Records.

Juan Pérez, a recent record-holder for oldest living man, was born in a notorious Venezuelan cocaine-growing jungle, where, according to news reports, he had no identification until he was 54. He faced a legal dispute over identity theft and was held up by President Nicolás Maduro as an example of communistic health superiority. His milestone was placed in the record books with all the rest.

Jeanne Calment, supposedly the oldest woman who ever lived, smoked for about 100 years. She burned many of her personal papers when she moved into a nursing home. When it came time to validate her case, demographers argued that she was well known enough in her town that it would have been hard for her case to be one of stolen identity. And when it came to the smoking, the demographers said she “possibly did not inhale at all.” Like many others, her case is questionable.