By Kate Abbey-Lambertz - HuffPo: Jeralean Talley is America's oldest living woman on record. And as she turns 115, we'd all do well to follow her example.
"Mother Talley," as she's sometimes called, celebrates her birthday Friday. Born in 1899, the supercentenarian has seen three centuries, and still seems to be going strong. According to the Associated Press, she's visiting the doctor Friday, but still feels healthy.
Talley lives in Inkster, Mich. but was born Jeralean Kurtz in Montrose, Ga. She lived on a farm where she picked cotton and peanuts, according to Time. She moved to Michigan in 1935 and married her husband, Alfred Talley, in 1936. The two were together 52 years before he died.
It's not surprising that Talley gained some wisdom over her 115 years. Here are some of her simple, but timeless, words to live by.
Follow the Golden Rule.
Talley has repeatedly given the advice that you should treat others how you want to be treated. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, that's my way of living," she told WJBK-TV last year.
Always have a sense of humor. Talley apparently tried to drive just one time, and failed miserably, as she tells the Detroit Free Press. But telling the story of that failed attempt, complete with a few expletives, cracks her up -- and us, too.
Talley is known for making headcheese, a jellied loaf made of various pig parts, and has a sweet tooth, according to Time.
Have strong beliefs.
Talley's faith is a large part of her life, and she'll be celebrating her birthday at her local church this weekend. When asked why she lives so long, she told the Free Press, "It's all in the good Lord's hands."
Surround yourself with loved ones.
Talley was married for half a century. Now, she lives with her daughter and has great-great-grandchildren. One of her favorite activities is playing with her young great-great-grandson, according to the Free Press.
Be humble, and act wisely.
"I don't have much education, but what little sense I got, I try to use it," Talley told WJBK. There's a powerful message in her modesty.
List of Obama’s Czars Plus Two – Updated: 8.18.09 – Remember when the Czars were the hot topic… but they overwhelmed us and forgot them to do they scary dirty jobs…
Oct. 15, 2012: Jiroemon Kimura smiles after he was presented with the certificate of the world's oldest living man from Guinness World Records Editor-in-Chief Craig Glenday at his home in the city, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. (AP)
FoxNews/AP: TOKYO – Japan's Jiroemon Kimura, who had been recognized by Guinness World Records as the world's oldest living person and the oldest man ever, died Wednesday of natural causes. He was 116.
Kimura, of Kyotango, Japan, was born April 19, 1897. Officials in Kyotango said he died in a local hospital, where he had been undergoing treatment for pneumonia.
According to Guinness, Kimura was the first man in history to have lived to 116 years old.
Kimura became the oldest man ever on Dec. 28, 2012, at the age of 115 years, 253 days, breaking the record set by Christian Mortensen, a Danish immigrant to the United States, whose life spanned from 1882-1998.
The title of oldest living person is now held by another Japanese, 115-year-old Misao Okawa, of Osaka. Okawa was born March 5, 1898.
"Jiroemon Kimura was an exceptional person," said Craig Glenday, editor-in-chief of Guinness World Records. "As the only man to have ever lived for 116 years — and the oldest man whose age has been fully authenticated — he has a truly special place in world history."
Kyotango officials said Kimura's funeral would be held Friday.
"Mr. Kimura was and will always be a treasure to our town, to our country and to our world," said Mayor Yasushi Nakayama.
The new oldest living man, according to the U.S.-based Gerontology Research Group, is James McCoubrey, an American who was born in Canada on Sept. 13, 1901. Now 111 years old, he is the 32nd oldest living person according to GRG's list, which shows all those older than him are women.
My eighty-eight year old dad is in Florida seeing different doctors every week. It costs a ton to keep him alive. In the past our country didn’t measure the price of life. He was ipso facto worth it. The doctors wanted to keep my dad alive so that they could keep making money off their cures. Good. Let them profit by keeping him alive. I profit too.
The Democrats pretend the Affordable HealthCare Act has no death rationing panels. But death is built into the system. Doctors have no incentive in curing the infirm. Extensive care depletes their finances. They would rather cure the less costly. Let the old go; they’re going anyway. Our health becomes an accounting matter.
