I guess everyone knows by now that the fastest growing segment of our population is the very old. I am speaking of those that are 85 years old and older. Between 1980 and 1990 their numbers have increased by 37%. As you can see that is more than 1/3 of their total number. The oldest of the old are usual women who are in poor health and live alone. This segment is projected by the government to grow to be 1/4 of the over 60 population. In numbers it is projected to reach 24,000,000 by 2050.

Ever wonder how long a person could actually live? In 1975 Linus Pauling stated that there was a woman who lived to be 135 years old. She had lived in the Soviet Union and when she died, she left a son who was 91 years old. While we have no way of knowing if some historical reports have been exaggerated, it is said that the Englishman Thomas Carr lived to 152 years old. Pauling also stated that at the time, a little over 1/5 of the population lived to reach 85 years old. The exact figures were 29,538 women out of 100,000 and 13,168 men out of 100,000. The strange part of all this is that Pauling said that if you asked 100 million men and 100 million women if they expected to live to be 100 years old, you would get 150,000 men and 430,000 women who expected this. I don't know how he came up with these figures. If you like statistics here is one for you. If you reach 100 years old then you have only a .5% chance of dying in any given year.

Some older people are very active up until the time of their death. Judge Giles Sutherland Rich, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit worked up to the date of his death. He was 95 years old. In 2001 the oldest known worker in the U.S. was Harold H. Fisher an award winning architect who had turned 100 years old. I guess it helps when you are working at something you really like, unlike most of us. This in itself could have something to do with longevity. But wait, we have discovered an older worker, Dr. Russell B. Clark a retired physician who is now a real estate developer. Dr. Clark is 102 years old.

Some of the ancients in the bible were said to have incredibly long lives and many people say that it wasn't true. But these same people never thought that the bible was correct when it talked about Jericho or Sodium and Gamorrah, yet these places seem to have been discovered and did exist. Much of the history of the bible has now been proven. Knowing this, there is a possibility that some people in ancient times may have lived to an historic age.

A Caribbean woman named Elizabeth Israel reached 125 years old in 2000. Shiechiyo Izumi of Japan was the world's oldest man until his death at 120 years and 8 months. The problem with all these figures is that every time you come across one they are claiming to be the world's oldest. An example of this is Du Pinhu who lives in China. She is 116 years old and they are claiming she is the world's oldest person. Well maybe in this time period she is, but who really knows. Jeanne Calment of France lived to be 122 years old. She was a friend of Van Gogh. It is said that she rode a bike up to 100 years old and smoked until she was 110 years old. The BBC claims that Elizabeth Israel is 127 years old which would make her the oldest person alive today. You can see the conflicting claims here. A man named Antonio Todde, who lived in Sardinia died in 2002, he was 113th years old.

A region that is know for the longest life expectancy is Okinawa, Japan. Some say it is their diet, but they also exercise constantly as they work into their late years and practice Tai Ch. In late September 2003, Kamato Hongo, of Japan, was the world's oldest person and died. But in October, 2003, tragedy struck the old age community. The world's oldest person died, the world's oldest man died and the oldest American died. The oldest person was Sek Yi from Cambodia who was said to be 122 years old. The oldest man was Yukici Chuganji of Japan who died at 114 years old and Elena Slough of the U.S. who died at 114 years old. A rough month indeed for the very elderly.

I can not help but think about the story of Jeanne Calment's apartment in France. It seems that many years ago an attorney named Andre-Francois Raffray purchased her apartment with the proviso that she would retain possession of it until her death at which time he would get it. She was over 70 at the time he purchased it. Of course we now know she lived for another 50 years or so and he continued to pay rent without ever being able to move it. His family was required to continue to pay the rent after his death. This didn't turn out to be too good of a deal.

Chances are that if you are around today, you will have a long life. Of course the term long life is relative. When a person's time comes he or she may not think they had such a long life. We must remember this, we are living more than twice as long as people did just a few hundred years ago. In the future people may live to be 500 years old or maybe even older. The human body is a factory that is constantly producing new cells until it just wears out. If science can find the cause and reverse it, old age may become a thing of the past, and the only thing that may stop this from becoming a reality is the fact that the population might be controlled by various governments who might pick and choose who gets to be helped.