The world’s oldest woman, aged 116, has survived Covid, a civil war, a deadly earthquake and a massive fire. But what impresses doctors most is the fact that Maria Branyas has no serious health problems, with the exception of deafness and limited mobility, and her incredible memory.
Unlike most people her age, the Spanish woman has no cardiovascular problems and can easily remember stories from when she was 4 years old.
“She is incredible”, said Spanish researcher and doctor Manel Esteller, who visited Maria in the nursing home where she lives in Girona (Catalonia, Spain), to the newspaper “ABC”. “She has a completely clear head. She remembers with impressive clarity episodes when she was just 4 years old and does not have any cardiovascular disease, which is common in the elderly,” he added.
Maria said that the secret to healthy longevity involves eliminating “toxic people”, avoiding “excesses” and eating natural yogurt every day.
Manel, a specialist in molecular genetics, decided to study Maria further to discover the roles that nature and nurture played in the centenarian’s longevity.
“The only thing she has are mobility and hearing problems,” commented the doctor, who also studies endometrial carcinoma. “Clearly there is a genetic component because there are several members of her family who are over 90,” he added.
Maria was born in San Francisco (California, USA), on March 4, 1907, into an expatriate Spanish family, returning to Catalonia in 1915, when the health and financial situation of her father, who was a journalist, worsened.
“I always ate little of everything and never followed any diet. I didn’t suffer from any illness or go through an operating room”, declared the elderly woman.
For the Spanish woman, “order, tranquility, good connections with family and friends, contact with nature, emotional stability and a lot of positivity, as well as genes and luck”, also contribute to her state of health at the age of 116.
The world’s oldest woman, aged 116, has survived Covid, a civil war, a deadly earthquake and a massive fire. But what impresses doctors most is the fact that Maria Branyas has no serious health problems, with the exception of deafness and limited mobility, and her incredible memory.
Unlike most people her age, the Spanish woman has no cardiovascular problems and can easily remember stories from when she was 4 years old.
“She is incredible”, said Spanish researcher and doctor Manel Esteller, who visited Maria in the nursing home where she lives in Girona (Catalonia, Spain), to the newspaper “ABC”. “She has a completely clear head. She remembers with impressive clarity episodes when she was just 4 years old and does not have any cardiovascular disease, which is common in the elderly,” he added.
Maria said that the secret to healthy longevity involves eliminating “toxic people”, avoiding “excesses” and eating natural yogurt every day.
Manel, a specialist in molecular genetics, decided to study Maria further to discover the roles that nature and nurture played in the centenarian’s longevity.
“The only thing she has are mobility and hearing problems,” commented the doctor, who also studies endometrial carcinoma. “Clearly there is a genetic component because there are several members of her family who are over 90,” he added.
Maria was born in San Francisco (California, USA), on March 4, 1907, into an expatriate Spanish family, returning to Catalonia in 1915, when the health and financial situation of her father, who was a journalist, worsened.
“I always ate little of everything and never followed any diet. I didn’t suffer from any illness or go through an operating room”, declared the elderly woman.
For the Spanish woman, “order, tranquility, good connections with family and friends, contact with nature, emotional stability and a lot of positivity, as well as genes and luck”, also contribute to her state of health at the age of 116.