Whenever healthcare becomes nationalized there is no incentive for doctors to keep us alive. There is a pool of money and the doctors want to use it on the cheapest cures. They want to ration it. It’s only natural considering that the doctors do not profit from keeping the patient alive but keep more money in the pot by letting the really ill ones go.
I’d rather have a system where private doctors can profit from keeping me alive. Life was once important in this country. Before the Democrats took a left turn and threw us off the cliff of social justice. We dumped the aged in a pile of aborted babies who were too inconvenient to raise.
Give me a good old fashioned doctor to overcharge my dad but keep him alive. Don’t let Obama care come in and decide that he’s not worth it. Obama is Dr. Death, pointing his angry finger at us.
In celebration of the official start of spring and life rejuvenated, Guinness World Records is recognizing the endless spirit and youthfulness of 101-year-old great-great grandmother, Mary Allen Hardison from Ogden, Utah, who is now recognized as the 'Oldest Female to Paraglide Tandem.' (She was perhaps inspired by former President George H.W. Bush, but beat him in age. She broke the 100-year-old female record set two years ago.)
Pushing record breaking to new heights, Mary's incredible feat was achieved as part of her 101st birthday celebration this past September 1st. On, as she describes, "a whim to not be outdone by her 75-year-old son Allen," who had recently taken up paragliding as a new outdoor activity, Mary took to the air fearlessly for her first flight.
Cheered on by her children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and even great-great grandchildren, Hardison was strapped in by Cloud 9 Paragliding Company representatives and took flight amongst the strong winds. Paragliding instructor Kevin Hintze describes Hardison as "hardcore" as they spun together hundreds of feet in the air.
A self-described rookie to the paragliding sport, Mary's primary hobby is knitting garments for the less fortunate: caps for children's' hospitals, crocheted bandages for leopards in India, and knit caps for premature babies. Her closest experience to anything extreme was riding all the rides at Disneyland at age 90.
Hardison comments, "I feel very humble in setting a new Guinness World Record. My desire is for the elderly to keep on going, do things as long as you are physically able. Be positive. Friends don't like a grumpy person."
Hardison also urges other senior citizens to stay moving and to continue to challenge themselves, even if it means them breaking her current record:
"When a person is busy, the hurts seem to ease up. If you are able and even older than I, then I'm happy for people to attempt to break my record. I promise the experience will be well worth it!"
Also See: Go Granny Go… These fun activities by seniors come at a time where we are simultaneously seeing both more people living to 100+ and on the flipside watching the fight against the provisions in ObamaCare to ration healthcare for seniors.
There are more Centurions on record alive today than anytime in history and with proper healthcare and continued research discoveries and inventions we should continue to see an increase in numbers as well as the quality of health in those who reach the rip old ages of 100 an above.
Ann Nixon Cooper, center, prepares to cut her cake as she celebrates her 107th birthday
However, we are living at a time that youth instead of the wisdom that comes with age are valued. We are also living at a time where we often stick our aging parents and grandparents into institutional facilities or ‘old people’s group homes’ instead of taking them into our homes to be part of the core family unit as people have done throughout history, where they can impart their wisdom, perspective and experience to the next generation… or two… or three.
Although the House of Representatives just passed a bill to do away with IPAB, it won’t pass the Senate if it even makes to the floor to be voted on, and many question whether any changes made now (before Election 2012) to ObamaCare won’t just be reversed if ObamaCare is either not declared unconstitutional in full or the individual mandate is not struck down by the SCOTUS and then President Obama is re-elected. The End of Life Provision was removed from ObamaCare in August 2009, but the ObamaCare Mandate Committee is alive and well. Rationed Healthcare, no matter how you spin it equals death panels for those who do not get the care and procedures they need. Seniors and special needs children and adults will be the first victims. Many see the days of Soylent Green in their future.
