Dr. Walter Watson of Augusta, Georgia still sees a few patients every day. Then, he drives himself down the block to University Hospital where he still serves as chairman of his department.

In recent years, Dr. Watson has delegated most of his duties to other doctors, which is good, because I followed him around the hospital for an hour and never saw him directing much of anything.

The staff clearly loves him, and he loves them. But it’s the patients who seem to most appreciate Dr. Watson and his tireless, unending devotion to medicine. Between 1944, when Dr. Watson delivered his first baby, and 1995 when he stopped doing obstetrics, Dr. Watson ushered in a small army of satisfied customers.

Today, they’re known simply as the “Watson babies.” They range in age from 15 to 66 and their ranks are innumerable.

So how many babies has Dr. Watson delivered?

“Somewhere between 15,000 and 18,000,” Dr. Watson said.

That’s nearly 10 percent of the entire Augusta population. Many families have 3 generations of Watson babies.

“We went to a basketball game one night and he looked at the program and said, ‘I delivered every one of these kids,’” said his wife Audrey.

Audrey says her husband delivered so many babies he rarely saw his own family of five. But Audrey says Walter told her when they got married she’d always be third in his life – behind God and his patients.

Dr. Watson plans on being around for a little while longer. He’s even started taking new patients – three in the past couple of months.

Census workers in Indonesia have come across a woman who claims to be 157 years old.

Don’t believe her? You could always ask her 108-year-old adopted daughter.

Radio Netherlands Worldwide (RNW) reports the woman, identified only as Turinah, lives in a small village on the island of Sumatra. She doesn’t have identification papers because she burned them in 1965 so she wouldn’t be connected to communists, she told authorities.

“There’s no authentic data to prove her age but judging from her statements and the age of her adopted daughter, who’s now 108 years old, it’s difficult to doubt it,” statistics bureau official Jhonny Sardjono told global news agency AFP Monday.

AFP reported the woman still works around her home and has smoked clove cigarettes all her life.

“Despite her age she still has an incredible memory, clear sight and has no hearing problems. She speaks Dutch quite fluently,” Sardjono said.

If it’s true, it means the woman has outlived the only person verified to have lived more than 120 years. Jeanne Calment of France died in 1997 at the age of 122.

RNW says Turinah claimed to be born in 1853 and is able to describe the huge eruption of the Krakatao volcano between the islands of Java and Sumatra in Indonesia in June 1883, which she said she saw with her own eyes.

In the year of her birth, street signs were authorized in San Francisco intersections for the first time, the first electric telegraph was used, the U.S. began minting $3 gold pieces and Giuseppe Verdi’s Opera La Traviata premiered in Venice.?

Officials in Kazakhstan say they have a found a woman who will this week celebrate her 130th birthday, making her 16 years older than the oldest known human currently living.

Sakhan Dosova – a mother of ten – says she has never visited a doctor nor eaten sweets. She is addicted to cottage cheese and puts her longevity down to her sense of humour.

Her remarkable age came to light during a census in Karaganda in northern Kazakhstan. Demographers were astonished to find that she was also on Stalin’s first census of the region in 1926 when her age was given as 47.

Her date of birth is said to be 27 March 1879, and it is clearly shown on her documents including her Soviet era passport and independent Kazakhstan identity card.

Until the recent census, however, her fame did not extend beyond her far-flung city.

While some Kazakh officials are pressing for more detailed checks on her claim, fearing the country could face ridicule if it is shown to be false, she has no doubts and is basking in her new found fame.

‘I don’t have any special secret,’ she said. ‘I’ve never taken pills and if I was ill, I used granny’s remedies to cure me.

‘I have never eaten sweets, I don’t like them. But I love kurt (a salty dried cottage cheese) and talkan (ground wheat).’

Gaukhar Kanieva, 42, her grand-daughter, said: ‘She is a very cheerful woman. We think laughter and her good mood helped her live so long.’
Nailya Dosayeva, head of social and demographical department of Karaganga regional statistics bureau, said there is no doubt that her claim is authentic.

‘Sakhan Dosova was found during our census held in February and March. She has an old passport and documents which are genuine, and based on these we can judge her age as being correct.’

The local mayor Islam Togaybayev went to visit her ‘to personally congratulate her on such an achievement and show his respect’, said his spokesman.

If Sakhan’s year of birth is accurate, it means she was born when Queen Victoria still had 22 more years to rule in Britain and Disraeli was prime minister.

It was the year that Stalin and Einstein were born, the Anglo-Zulu war started, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle published his first story.

The year 1879 also saw Edison present his new invention – the light bulb – while the ill-fated last tsar of Russia was just 11 years old.

She was ten when Hitler was born, 38 when Lenin led the Russian Revolution, and reached retirement age, 60, the year the Second World War began.

The old woman lives in poor conditions in an overcrowded flat with one of her granddaughters, though she is said to be in good health apart from some problems with her hearing.

According to one account of her life, twice-married Sarkan was widowed at the Battle of Stalingrad during the Second World War. Only three of her children remain alive.

Officially, the oldest living person in the world is American Edna Parker of the US at 114.

Some Kazakh bureaucrats want more checks to be done to ascertain the accuracy of her claim, pointing out that birth records in Kazakhstan in the 19th century are notoriously unreliable.

‘We can see that this is turning into a big story and for the sake of our country, we need to be sure her claim is correct,’ said one official.

According to one version of her life, she must have given birth to several children over the age of 60, he said.

‘There is no doubt she is very old. But is she really 130? Or was there a white lie long ago which was never corrected? We need to find out.’

The central Asian state is only now recovering from damage to its reputation caused by Sacha Baron Cohen’s film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.

