Longevity: the 116 Year Old Ukranian Man

Much like our friends at Contemporary Retirement, stories involving longevity always catch our eye, but this one stands one:

While the title of world’s oldest living human is continually claimed by centenarians from all corners of the globe, Ukrainian Hryhory Nestor, who celebrates his 116th birthday today, probably has a stronger claim than most.

Born on March 15 1891, birthday boy Hryhory is nearly two years older than Yone Minagawa, the Japanese woman who celebrated her 114th birthday back in January and was presumed to be the world's oldest person. Nestor also has over 4 years on Tomoji Tanabe, the 111 year old Japanese villager who claimed to be the world’s oldest living man.

But while the true age of these craggy contenders is frequently disputed, Nestor, whose story was only recently discovered by a Ukrainian newspaper, has Austrian, Soviet-era and Ukrainian passports that all confirm his longevity.

Nestor is a resident of Stari Yarychiv, a small village 25 miles from the historical city of Lviv. He has lived in West Ukraine all his life and puts his long life down to a diet of milk, cheese and potatoes plus an outdoors lifestyle that involves sleeping under the summer skies and walking barefoot throughout the surrounding countryside.

To put Hryhory's age in perspective, he was 23 when the first World War broke out and 50 when Germany invaded Russia for the second time. He was born just 20 years after Orville Wright and was 12 when the Wright Brothers first flew at Kitty Hawk. He was then 66 when Sputnik first went up and 110 when Space Station Mir came down.

He has lived under the rule of Czars Alexander the III and Nicholas II, Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Viktor Yushchenko to name a few.

For a man who lived through the massacres of Lenin, Stalin and Hitler, one can only imagine stories he has to tell and the horrors he's seen.

While there are lessons to be learned about longevity from looking at his diet and other lifestyle practices, readers of LifeTwo will know that the number one factor of his incredible lifespan was his genes (though living through two violent world wars one might say that luck was the top factor). Regardless we wish him a happy birthday and hopes that he lives to see many more.