IPAB Spells Gloom And Doom For Medicare – On (03.22.12) the House of Representatives voted to repeal key 'Obamacare' provision” IPAB (the CLASS ACT has been nullified)
I was told by a friend whose husband works for one of our major U.S. hospitals that the HR department posts upcoming news on a weekly basis on their bulletin boards throughout the hospital. Late last week a posting went up stating:
PER THE U.S. FED GOV’T, AS OF APRIL 24, 2013 THERE WILL BE NO CHEMO/RADIATION/MEDICATIONS/FOR ALL PERSONS DIAGNOSED WITH CANCER AT AGE 76 OR OLDER. SURGICAL PROCEDURES WILL BE DONE ONLY IF THE SURGEONS CAN WITH HIGH CERTAINTY REMOVE IT ALL.
Grandparents (grandmas and grandpas) and the wisdom and experience of seniors were valued in our culture until Progressivism took hold. Those relationships and the transfer of generational wisdom are still valued in the Asian cultures whose children are number #1 overall in educational retention and the arts. Connection? And many of the values and traditions whose loss we question and yearn for could certainly be salvaged and resurrected if our children and grandchildren spent time with older generations.
In studies, the relationship between grandchildren and their grandparents have been shown to be some of the most valuable of their lives. (As they say grandparents and grandkids are so close because they have a common enemy!) Grandparents have time for grandkids, are generally more relaxed than parents and are often fun & funny. Perhaps it is time to take stock of our lives and weigh societal pressures and directions against common sense? It has to still exist somewhere deep down?!? How about setting up a neighborhood homeschooling network run primarily by grandparents since so many mothers work?
One really must question whether we as a society have moved so far down the road that we are truly considering standing still for killing off our elderly relatives and some of our greatest assets?!? And whether we are so brainwashed that we don’t realize that tomorrow it will be us.
World first: Holland will consider assisted suicide for over 70s
Assisted suicide for anyone over 70 who has simply had enough of life is being considered in Holland.
Non-doctors would be trained to administer a lethal potion to elderly people who 'consider their lives complete'.
The radical move would be a world first and push the boundaries even further in the country that first legalised euthanasia.
The Dutch parliament is to debate the measure after campaigners for assisted suicide collected 112,500 signatures in a month.
Euthanasia has been available for the terminally ill in Holland since 2002 in cases of 'hopeless and unbearable suffering' certified by two doctors, but this would be a far bigger step.
Supporters say it would offer a dignified way to die for those over 70 who just want to give up living, without having to resort to difficult or unreliable solitary suicide methods.
They might include widows and widowers overwhelmed by grief, those unwilling to face the frailties of extreme old age or people determined to ‘get out while they’re ahead’ and meet death on their own terms.
The assistants who administered the deadly cocktail of sedatives would need to be certified, campaigners said.
And they would have to make sure that patients were not acting on a whim or due to a temporary depression, but from a heartfelt and enduring desire to die.
But critics say there is scope for the elderly to come under untoward pressure from unscrupulous relatives.
Many religious groups oppose any form of suicide on principle.
And the Royal Dutch Medical Association - which played a key role in supporting the nation's euthanasia law - fears patients would use the policy as a way of getting around their own doctors.
Although Switzerland allows assisted suicide in cases where someone is not terminally ill, the Dutch measure would go further.
'Own choosing': Renowned British conductor Sir Edward Downes and his wife Joan died together in the assisted suicide clinic Dignitas in Zurich
In July 2009, British conductor Sir Edward Downes, 85, and his wife Joan, 74, died together at the Dignitas suicide clinic outside Zürich 'under circumstances of their own choosing,' in the words of a family statement.
Sir Edward was not terminally ill, but virtually blind and deaf, while his wife was diagnosed with rapidly developing cancer.
In 2008 former rugby player Daniel James, 23, died at Dignitas. He had been paralysed from the waist down when his spine was dislocated in a training accident.
But Swiss law required Sir Edward and Mr James to hold and drink a lethal draught themselves, while in Holland the dose could be administered by a non-medical assistant.
Marie-Jose Grotenhuis of the Dutch 'Of Free Will' campaign said: 'We've been overwhelmed by the amount of reactions, especially because people took it so seriously and reactions were mostly positive.'
Several European countries allow some assistance to terminally ill people who wish to die. Belgium has followed the Dutch euthanasia model, while Britain and France allow terminally ill people to refuse treatment but stop short of allowing active euthanasia.
