When it comes to longevity, Sardinia always makes a big voice: we pass from the Blue zone of the super-grandparents of Ogliastra and arrive at the record of the oldest Italian (man) of all time, Antonio Todde di Tiana, who in 2002 has closed my eyes at 112 years and 346 days. Without forgetting Giuseppina Projetto, born in La Maddalena and died in Tuscany at 116 years and 37 days, the third oldest woman ever in Italy. And the island can already look towards a not too distant future in which the hands of life will move even further: according to a study based on French and Italian Istat data, in which Sardinia is among the special observers, by 2100 we could reach the limit so far considered unattainable of 130 years.

Impassable limits

Swiss researchers from the Polytechnic University of Lausanne have published a survey on the mechanisms that affect longevity in the Royal society Open science magazine: various parameters have been crossed in which it is found that there is no real real obstacle to project human life to unexplored peaks. , like 130 years old. Currently the highest age ever (formally recognized) is that registered in France, with Jeanne Louise Calment, born in Arles on February 21, 1875 and died in the town of Provence on August 4, 1997, at 122 years and 164 days. According to longevity scientists, random sequences linked to an ever-expanding supercentennial base may push expectations beyond this cut-off date in the coming decades. In Sardinia the oldest living people are (for women) Amelia Addari, from Nuragus, who has reached 109 and a half years, while (for men) Luigi Boi from Siurgus Donigala is not far from 107 years old. “After the age of 110, every year conquered can be compared to the toss of a coin,” explains Anthony Davison, representative of the Swiss study group. "If you get heads, then you will live until your next birthday, if not, you will die at some point within the next twelve months." Almost a roulette game in front of an absolute limit: "But reaching 130 is roughly equivalent to getting heads for twenty consecutive tosses of a coin", that is a highly unlikely sequence.

The super centenarians

The oldest living person is the Japanese Kane Tanaka, born in 1903, close to 119 years of age, while fourteen people who are over 114 years old are still alive. With one feature: they are all women. The oldest living men are currently 112 years old, after 113-year-old Puerto Rican Emilio Flores Marquez just died (just over two months ago). The longest-lived man ever is the Japanese Jiroemen Kimura, who lived 116 years and 54 days between 1897 and 2013. There are also legends about the presumed super-old people who all over the world would have touched incredible years of life but there are no official records : the various one hundred and three nineteen and one hundred and forty-year-olds animated by popular legends are not recognized by formal statistics.

The key step

Swiss studies show a strong peak in mortality around 108 years, considered a key moment of great difficulty, beyond which, however, one can proceed with greater serenity: the statistics show that at that point the life threshold can be extended by a few years. , regardless of gender. The passage of 108 years is closely linked to the so-called "state of nature", that is, the statistical elements that define the structure of living organisms. "It is a so-called viscous limit", explains in turn Livio Fenga of the British analysis center Lexter, "that is, a moving limit that will tend to increase, very slowly, over time". The statistics and projections formulated by scholars from all over the world "hypothesize an advance towards the theoretical limit of 130 years, a sort of impassable ceiling of life, structurally linked to the human biological machine".

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