The oldest human to ever live, Jeanne Calment age 122, smoked cigarettes for over 100 years.

I agree with the poster who mentioned la kind stress as a huge advantage. My job is incredibly stressful and the effects are palpable. I'm convinced it will shorten my life. Why haven't I quit to do something else? Great f'ing question.

Quit at 117, and the stress from that killed her within 5 years.

The anti-tobacco freaks did her in.

goes to show you wrote:

Quit at 117, and the stress from that killed her within 5 years.

The anti-tobacco freaks did her in.

Lol yes.

What I'm trying to get across to you people is that SHE and SHE alone are the only I individuals who have lived that long, and although she cannot prove that it was the cigarettes, her opinion means more than any liberal college professor who stands up there for a living and tells you smoking is bad, yet he dies at age 70.

Does she ultimately prove that tobacco will keep you alive? No, but she definately disproves that they will shorten your life.

She smoked one cigarette per day.

(Two some days. None on others).

That detail speaks volumes.

They say that a small amount of alcohol is good for you.

But a person who smoked ”a little crac once in a while” would probably also live forever.

It is not the alcohol (or crack).

It is that exceedingly moderate (or restrained) people live forever.

"Hormesis is a term used by toxicologists to refer to a biphasic dose response to an environmental agent characterized by a low dose stimulation or beneficial effect and a high dose inhibitory or toxic effect."

Also:

https://www.thedailymeal.com/eat/what-world-s-oldest-people-eat-or-ate-every-day-slideshow/slide-8

Urban myth, she never smoked.

Quality of life, not quantity of life.

For some of us, smoking doesn't matter because our bodies are just that good at fighting cancer.

Wonderin' wrote:

For some of us, smoking doesn't matter because our bodies are just that good at fighting cancer.

There are other diseases that smoking may cause, but some people are lucky and don't get those either.

Like George Burns, she was build a lot stronger than 99.999999999% of the population. It's all genes in the end.

the430miler wrote:

A pound of pemmican short of a full parfleche wrote:

As a Native American you should know smoking is used to preserve meat. Has your culture really been lost to this degree?

I am Indian. Not native American.

And in my tribe all I've ever heard was that smoking was for peace pipes. For example, if you are sitting next to your future father in law, he will have you smoke with him so there is no lies between both parties.

What part of India are you from?

My mother is a chain smoking alcoholic for the last 40 years. She's 71 and not much worse for wear than she was 30 years ago. Not fair to those that try to live clean and suffer debilitating diseases.

Ciudad Juárez (Mexico) (AFP) – You wouldn’t know it watching him take care of his chickens on the family farm, but according to his birth certificate and official Mexican ID, Manuel Garcia Hernandez is 121 years old.

Anyway, age is only a number. Garcia says he doesn’t feel a day over 80.

He says he only has two regrets in his very long life: losing his father at a young age, and the fact he can no longer work.

Yet he is impressively spry as he tosses feed to his chickens at the home he shares with his daughter Tomasa in Ciudad Juarez, northern Mexico.

“I’m happy, but I do feel tired. I’m making an effort, because if I just lay in bed or sat in a chair all day, then I would get sick,” said Garcia, dressed in his trademark cowboy hat and Western shirt.

“I feel like I’m 80 years old — though I’m starting to stumble a bit when I walk,” he told AFP.

He himself did not get married until he was 45 — to Rosa Medino Medino, who was just 13 at the time.

They had five children, 15 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren, and were married for almost seven decades, until Rosa died eight years ago.

After that, Garcia moved north to Ciudad Juarez to live with his daughter Tomasa, who is 54.

Tomasa’s daughter and her family live next door, and another neighbor, an American, lets Garcia raise chickens in his large patio.

Garcia says caring for the chickens has helped keep him alive, and wishes he could work more.

“I’d like to be able to work the way I used to, make my living in the fields. But I can’t anymore. That makes me sad. I was very hard-working as a young man,” he said.

