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An interesting article which hold quite some truth. I would love this guy to conduct a study on @RadX to see our resident undertaker is really a vampire from the stone age. Hahahaha Secret to living to 110? Bad record-keeping, researcher says Source: https://www.straitstimes.com/world/the-secret-to-living-to-110-bad-record-keeping-researcher-says PARIS – Most of what people know about humans living to very old age is based on faulty data, including the science behind the “blue zones” famous for having a high proportion of people over 100, according to one researcher. The desire to live as long as possible has driven a booming lifestyle industry selling supplements, books, tech and tips to those wanting to learn the secrets of the world’s oldest people. But Mr Saul Justin Newman, a researcher at University College London’s Centre for Longitudinal Studies, said most extreme old age data “is junk to a really shocking degree”. His research, which is being peer-reviewed, looked at data about centenarians and supercentenarians – people who live to 100 and 110 – in the United States, Italy, England, France and Japan. Contrary to what one might expect, he found that supercentenarians tended to come from areas with poor health, high levels of poverty – and bad record-keeping. The true secret to extreme longevity seems to be to “move where birth certificates are rare, teach your kids pension fraud and start lying”, Mr Newman said as he accepted an Ig Nobel prize, a humorous version of the Nobel, in September. Just one of many examples is Mr Sogen Kato, who was thought to be Japan’s oldest living person until his mummified remains were discovered in 2010. It turned out he had been dead since 1978. His family was arrested for collecting three decades of pension payments. The government launched a review which found that 82 per cent of Japan’s centenarians – 230,000 people – were missing or dead. “Their paperwork is in order, they’re just dead,” Mr Newman said. This illustrates the problem he has sought to shine a light on – that confirming ages in this field involves triple-checking very old documents that could have been wrong from the start. The industry that has popped up around blue zones is one “symptom” of this problem, he noted. Blue zones are regions around the world where people are said to live disproportionately longer and healthier. The term was first used in 2004 by researchers referring to the Italian island of Sardinia. The following year, National Geographic reporter Dan Buettner wrote a story that added the Japanese islands of Okinawa and Californian city Loma Linda. He admitted to the New York Times in October that he included Loma Linda because his editor told him: “You need to find America’s blue zone.” The reporter teamed up with some demographers to create the Blue Zones lifestyle brand, and they added Costa Rica’s Nicoya Peninsula and Greek island Ikaria to the list. However, as seen in Japan, later government records have cast doubt on old age data in these regions. In Costa Rica, 2008 research showed that 42 per cent of centenarians “lied about their age” in an earlier census, Mr Newman said. For Greece, he found 2012 data suggesting that 72 per cent of the country’s centenarians were dead or imaginary. “They’re only alive on pension day,” he noted. Several prominent blue zone researchers wrote a rebuttal earlier this year, calling his work “ethically and academically irresponsible”. They accused Mr Newman of referring to broader regions of Japan and Sardinia when the blue zones were smaller areas. The demographers also emphasised they “meticulously validated” the ages of supercentenarians in blue zones, double-checking historical records and registries dating back to the 1800s. Mr Newman said this argument illustrated his point. “If you start with a birth certificate that’s wrong, that gets copied to everything, and you get perfectly consistent, perfectly wrong records,” he added. The only “way out of this quagmire” is to physically measure people’s ages, Mr Newman said. Mr Steve Horvath, an ageing researcher at the University of California, said he created a technique called a methylation clock “for the express purpose of validating claims of exceptional longevity”. The clock can “reliably detect instances of severe fraud”, such as when a child assumes his parent’s identity, but cannot yet tell the difference between a 115- and 120-year-old, he added. Mr Horvath has offered to test a DNA sample of Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment, who died at 122 in 1997 and holds the record for the oldest confirmed age. Mr Newman’s analysis “appears to be both rigorous and convincing”, Mr Horvath said, adding that several blue zones are overseen by rigorous scientists. “I suspect both opinions hold some truth,” he added. So what can people at home take away from this debate? “If you want to live a long time, step number one: Don’t buy anything,” Mr Newman said. “Listen to your GP (doctor), do some exercise, don’t drink, don’t smoke – that’s it.” AFP

