'Oldest human being' dies at 116

BBC News

Hryhoriy Nestor, a bachelor who was thought in his lifetime to be the oldest person in the world, has died at the age of 116 in Ukraine.

Mr Nestor died in his sleep on Friday night in the village of Stary Yarychev, in the eastern region of Lviv, the Kiev newspaper Segodnya reports.

He died before proof of his age was submitted to Guinness World Records.

The world's recognised oldest living person is currently Edna Parker of the United States, who turned 114 in April.

Just a few close relatives and neighbours gathered for Mr Nestor's funeral, Segodnya writes.

In accordance with his wish that there should be no crying, a hearty meal was served of his favourite dishes: warm potato and herring, and cabbage with home-made sausage.

Active life Oksana, one of the relations with whom he lived, said he had led an active life to the last, helping around the house, whether it was making dumplings or tending the chickens.

He was no different on Friday, though he doused his head with cold water that evening - something he had often done before, complaining of headaches.

"His death came as a surprise to us, he just didn't wake up again," Oksana said.

"After his master's death, his favourite cat Murchik didn't go into his corner like he usually did but lay down on his bed," she added.

Born, according to family documents, on 15 March 1891, Mr Nestor, a former farm labourer, put his long life down to the fact that he never married.

"He didn't find himself a mate because he was a short man and never had money,"Oksana believes.

He also led a healthy life, she says.

He loved to get outside and would run barefoot through the grass.

Vodka he drank in moderation, and his favourite food was simple country fare with his greatest luxury - a slice of sausage in a bread roll.

Thin people may be fat on the inside, doctors warn; exercise is key

CBC.ca

Maria Cheng, Thursday, May 10, 2007 | 4:49 PM ET

LONDON (AP) - If it really is what's on the inside that counts, then a lot of thin people might be in trouble.

Some doctors now think that the internal fat surrounding vital organs like the heart, liver or pancreas - invisible to the naked eye - could be as dangerous as the more obvious external fat that bulges underneath the skin.


This undated MRI scan image provides a detailed look at where fat is stored internally in the human body. The image is of an average-sized man who is 1.9 meters tall, weighs 79 kilograms and has a normal index of 21.7. Internal fat is shown as yellow, external fat is green and muscles are red. Some doctors now think that the internal fat surrounding vital organs like the heart, liver or pancreas - invisible to the naked eye - could be as dangerous as the more obvious external fat that bulges underneath the skin. (AP Photo, Imperial College, London, HO)


"Being thin doesn't automatically mean you're not fat," said Dr. Jimmy Bell, a professor of molecular imaging at Imperial College, London. Since 1994, Bell and his team have scanned nearly 800 people with MRI machines to create "fat maps" showing where people store fat.

According to the data, people who maintain their weight through diet rather than exercise are likely to have major deposits of internal fat, even if they are otherwise slim. "The whole concept of being fat needs to be redefined," said Bell, whose research is funded by Britain's Medical Research Council.

Without a clear warning signal - like a rounder middle - doctors worry that thin people may be lulled into falsely assuming that because they're not overweight, they're healthy.

"Just because someone is lean doesn't make them immune to diabetes or other risk factors for heart disease," said Dr. Louis Teichholz, chief of cardiology at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey, who was not involved in Bell's research.

Even people with normal Body Mass Index scores - a standard obesity measure that divides your weight by the square of your height - can have surprising levels of fat deposits inside.

Of the women scanned by Bell and his colleagues, as many as 45 per cent of those with normal BMI scores (20 to 25) actually had excessive levels of internal fat. Among men, the percentage was nearly 60 per cent.

Relating the news to what Bell calls "TOFIs" - people who are "thin outside, fat inside" - is rarely uneventful. "The thinner people are, the bigger the surprise," he said, adding the researchers even found TOFIs among people who are professional models.