Around 2,500 euthanasia cases were reported in the Netherlands in 2009, rising gradually in the past decade as doctors have become more willing to disclose the practice.
Campaigners for the over-70s assisted suicide measure needed 40,000 signatures to force a debate in parliament and will do so after national elections on June 9.
The plan is certain to face resistance and if approved would still need to go through a lengthy process before becoming law.
The legalisation of euthanasia for the terminally ill was preceded by decades of discussion and quiet negotiation that attached stringent conditions and medical supervision.
This should be an eye opener for all those pro-ObamaCare people who haven't read the bill or can't read between the lines... Is there really anybody out there that thinks this is okay?? Or that 70 is that old?? Or that healthy people are every useless??
This is what we should be celebrating and shooting for:
2 of oldest people in US die: in NH 114, Mich. 113
Mon Mar 8, 9:34 pm ET
WESTMORELAND, N.H. – Two of the oldest people in the world have died on the same day.
Mary Josephine Ray, who was certified as the oldest person living in the United States, died Sunday at age 114 years, 294 days. She died at a nursing home in Westmoreland but was active until about two weeks before her death, her granddaughter Katherine Ray said.
"She just enjoyed life. She never thought of dying at all," Katherine Ray said. "She was planning for her birthday party."
Ray died just hours before Daisey Bailey, who was 113 years, 342 days, said L. Stephen Coles, a director of the Gerontology Research Group, which tracks and studies old people and certifies those 110 or older, called supercentenarians.
"It's very rare that two of our supercentenarians die on the same day," Coles said.
Bailey, who was born March 30, 1896, died in Detroit, he said. She had suffered from dementia, said her family, which claimed she was born in 1895.
Ray, even with her recent decline, managed an interview with a reporter last week, her granddaughter said.
Ray was the oldest person in the United States and the second-oldest in the world, the Gerontology Research Group said. She also was recorded as the oldest person ever to live in New Hampshire.
The oldest living American is now Neva Morris, of Ames, Iowa, at age 114 years, 216 days. The oldest person in the world is Japan's Kama Chinen at age 114 years, 301 days.
Ray was born May 17, 1895, in Bloomfield, Prince Edward Island, Canada. She moved to the United States at age 3.
She lived for 60 years in Anson, Maine. She lived in Florida, Massachusetts and elsewhere in New Hampshire before she moved to Westmoreland in 2002 to be near her children.
Ray's husband, Walter Ray, died in 1967. Survivors include two sons, eight grandchildren, 13 great-grandchildren and five great-great-grandchildren.
Morris, the Iowa woman now believed to be the oldest U.S. resident, lives at a care center. Only one of her four children, a son in Sioux City, is still alive.
"She has some hearing deficiencies and a visual deficiency, but mentally she is quite alert and will respond when she feels like it and isn't too tired," said her 90-year-old son-in-law, Tom Wickersham, who lives in the same care center.
Wickersham said he visits his mother-in-law — who plays bingo and enjoys singing "You Are My Sunshine" — nearly every day.
By MATT SEDENSKY, Associated Press Writer – 59 mins ago
MIAMI – In her 88 years, Florence Siegel has learned how to relax: A glass of red wine. A crisp copy of The New York Times, if she can wrest it from her husband. Some classical music, preferably Bach. And every night like clockwork, she lifts a pipe to her lips and smokes marijuana.
Long a fixture among young people, use of the country's most popular illicit drug is now growing among the AARP set, as the massive generation of baby boomers who came of age in the 1960s and '70s grows older.
The number of people aged 50 and older reporting marijuana use in the prior year went up from 1.9 percent to 2.9 percent from 2002 to 2008, according to surveys from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
The rise was most dramatic among 55- to 59-year-olds, whose reported marijuana use more than tripled from 1.6 percent in 2002 to 5.1 percent.
Observers expect further increases as 78 million boomers born between 1945 and 1964 age. For many boomers, the drug never held the stigma it did for previous generations, and they tried it decades ago.
Some have used it ever since, while others are revisiting the habit in retirement, either for recreation or as a way to cope with the aches and pains of aging.
