Want to Live Long? Here’s the Secret of Longevity from World’s Oldest Man

World's Oldest Man

According to Robert Young, senior Gerontology Consultant with Guinness World Records Ltd, 112-year-old Salustiano Sanchez-Blazquez is world's oldest man after Jiroemon Kimura died June 12 at age 116.

Guinness World Records uses census reports, immigration papers, marriage records and news reports to confirm its record and said in a statement provided that 90 percent of all supercentenarians are female and world's oldest person is a 115-year-old Misao Okawa of Japan, a woman, while Salustiano is currently the only male born in 1901 with proof of birth.

Salustiano — whose nickname is "Shorty" —says, 'I'm an old man and let's leave it at that'.

 He also said he didn't feel he accomplished anything special just because he has lived longer than most, though, his

 “longevity can be attributed to eating one
banana per day and a daily dose of six Anacin tablets”.

 His 69-year-old daughter, Irene Johnson, has another theory.

"I think it's just because he's an independent, stubborn man," she said.

Besides his daughter, he has a 76-year-old son, John, seven grandchildren, 15 great-grandchildren and five great-great-grandchildren.

Born June 8, 1901, in the village of El Tejado de Bejar, Spain, Salustiano Sanchez-Blazquez is a self-taught musician, coal miner and gin rummy aficionado from Western New York. He was known for his talent on the dulzania, a double-reed wind instrument that he taught himself and played at weddings and village celebrations.

At 17, he moved with his older brother Pedro and a group of friends to Cuba, where they worked in the cane fields.

At 19, he went to the United States through Ellis Island and worked in the coal mines of Lynch, Ky.

He got married at 33 to his wife, Pearl.

After his wife died in 1988, Salustiano lived with Johnson in Grand Island then moved to a nursing home in 2007.

 "We did our best," Irene said. "We weren't going to put him somewhere just because he was old, but he is stubborn."

Ultimately, he moved to the Niagara Falls area of New York, where he still lives, working in construction and in the industrial furnaces

The oldest authenticated person was Jeanne Louise Calment of France, who died at the age of 122 years and 164 days. And who knows if his secret to longevity was also eating one banana per day!