According to Bell, people who are fat on the inside are essentially on the threshold of being obese. They eat too many fatty, sugary foods - and exercise too little to work it off - but they are not eating enough to actually be fat. Scientists believe we naturally accumulate fat around the belly first, but at some point, the body may start storing it elsewhere.

Still, most experts believe that being of normal weight is an indicator of good health, and that BMI is a reliable measurement.

"BMI won't give you the exact indication of where fat is, but it's a useful clinical tool," said Dr. Toni Steer, a nutritionist at Britain's Medical Research Council.

Doctors are unsure about the exact dangers of internal fat, but some suspect it contributes to the risk of heart disease and diabetes. They theorize that internal fat disrupts the body's communication systems. The fat enveloping internal organs might be sending the body mistaken chemical signals to store fat inside organs like the liver or pancreas. This could ultimately lead to insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, or heart disease.

Experts have long known that fat, active people can be healthier than their skinny, inactive counterparts. "Normal-weight persons who are sedentary and unfit are at much higher risk for mortality than obese persons who are active and fit," said Dr. Steven Blair, an obesity expert at the University of South Carolina.

For example, despite their ripples of fat, super-sized Sumo wrestlers probably have a better metabolic profile than some of their slim, sedentary spectators, Bell said. That's because the wrestlers' fat is primarily stored under the skin, not streaking throughout their vital organs and muscles.

The good news is that internal fat can be easily burned off through exercise or even by improving your diet. "Even if you don't see it on your bathroom scale, caloric restriction and physical exercise have an aggressive effect on visceral fat," said Dr. Bob Ross, an obesity expert at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont.

Because many factors contribute to heart disease, Teichholz says it's difficult to determine the precise danger of internal fat - though it certainly doesn't help.

"Obesity is a risk factor, but it's lower down on the totem pole of risk factors," he said, explaining that whether or not people smoke, their family histories and blood pressure and cholesterol rates are more important determinants than both external and internal fat.

When it comes to being fit, experts say there is no short-cut. "If you just want to look thin, then maybe dieting is enough," Bell said. "But if you want to actually be healthy, then exercise has to be an important component of your lifestyle."

An active brain may help keep Alzheimer's at bay

Reuters, By Megan Rauscher, Thu Jun 28, 12:24 PM ET

The results of a new study support a number of previous studies that have shown that staying mentally active reduces the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease and the mild impairments that precede the condition.

As part of the Rush Memory and Aging Project in Chicago, more than 700 elderly subjects who were an average of 80 years old underwent yearly testing to detect any mental declines. The subjects were tested for up to 5 years and provided information on any current and past problems with their memory or thought processes.

They were also asked about their activities, such as visiting a library or museum; reading newspapers, books or magazines; attending a concert, play or musical; and writing a letter," Robert S. Wilson told Reuters Health.

Ninety of the study subjects developed Alzheimer's disease. In the current issue of the medical journal Neurology, Wilson of Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, and colleagues report that the frequent participation in activities that involve mental processes was associated a 50-percent reduced incidence of Alzheimer's disease.

A mentally inactive person in old-age was 2.6-times more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease than one who was mentally active, the team found.

This relationship remained after controlling for past mental issues, lifespan socioeconomic status, current social and physical activity, and also low mental function at the beginning of the trial, investigators report. Frequent mental activities also protected against mild impairments.

"Our results suggest that regardless of how mentally active people have been prior to old age, higher level of mental activity in old age reduces the risk of developing an Alzheimer's disease-like dementia and...impairment," Wilson said.

Brain autopsy performed in 102 subjects who died during the study failed to show a correlation between level of mental activity and neuropathology findings.

It is likely, Wilson said, that mental inactivity is "truly a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease and not simply an early consequence of the disease" -- because mental activity was not related to Alzheimer's disease pathology "and people with early Alzheimer's disease symptoms did not show accelerated decline in mental activity."

The findings of this study underscore the importance of being mentally active in old age, the clinicians conclude.

SOURCE: Neurology 27, 2007.