For every man older than 110, there are nine women. Before she died in August at age 117, supercentenarian Maria Branyas — the world’s oldest verified person — credited her bonus years not to any high-tech interventions but to eating lots of plain yogurt.
Her successor is also a woman, 116-year-old Ethel Catherman. And the record for longevity is held by another woman, Jean Calment, who lived to see her 122nd birthday.
Scientists still don’t fully understand why women live longer than men. The aging process differs between the sexes and in most mammals, females tend to live longer than males. Understanding the roots of these biological differences could help researchers better understand aging in both men and women — and perhaps even reveal new clues to slowing it down.
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