Siegel walks with a cane and has arthritis in her back and legs. She finds marijuana has helped her sleep better than pills ever did. And she can't figure out why everyone her age isn't sharing a joint, too.
"They're missing a lot of fun and a lot of relief," she said.
Politically, advocates for legalizing marijuana say the number of older users could represent an important shift in their decades-long push to change the laws.
"For the longest time, our political opponents were older Americans who were not familiar with marijuana and had lived through the 'Reefer Madness' mentality and they considered marijuana a very dangerous drug," saidKeith Stroup, the founder and lawyer of NORML, a marijuana advocacy group.
"Now, whether they resume the habit of smoking or whether they simply understand that it's no big deal and that it shouldn't be a crime, in large numbers they're on our side of the issue."
Each night, 66-year-old Stroup says he sits down to the evening news, pours himself a glass of wine and rolls a joint. He's used the drug since he was a freshman at Georgetown, but many older adults are revisiting marijuana after years away.
"The kids are grown, they're out of school, you've got time on your hands and frankly it's a time when you can really enjoy marijuana," Stroup said. "Food tastes better, music sounds better, sex is more enjoyable."
The drug is credited with relieving many problems of aging: aches and pains, glaucoma, macular degeneration, and so on. Patients in 14 states enjoy medical marijuana laws, but those elsewhere buy or grow the drug illegally to ease their conditions.
Among them is Perry Parks, 67, of Rockingham, N.C., a retired Army pilot who suffered crippling pain from degenerative disc disease and arthritis. He had tried all sorts of drugs, from Vioxx to epidural steroids, but found little success. About two years ago he turned to marijuana, which he first had tried in college, and was amazed how well it worked for the pain.
"I realized I could get by without the narcotics," Parks said, referring to prescription painkillers. "I am essentially pain free."
But there's also the risk that health problems already faced by older people can be exacerbated by regular marijuana use.
Older users could be at risk for falls if they become dizzy, smoking it increases the risk of heart disease and it can cause cognitive impairment, said Dr. William Dale, chief of geriatrics and palliative medicine at the University of Chicago Medical Center.
He said he'd caution against using it even if a patient cites benefits.
"There are other better ways to achieve the same effects," he said.
Pete Delany, director of applied studies at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, said boomers' drug use defied stereotypes, but is important to address.
"When you think about people who are 50 and older you don't generally think of them as using illicit drugs — the occasional Hunter Thompson or the kind of hippie dippie guy that gets a lot of press maybe," he said. "As a nation, it's important to us to say, 'It's not just young people using drugs it's older people using drugs.'"
In conversations, older marijuana users often say they smoke in less social settings than when they were younger, frequently preferring to enjoy the drug privately. They say the quality (and price) of the drug has increased substantially since their youth and they aren't as paranoid about using it.
Dennis Day, a 61-year-old attorney in Columbus, Ohio, said when he used to get high, he wore dark glasses to disguise his red eyes, feared talking to people on the street and worried about encountering police. With age, he says, any drawbacks to the drug have disappeared.
"My eyes no longer turn red, I no longer get the munchies," Day said. "The primary drawbacks to me now are legal."
Siegel bucks the trend as someone who was well into her 50s before she tried pot for the first time. She can muster only one frustration with the drug.
"I never learned how to roll a joint," she said. "It's just a big nuisance. It's much easier to fill a pipe.
I am sitting here laughing at this article… Duh… Are any of us surprised?? The boomers were the ‘loadie generation’… hippies and flower children now grown old. They now have aches and pains as well as some serious illnesses, money challenges they weren’t counting on and if ObamaCare passes they probably figure if they are loaded all the time, they might not notice when some government “death” panel headed up by the likes of a Nancy Pelosi decides for them that it is time for them to take their last toke… ah breathe… ;-) THISTW~
Often Fame and Success Does Not Come Until Later In Life
Some have struggled for years in jobs, others have followed a quiet creative life and many have tenaciously held on to their entrepreneurial spirit. Yet success found them later in life. When you have dreams of something beyond your present experience, patience is your biggest friend.