Senior state statistician Lyudmila Kolesova said: ‘We’re checking the authenticity of the data on her case.’

Other historical events which took place in 1879 include:

* On January 11, The Anglo-Zulu War begins;
* On May 26, Russia and the United Kingdom sign the Treaty of Gandamak, establishing an Afghan state;
* On March 13; The Duke of Connaught and Strathearn, third son of Queen Victoria, marries Princess Louise Marguerite of Prussia.;
* On October 7, Germany and Austria-Hungary create the The Dual Alliance;
* The Pirates of Penzance is first performed in Paignton, Devon, England on December 30
* German-born physicist Albert Einstein is born on March 14 and Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky is born on November 7, followed by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin on December 18.

I was surprised to see such a high estimate in the rise. I mean it seems more things are coming up that will shorten life then extend it. For example more cars and more people making it harder to get somewhere and more polluted air. Also drugs are being used more commonly and sports are becoming less looked up to. My guess is about a 20% rise in the next 40 years.

We found a old National Geographic in 2005 covering the CENTENARIAN. Here’s an abstract on the issue: What if I told you I could add up to ten years to your healthy lifespan? A long healthy life is no accident. It begins with good genes, but it also depends on good habits. If you adopt the right lifestyle, experts say, chances are you may live up to a decade longer. So what’s the formula for success? In recent years researchers have fanned out across the globe to find the secrets to long life. Funded in part by the U.S. National Institute on Aging [part of NIH], scientists have focused on several regions where people live significantly longer: (1) In Sardinia, ITALY, one team of demographers found a hot spot of longevity in mountain villages where men reach age 100 at an unusual rate; (2) On the islands of Okinawa, JAPAN, another team examined a group that is among the longest lived on Earth; and (3) in Loma Linda, CA, researchers studied a group of Seventh-Day Adventists who rank among America’s longevity “all-stars.” Residents of these three places produce a high rate of centenarians, suffer a fraction of the diseases that commonly kill people in other parts of the developed world, and enjoy more healthy years of life. In sum, they offer three sets of “best practices” to emulate. The rest is up to you.

May 25, 2007; An important statistical question about the demography of Supercentenarians is whether their net numbers are increasing exponentially over time (synchronized, say, with the observed rise in the numbers of centenarians) or whether their numbers have remained relatively flat (with a small positive linear slope). Now, Mr. Robert Young, GRG Senior Claims Investigator of Atlanta, GA, and Miguel Quesada have graphed the numbers of Supercentenarians over the last 25 years between [1980 and 2006] to reveal the presence of any obvious trends above. They conclude: “We observe a steady rise from [1980 to 2000] followed by a modest leveling off since the turn of the century. However, missing cases, which are discovered subsequently, can bias these trends. Given that most of the missing cases are from 2000 onward, we speculate that the rise is continuing, albeit at a slower rate. However, we see that, theoretically, Table E, on this website, could easily have been over 100 cases if we could only validate every potential case at the same time. Yet, we notice that the greatest age — 114 — remains the same. Thus, we can conclude that most of the missing cases are for age range [110 - 111] yo.”

A centenarian is a person who has attained the age of 100 years or more. The term is associated with longevity because average life expectancies across the world are far from 100. Much rarer, a supercentenarian is a person who has lived to the age of 110 or more.

The United States currently has the greatest number of centenarians in the world, numbering over 55,000 in the year 2005. The U.S. number is partly a function of America’s large population in 1890-1905, and an increased emphasis on Long-term Care (LTC) facilities. Japan is second, with 25,000. Many experts attribute this (and Japan’s very high life expectancy) to the Japanese diet, which is particularly low in fats. Japanese centenarians receive a silver cup and a certificate from the Prime Minister of Japan upon their 100th birthday, honouring them for their longevity and prosperity in their lives. In Japan, September 15 is “National Respect for the Aged Day”. Five times as many Okinawans live to be 100 than the rest of Japan. [1]

The Island of Barbados however has the second highest occurrence of Centenarians in the World.

In the United States, centenarians traditionally receive a letter from the president upon reaching their 100th birthday, congratulating them for their longevity. NBC’s Today show has also named them on air since 1983. In the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth Realms, the Queen sends greetings (formerly as a telegram) on the 100th birthday and on every birthday starting with the 105th. Centenarians born in Ireland receive a €2,540 “Centenarians’ Bounty” and a letter from the President of Ireland, even if they are resident abroad. [1]

Among Hindus, people who touch the feet of elders are often blessed with “May you live a hundred years”. In Sweden, the tradition birthday song states, May he live to his hundredth year. In Iran, the term May you live to be 120 years old is used for blessing someone. In Poland, Sto lat, a wish to live a hundred years, is a traditional form of praise and good wishes; the Jewish tradition, however, is more ambitious, “May you live as long as Moses”, or 120 years. Chinese emperors were hailed to live ten thousand years. In Italy, “A hundred of these days!” (cento di questi giorni) is an augury for birthdays, to live to celebrate 100 more birthdays.

The world’s oldest man, who is celebrating his 112th birthday in south-western Japan, has said he wants to live “indefinitely”.

Tomoji Tanabe, who was born in 1895, says avoiding alcohol is the secret of his longevity.

He drinks milk, does not smoke, keeps a diary and reads the newspaper daily.

He was declared the oldest man in January by Guinness World Records after the death of Emiliano Mercado Del Toro, of Puerto Rico, at 115.

Mr Tanabe received 100,000 yen ($900, £440) and flowers from the local mayor in the town of Miyakonojo.

“I want to live indefinitely. I don’t want to die,” he said as he marked his birthday, Kyodo News agency reported.

Japan is said to have the largest population of centenarians in the world, with some 30,000 citizens aged 100 and over.