When there’s news about someone dying at 112 or having a 108th birthday party, the comments roll in about the misery of living that long.
“Who’d want to live to be 100?” is a common post.
As of October 2025, Ethel Caterham is the oldest person alive, at 116 years.
Elizabeth Francis passed in October 2024 at 115.
Unfortunately, many people believe that living to 115 means 30 years of debilitating health.
But even when there’s an article about someone making it “only” to 100, there’s always several negative comments.
When an old body begins breaking down and becoming frail (chronic kidney disease, chronic heart failure, mobility impairment, incontinence), just how many years do you think such a body can keep on existing?
When an aged body reaches this point, it doesn’t have a whole lot of years left.
So to assume that a 110-year-old has been “suffering” for 25 years is just plain nuts.
People who are sick and frail by the time they’re 85 do not live another 20 years!
Super Longevity Means Aging Later, Not Suffering Longer
People often assume that living to 105 or 110 must mean spending 20 years sick and frail, but research shows that’s not the case.
In fact, people who live past 100 tend to stay healthy and mobile well into their nineties — they don’t suffer longer; they age later.
- Julia Hawkins died at 108.
- She was jogging short distances at 101.
- It’s not likely she “suffered for years.”
- This timeline is no different than someone who’s spry and vibrant at 83 and then dies at 90.
A paper in GeroScience (June 2024), led by Dr. Yingqi Zhang from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, followed more than 170,000 people born between 1912 and 1922.
Dr. Zhang’s team discovered that centenarians had significantly lower age-specific disease rates than those who died earlier.
People who eventually reached 100 weren’t just surviving illness longer — they were delaying the very start of it.
Their lifetime risk of major chronic illness such as heart disease, diabetes and dementia was actually lower than that of their shorter-lived peers.
Dr. Zhang concludes that “exceptional longevity reflects delayed disease onset rather than prolonged morbidity,” which flips the old belief on its head.
Sure, that 115-year-old woman, blowing out all those candles, may be mostly deaf and can barely see, and may be confined to a wheelchair, but do you really think she’s been this way for 20 years? Come on now!
An overview published in Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine (April 2024) by Dr. Stefanie Summer et al reviewed data on vascular aging in centenarians.
Her team found that people in their late 90s and beyond often display what’s called “successful aging” — maintaining strong physical, psychological and social health, with only mild signs of decline until just before death.
In many of these individuals, cardiovascular disease appears a full decade later than in the general population.
That means someone who’s still walking around independently at 95 is statistically more likely to hit 100 in good shape, because their biological aging has been postponed, not stretched out.
On the other hand, people in their 80s who are already frail and managing multiple chronic illnesses almost never make it to 100.
As Zhang’s 2024 GeroScience study notes, early onset of frailty reflects an “accelerated accumulation of deficits,” which shortens both lifespan and health-span.
According to the Boston School of Medicine-New England Centenarian Study, 69% of people over 100 show no signs of age related conditions such as cardiovascular disease, cancer and dementia.
Another study found that 41% of supercentenarians require only minimal or even no assistance in basic daily tasks such as bathing and getting in and out of bed.
So if you’re struggling physically in your early 80s, the odds of living another 20 years are slim — not because of bad luck, but because your aging process began earlier.
I met the 89-year-old grandfather of a 30-year-old woman not too long ago.
He won’t make it past 100. In fact, if I had to bet the farm, I’d say he won’t live to see even his 91st birthday. He uses supplemental oxygen 24/7. He uses a walker. He looks sickly (skin and all).
Assuming that a 110-year-old has been bedridden for two decades just isn’t supported by science.
Those who reach extreme old age typically experience a compressed period of decline near the very end of life.
- Longevity doesn’t mean more years of illness.
- It means more years of fruitfulness before illness ever begins.
Yet so many people just don’t grasp this, as evidenced by the comments on articles about supercentenarians.
There’ll even be comments by people in their 70s and 60s, claiming poor health, then saying, “I’d never want to live another 30 years like this.” Don’t worry, you won’t.
Other Backward Comments to Articles About Supercentenarians
“Who’d want to live that long” is a common response.
I have to believe that anyone who thinks like this has had a pretty crummy life.
Such a comment doesn’t display ignorance as much as misfortune in that person’s life.
They don’t know how to find joy in living.
Another common response goes like, “When you live that long, you’ve outlived all your family and friends; you’d be so lonely.”
Almost always, the featured supercentenarian has kids. And maybe they’ve outlived their kids, but what about grandkids and great-grandkids? Aren’t they family?
We can add into that the spouses of their progeny, and the families of those spouses. That’s a whole lot of extended family!
What about supercentenarians who never had kids?
We can’t assume they don’t have friends or extended family. For all we know, their grand-, great-grand- and great-great-grand nieces and nephews are part of their lives.
What about making new, younger friends as they approach 100?
Centenarians aren’t exactly banned from bridge clubs, book clubs, church functions, bowling leagues and other venues where socializing is in full force and effect.
Besides, what do these Debbie Downer and Benny Bummer commenters suggest – that when we turn 90, we all jump off a cliff?
Woman Was Still Running at 101
In the video below, following the segment on Elizabeth Francis, 115, is that of Julia Hawkins, the world record holder in the 100+ category for the Senior Olympics 100 meter run.