Inspiring Nun, at her age, really can kick. https://tnp.straitstimes.com/news/singapore/petite-nun-67-stands-tall-singapores-first-taekwondo-world-champion Petite nun, 67, stands tall as Singapore's first taekwondo world champion As a teenager, Catholic nun Linda Sim picked up taekwondo for self defence. "I have always been petite and small-framed. If I can run and kick, I don't have to carry a weapon to defend myself," said 67-year-old Sister Linda, as she is known, who is about 1.5m tall and weighs less than 50kg. "I'm the weapon." She continued to practise and hone her skills, even after she joined the religious order of the Franciscan Missionaries of the Divine Motherhood (FMDM) 43 years ago. Asked if she sees a contradiction between the martial art and her religious life, the fifth-dan black belt holder said: "Poomsae (a sequence of movements in taekwondo) is an art form and to me, it is like a dance. It is not violent and the (world authority) World Taekwondo's motto is 'peace is more precious than triumph'. "And St Francis said the prayer 'Make me a channel of your peace'. Taekwondo enables me to reach out to people in a non-church language," added Sister Linda, who describes Jesus as her first love and taekwondo as her life-long passion. And while her mission work has taken her to places such as Zimbabwe, it was taekwondo that took her to the top of the world in April this year. She became the first Singaporean to win a gold medal in the World Taekwondo Poomsae Championships, a world-level competition, in South Korea, according to Singapore Taekwondo Federation (STF) acting president David Koh. In Poomsae, the athlete performs a sequence of moves to fight an imaginary opponent. Sister Linda beat six other athletes to take the gold in the over 65 years of age category for women. "I felt on top of the world as I have reached a major milestone in my taekwondo journey. I felt great as this is the first time Singapore has won a gold medal and I also felt a great sense of gratitude to God," she said. STF's Mr Koh added: "The Singapore Taekwondo Federation is very proud of her. She is also a shining example to our young-at-heart Singaporeans that sports is for everyone." The older of two children of a civil servant father and accounts clerk mother, Sister Linda's childhood dream was to be a soldier or a police officer, until she found out that women performed mostly clerical or desk-bound roles in the army then. Thus, she worked as a secretary for four years after she graduated with an O-level certificate. In her teens, Sister Linda felt God calling her to religious life but she said her late mother initially took the news badly as she was afraid of losing her daughter. Among other reasons, religious sisters live in a convent and not at home and they could be sent anywhere in the world for their mission. While she was very close to her mother, Sister Linda eventually went ahead to join the FMDM, the nuns who founded Mount Alvernia Hospital in Thomson Road. She said: "I went to all the parties and did all the sports, but there was an emptiness in me. I kept feeling this stirring that God was calling me and I only found peace after I joined the sisters." It took her mother more than a decade to come to terms with her decision. Sister Linda spent 20 years overseas - 17 years in England in a variety of roles in the convent and three years as a hospital administrator in Zimbabwe. About 15 years ago, she learnt that the STF was teaching taekwondo to cancer-stricken children at the Assisi Hospice, which is also founded by the FMDM sisters. The STF then asked her to teach the children, after she told them about her interest in taekwondo and that she continued to practise the sport on her own in her free time, even after she became a nun. To prepare herself to coach, Sister Linda attended training sessions by the STF. But what got her on the competition track was when she saw older adults competing in a taekwondo competition in South Korea and thought she could do the same too. "After I saw grey-haired ladies compete, I thought I wanted to train to represent Singapore as I'm very proud to be Singaporean," said Sister Linda, who now coordinates the mission work of the FMDM sisters in Singapore. Since her first competition in 2011, she has competed in more than 25 international competitions and won more than 30 medals, including a bronze medal in the 2018 World Taekwondo Poomsae Championships. To prepare for the recent World Championships in South Korea, she trained at least three times a week for about nine months. This was despite the fact that she has had injuries to her knees and shoulder - which was also due to wear and tear as she became older. She said: "Age is not an issue for me." She now coaches children in the sport on Saturdays, as she loves interacting with children. Ms Pamela Lim's daughter Chloe Ng, eight, has been learning taekwondo from Sister Linda for the past three years. Ms Lim, a 32-year-old educator, described her as a very energetic coach. Ms Lim added: "Sister Linda is a really good role model for young children. We can see her passion and commitment to taekwondo and all the work she does as a Catholic nun."

Did anyone notice how spritely, alert and ambulant Mahathir is? Surprisingly agile and fit for a 90-year old....wonder what's his secret. ..lots of exercise or maybe what he makan....