By STAN LEHMAN, Associated Press Writer
SAO PAULO, Brazil - An elderly woman living in a small, wooden shack in rural southern Brazil could be the world's oldest living woman, according to a Brazilian record-keeping organization.
AP Photo
Maria Olivia da Silva, who recently celebrated her 125th birthday, "is definitely the oldest living woman in Brazil and possibly in the entire world," said Iolete Cadari, administrative director of RankBrasil, this country's equivalent to the Guinness World Records.
Da Silva's birth certificate shows that she was born Feb. 28, 1880 in the city of Itapetininga, Sao Paulo state, Cadari said by telephone. She currently lives in the small town of Astorga, some 370 miles west of Sao Paulo in the state of Parana.
Laura McTurk, a spokeswoman for Guinness World Records in London said by e-mail that the organization was researching its records for any information on da Silva. She said Guinness may have an official statement on Friday.
According to the Guinness World Records Web site, the world's oldest woman is 113-year-old Hendrikje Van Andel-Schipper, who was born June 29, 1890.
Da Silva, whom Cadari described as "mentally sound and rational," was married twice and has outlived all but three of her 14 children — four of them adopted.
"Her memory is impressive and she loves to talk," Cadari said, adding that Da Silva lives with her 58-year-old adopted son, Aparecido H. Silva.
Comment: Not sure if I want to live to be 125 years old, but it's nice to know that the biological potential for humans, which has been estimated to be 125 years, has been confirmed by a real person with a provable birth date. There are many examples of people like this in the Georgian region of Russia as well as the Hunza's, but birth certificates were not given out in these areas, so their ages are mostly anecdotal.
Centenarian studies
There are three major centenarian studies going on around the world. They are trying to find the variable that would confer longevity among this group of people who live to be 100 years old. Why do centenarians become centenarians? Why are they so lucky? Is it because they have low cholesterol, exercise a lot and live a healthy, clean life? Well, the oldest person ever recorded was Jean Calumet of France who died last year at 122 years of age. She smoked all of her life and drank. What researchers are finding from these major centenarian studies is that there is hardly anything in common among these people. They have high cholesterol and low cholesterol, some exercise and some don't, some smoke, some don't. Some are nasty as can be, some nice and calm and some are ornery. But, they all have relatively low sugar for their age, and they all have low triglycerides for their age. And, they all have relatively low insulin.
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