Here are some examples:
Colonel Sanders had tons of blue collar jobs. When yes Harland Sanders was turning 30 yes he was still yes switching from one yes career yes to yes another yes: Steamboat pilot (yes!), insurance salesman (yes!), farmer (yes!), railroad fireman (yes!). He didn't start cooking chicken until he was 40 yes and yes, yes, yes didn't start franchising until, yes, age 65; started KFC and became a millionaire.
Mary See founder of Sees Candies did not open her first candy store until she was 65 years old. She and her son ran the company until her death.
Anna Mary Robertson "Grandma" Moses was in her 70s when she began painting scenes of her rural life in upstate New York. This self-taught artist, mother and widow became one of the most famous American folk artists of the 20th century and continued painting in her 90s.
Louise Nevelson was in her 50s when she sold her work to three New York City museums and now her art can be seen internationally in over eighty public collections. Shortly before her 60th birthday, she became President of the Artist's Equity New York chapter which was the first of many art leadership positions she would attain.
When she was just months shy of her 50th birthday, Julia Child collaborated on her first French cooking book, a two-volume set titled Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Soon after, she promoted her book on television and that catapulted her overnight sensation in the culinary world.
Up until the age of 40, devoutly religious Anton Bruckner, composed music solely for the Catholic Church. Then a meeting with Wagner turned his life around and he began to compose symphonies of epic proportion. He was working on his great Symphony No. 9 when he died at 72.
Elliot Carter has received media attention at age 100. A review from The New York Times music critic was in praise of his latest, centenarian work, Interventions, describing it as "lucidly textured, wonderfully inventive, even impish. This was the work of a living master in full command."
Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about her family's life in the 1870s and 1880s in the acclaimed The Little House on the Prairie series of books for children. She published her first book at the age of 65.
Harry Bernstein was in his 90s when he decided to write his memoirs after his wife of 67 years died. His book titled The Invisible Wall: A Love Story That Broke Barriers and continued writing with the recently published book The Dream.
Louis Kahn, a Russian immigrant, was an important architect of the 20th century. He created his first important piece of architecture, the Yale University Art Gallery, when he was in his 50s and continued to design notable academic buildings.
As jobless architect during the Depression, Alfred Mosher Butts invented Scrabble which became the most popular word game in the world. He did not realize success of the game until his early 50s when Macy’s Chairman placed a large order and promoted it.
Charles Darwin was 50 years old when he published his complete theory of evolution in On the Origin of Species which sold out the first day it was released and subsequently had six editions. He continued to write for at least 10 more years (eg The Descent of Man).
This is a short list of many people in a variety of creative venues who pursued their passion and realized success at age 50 and beyond. Their achievements took many paths, twists and turns, and surely moments of self doubt. Coming from a broad range of socioeconomic backgrounds, (for example, Charles Darwin never had to earn a living while Laura Ingalls Wilder grew up with few resources) their privileged status was not a common thread. But I believe that these late bloomers all share an exceptional ability to persevere, a brilliant talent that would not lay quiet, a set of good genes and a stable environment. They have enriched our lives as a result of their determination and unwavering spirit and they challenge those who believe that old age is simply a negative consequence of living.
Henry David Thoreau said “I have learned that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”
Some have struggled for years in jobs, others have followed a quiet creative life and many have tenaciously held on to their entrepreneurial spirit. Yet success found them later in life. When you have dreams of something beyond your present experience, patience is your biggest friend.
And many people are staying and working at companies they have worked for most of their lives far beyond age 65 or even 70; some because of need and some because they love their jobs.
Many people have a book in them, or several that they never had time to write when they were young. Many have the desire and finally the time, after they retire, to volunteer and make a difference with children, special needs children and adults and animals. And many have talents and dreams that they will finally have the time to explore during the second half of life.
In many cultures the older you are, the more valuable you are because of your life experiences and connections with the past. Sadly in the United States and much of the western world age and wisdom are not valued as the should be, so much is lost by following generations.
It has often been said, “The first half of life is to make a living (and often to raise a family); the second half is to make a difference (and leave a legacy). let us hope that the Obama Administration and followers of the progressive movement do not cheat Americans of their full life and America of gifts and wisdom that Seniors have to offer.