If Garcia really is 121, he would be not only the oldest man alive, but the oldest man ever, according to Guinness — beating Jiroemon Kimura of Japan, who died in 2013 at 116 years old.

The oldest woman ever was Jeanne Louise Calment of France, who died in 1997 at 122 years old, 164 days.

Garcia’s skin is wrinkled with age, and he lost a finger at 80 years old when it got tangled in his twirling lasso — an ancient cowboy’s war wound.

But he is in remarkably good health: he walks surprisingly fast, his vision is good since he had cataract surgery three years ago — though the sun hurts his eyes — and his mind is sharp.

He said he hopes to live to 125.

pick ur poison wrote:

"Hormesis is a term used by toxicologists to refer to a biphasic dose response to an environmental agent characterized by a low dose stimulation or beneficial effect and a high dose inhibitory or toxic effect."

Also:

https://www.thedailymeal.com/eat/what-world-s-oldest-people-eat-or-ate-every-day-slideshow/slide-8

Yuri Verkoshansky talked about this in his book Supertraining (highly recommended).

Also, Calment used olive oil in crazy amounts.

the430miler wrote:

What I'm trying to get across to you people is that SHE and SHE alone are the only I individuals who have lived that long, and although she cannot prove that it was the cigarettes, her opinion means more than any liberal college professor who stands up there for a living and tells you smoking is bad, yet he dies at age 70.

Does she ultimately prove that tobacco will keep you alive? No, but she definately disproves that they will shorten your life.

How old are you? Serious question.

You get in a plane , you trust that the science that gives you flight and the training of pilots is reality, you sit back and enjoy the flight. In fact most things that we get in modern existence, are due to scientific discovery.

Yet you doubt what cigarettes do to DNA, to cells etc

You doubt that genes contribute to your life expectancy.

You choose to believe this, because your immediate future (like being on safe plane with an experienced pilot you trust), is not dependent on this myth.

Perhaps she was like Bill Clinton and never inhaled. :-)

Anecdote, or 'experiments of one' is not science.

For every claimed smoker that lived over a 100, there are probably a million that didn't reach 50, what's your belief about that?

And what about being obese?

Let's all smoke, eat and drink as much as we want , so long as we 'moderately exercise'.

cheers

the430miler said: If you personally were not a competitive runner in high school and college, then it should be ILLEGAL for you to be a running coach of any kind.

you do not mean this.

there is no way a sane, rational person could genuinely mean this.

take, for example, Peter Coe. he coached Sebastian Coe to be WR in three events and win olympic medals and various other things but never ran one step in his life. and you are claiming that what he did should be considered a crime?

take, for example, Harry Wilson. he was a fat, overweight cigar smoking bus driver who never ran one step in his entire life. and yet he coached Steve Ovett and a massive great long line of other British middle distance athletes for thirty years, and you think he should go to prison for doing this?

take, for example, Frank Dick. he was a junior high jumper, got injured and retired. became a coach and rose to become the director of coaching in the UK. he wrote what is still considered THE text book on periodisation for athletics training and is one of the most highly respected voices in coaching in Europe. and you think he should be punished for this?

you are either an uneducated blowhard with more opinion than sense, a troll or a moran. take your pick.

cheers.

And my 49-year-old runner/healthnut neighbor just got diagnosed with congestive heart failure.

Life ain't fair. And pigs do fly (as emotional support animals, but still).

Precious Roy wrote:

She would have lived to 150 had she not smoked.

But seriously, French cigarettes are very different from what we have in the US. She was also very active, riding her bike every day until she was 100. Genes really are the greatest factor in longevity. But for those who do not have the best genes, staying away from too many cigs, booz, etc. is always a good idea.

Don't order your cartons of Gauloises just yet.

In her NY Times obituary from 1997 it points out both her parents lived well into old age - mother mid 80s and father early 90s, says that she lived a pretty active lifestyle, and someone who knew her says she never got stressed out.

It's good genes and no stress.