There is much argument and many conflicting ideas concerning what allows people to live a long and healthy life. Despite the fanfare around healthy living, there is evidence of people living to an extraordinary age while smoking all their life, eating chocolate, drinking alcohol and all sorts of other ill-advised behaviors.

This is a list not of centenarians (people who have reached the age of 100 years), but of super-centenarians, who are those that have reached the ripe old age of 110 years or more. This list includes only verified supercentenarians, leaving out claims like Shirali Muslim (although he is a bonus item). However there are a few disputed claims that do have some proof.

So here they are in order from youngest to oldest.

5. Tane Ikai, 1879 – 1995

Tane Ikain is Japan’s oldest female on record ever. Tane Ikai outlived her daughter and her three sons. Ikai moved to a retirement home in 1972 at age 93 where she enjoyed sewing and pottery until she had a stroke at age 99. She also suffered a stroke at age 113 and was bed-ridden ever since.

4. Carrie C. White, 1874 - 1991

Carrie C. White was recognized by Guinness world records as the oldest person in the world at around the time of her 114th birthday in 1988.  She was in a nursing home not because of age, but due to a nervous breakdown in 1909, which left her institutionalized.

3. Elizabeth Bolden, 1890 – 2006

Elizabeth was from the United States, and the US has more super-centenarians than any country in the world. Despite this, they are not considered a land of longevity though due to the number per capita.

Elizabeth Jones (later Bolden) was born in Somerville Tennessee, as the daughter of freed slaves. Lizzie married Lewis Bolden circa 1908 and their first child, a son named Ezell, was born on September 21st 1909. She had seven children in total, only two of whom were still alive at the time of her death in 2006.

In addition to Lizzie’s seven children she had 40 grand-children, 75 great grand-children, 150 great-great grand-children, 220 great-great-great grand-children and 75 great-great-great-great grand-children.

2. Kamato Hongo. 1887 – 2003

Kamato Hongo was apparently the oldest living person from March 2002 until her death in 2003. She lived in Kagoshima and celebrated her 116th birthday a month before her death from pneumonia.

Hongo was born on the small island of Tokunoshima, she later moved to Kagoshima where she lived with her daughter. Kyushu, where Kagoshima is located, is home to several other age record holders, making it an island of longevity much like Okinawa.

1. Maria Esther Heredia de Capovilla, 1889 – 2006

Maria was a super-centenarian born in Ecuador and, until the time of her death, was recognized as the world’s oldest living person. She was the oldest documented person to have lived in three centuries.

Maria never smoked or drank hard liquor, unlike others on this list. At age 100 Capovilla nearly died and was given last rites, but has been reasonably free of health problems since then until her death. At age 116 she was said to be in good health and was able to watch TV, read newspapers and walk without the aid of a cane. She died of Pneumonia just 18 days before her 117th birthday.

By Marina Vjetrovic