With the growing interest, research and excitement surrounding centenarians today, an extraordinary discovery has occurred in the process – a new demographic group has been established for those over the age of 110, aptly named Supercentenarians.

The effort to source the world’s oldest people likely officially started with the Guinness World Records who has been documenting such folks since 1955. However, in the early 1990s, Dr. Stephen Coles co-founded the Gerontology Research Group (GRG) in Los Angeles with fellow researcher Steven Kaye, and now Guinness uses them as its authority for its “World’s Oldest Living People” category. Verifying ages using birth and marriage certificates, GRG’s most notable activity is its tracking of supercentenarians, and they are now recognized as the leading authority on the matter.

The world record for the oldest person still belongs to Jeanne Calment of France, who died at 122 in 1997. Since that time, the title has turned over 17 more times with no one reaching 120 and just one person reaching 118.

According to GRG, there are currently 83 validated living supercentenarians, 80 women and 3 men, of which the oldest is 114. But according to a recent Wall Street Journal article, it’s believed there could be others older since some 800 million, or less than one-eighth of the world’s population live in places that, at the turn of the last century, had birth records reliable enough to be trusted. Therefore, the true number of super-centenarians could be at least 8x more than the current 83.

When you look at mortality rates for centenarians, what’s most interesting is how slowly they increase at ages over 100. So is it fair to say that once you get to 100, you’re actually on cruise control to live a little while longer?

In Italy and France for example, 100-year old women have about a two-thirds chance of reaching 101 according to the Wall Street Journal article. At age 105, their chance of reaching 106 is just under 60%. Survival rates are around 50% at ages 110 to113, according to GRG’s records. But then suddenly they drop to 30% at 114 and 115 – the ages at which most of the world’s oldest people have died in the past decade.

To determine why the drop off at 114 and 115, we may have to rely on more scientific research since there simply are not enough folks of this age to study. And from what we’re seeing in the recent research arena with the remarkable discoveries among the similar gene sets among centenarians, I suspect science will continue to play a major role in this process as well.

Amazingly, I’m proud to say that two Supercentenarians live in my hometown! Both verified by GRG, not only are they Supercentenarians, they are also the oldest and second oldest residents in the state of California, Soledad Mexia, 111, and Frederica Maas, 110.

Frederica Maas just turned 110 and celebrated with chocolate cake and her friends who call her “Freddie”. A screenwriter in her professional days, Freddie worked with MGM on film projects that featured such stars as Joan Crawford and Greta Garbo. On her 99th birthday she published her autobiography, “The Shocking Miss Pilgrim,” in honor of the script she co wrote with her husband in 1947, that later showcased Betty Grable. Her book unveiling included a signing, a PBS interview, and an interview with film critic Leonard Maltin for a radio broadcast.

Soledad Mexia turned 111 today and will celebrate with a special birthday cake and her entire family. While there are no plans to put all 111 candles on her cake, there certainly would be enough family available to help blow them out. Soledad is the mother of seven children, grandmother of 24, great-grandmother of 45 and great-great-grandmother of two. She lives with one of her daughters and still adheres to a healthy diet, starting each day with a protein drink. And while she doesn’t smoke, she has been known to relish an occasional sip of anise. Soledad said one of her proudest achievements was when she became a U.S. citizen for her 100th birthday.

As much as Soledad is honored to officially be the oldest California resident, she is also about to make history in the world of research by becoming the first of several supercentenarians that GRG will be studying. Much like a similar study done with centenarians, GRG will look at the genetic make up of super-centenarians for evidence of genes that protect their bodies from the common killers – heart disease, cancer and stroke, as well as examine a specific gene linked to premature death.

“Our purpose is to study what makes people live so long,” says Dr. Stephen Coles. “We know that women seem to live longer than men; we want to know why that is,” he said. “We also want to know why people don’t live even longer.”

With a super group of centenarians to study, maybe some day we’ll all get the chance to put 110+ candles on our birthday cakes, too!

Kelly Ferrin, gerontologist, longevity expert and author of “What’s Age Got To Do With It? Secrets to Aging in Extraordinary Ways” has been studying aging and retirement issues for over 25 years. She was one of the first to ever receive a degree in this field from the prestigious Andrus School of Gerontology at the University of Southern California, the top school in the nation for age-related studies.

website: kellyferrin.com ••• email: ageangel@earthlink.net