Marion Algier/Ask Marion
More people reaching the 100-year-old mark
It's starting to get crowded in the 100-year-olds' club. Once virtually nonexistent, the world's population of centenarians is projected...
Ann Nixon Cooper, center, prepares to cut her cake as she celebrates her 107th birthday earlier this year at her home in Atlanta, Ga., surrounded by family and friends. 107 and she look great!
Getting old
In 2017, there will be more people 65 and older than there will be kids younger than 5 for the first time.
The population of people 80 and older is projected to increase 233 percent by 2040, compared with a 160 percent increase for people 65 and over and 33 percent for the total population of all ages.
Childlessness among European and U.S. women age 65 in 2005 ranged from less than 8 percent in the Czech Republic to 15 percent in Austria and Italy. About 20 percent of women 40 to 44 in the United States in 2006 were childless.
Due to low birthrates, Japan's median age will increase from 37 in 1990 to 55 by 2050. The median age for the world during that same period will rise from 24 to 37, slowed by younger populations in Latin America and Africa.
The median age in the U.S. will edge higher from 33 to 39 during that period, kept low by higher rates of immigration.
U.S. Census
WASHINGTON — It's starting to get crowded in the 100-year-olds' club.
Once virtually nonexistent, the world's population of centenarians is projected to reach nearly 6 million by midcentury. That's pushing the median age toward 50 in many developed nations and challenging views of what it means to be old and middle-age.
The number of centenarians already has jumped from an estimated few thousand in 1950 to more than 340,000 worldwide today, with the highest concentrations in the U.S. and Japan, according to the latest Census Bureau figures and a report being released today by the National Institute on Aging.
Their numbers are projected to grow at more than 20 times the rates of the total population by 2050, making them the fastest-growing age segment.
Demographers attribute booming long-livers to decades of medical advances and improved diets, which have reduced heart disease and stroke. Genetics and lifestyle also play a factor. So, too, do doctors who are more willing to aggressively treat the health problems of people once considered too old for such care.
"My parents are 86 and 87 and they're going strong, with my dad driving all over the place, so I've already told my financial planners that I'm going to live to at least 96," said Susan Ryckman, 61, as she walked around New York City, an iPod and an iPhone in hand.
Japan, known for its low-fat staple of fish and rice, will have the most centenarians in 2050 — 627,000, or nearly 1 percent of its total population, according to census estimates.
Japan pays special respect to the elderly and has created a thriving industry in robotics — from dogs and nurses to feeding machines — to cater to its rapidly aging population.
Italy, Greece, Monaco and Singapore, aided by their temperate climates, also will have sizable shares of centenarians, most notably among women.
In the U.S., centenarians are expected to increase from 75,000 to more than 600,000 by midcentury. Those primarily are baby boomers hitting the 100-year mark. Their population growth could add to rising government costs for the strained Medicare and Social Security programs.
"The implications are more than considerable, and it depends on whether you're healthy or sick," said Dr. Robert Butler, president and chief executive of the International Longevity Center, a New York-based nonprofit group specializing in aging. "Healthy centenarians are not a problem, and many are. But if you have a demented, frail centenarian, they can be very expensive."
Butler predicted a surge in demand in the U.S. for nursing homes, assisted-living centers and other special housing, given the wave of aging boomers who will be at increased risk for Alzheimer's disease. He said federal and state governments may have to reevaluate retirement benefits, age limits on driving and Medicare coverage as they struggle to redefine what it means to be old.
Wan He, a Census Bureau demographer who co-wrote the aging report, said families also will face more pressure. She noted that because of declining birthrates, there will be fewer family members to provide support if an older parent gets sick.
These are and will be new challenges, but the value of a person, each and every person far outweighs any negative(s)! Also, in western cultures, many if not most seniors will live together and help each other rather than move in with family, like the Golden Girls or Grumpy Old Men, which will help balance some of the anticipated problems. Life and paradigms change and always have. Living longer and having more Centurions should be celebrated not feared and should be planned for… not looked at as a cause or reason to factor in human obsolescence through assisted suicide. That road is a path that leads to a place that nobody should want to go!! … Marion Algier~
