British specialists warn parents that sleeping in the same bed with their baby can be dangerous for for the latter. The warning was made public after reseachers studied a set of sudden baby deaths.

In the period between 2005 and 2008 in London and the regions surrounding it 173 unexpected deaths of babies were registered, 85 of them took place when the baby fell asleep in the same bed with an adult. In the majority of cases, the cause of death was suffocation.

According to the specialists of the Fund of Studies upon Baby Deaths, babies should sleep in a baby bed near their parents' bed, especially if they were prematurely born or born with an insufficient body weight.

This warning also specifies that the most dangerous sleep for a baby is when they sleep in the same bed with an adult who had consumed alcohol, calming and sleeping pills, as well as who smoked or who is very tired.

This means that the warning of the fund contradicts the opinion of many paediatrists, first published by the well-known authors of "The Baby Book" (William and Martha Sears), who are sure that sleepig in the same bed with parents creates the necessary emotional contact between the mother and the baby.

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After many years of studies, neurobiologists were able to create a medicine that blocks completely or partially human memories. Besides, people who use this drug show a complete transformation of their personality, a fact which confirms the role of memory in considering the present and in one's ability to learn.

Any attempt of changing something in brain's activity can lead to unpredictable side-effects, which are very hard to diagnose, since processes that take place in the brain are unclear and cannot be analyzed so far.

This is why neurologists look for alternative methods of treating posttraumatic syndrome (PTS). This nervous disturbance cannot be treated yet, because all the results achieved have only a temporary effect, and doctors cannot claim to have treated someone from PTS. Maybe medicines that block memory for the events which caused this syndrome will be able to help treat PTS.

In comparison with other psychotropic drugs, "drugs against memory" block the processes of memory by creating some kind of "blind spot", similar to partial amnesia, in the brain of the patient. Similar medicines must have a very exact purpose, because they wouldn't destroy the entire memory, but only a part of it which contains the last events. Scientists are sure that one can be inspired with false memory, filled up with other actions and events.

Still, such medicines would bring about a set of side-effects, psychological discomfort and cases of personality changes in patients.

According to Dr. Andres Sandberg, a specialist in Neuroethics, many well-known and popular drugs, such as aspirin for example, have a lot of unpleasant and sometimes even dangerous side-effects. Drugs "for memory's drawing up" are not different from the others – this is a rule of pharmacology.

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A man from the English Yorkshire began speaking with an Irish accent after he having a surgical operation on his brain.

The 30-years-old Chris Gregory shocked all the members of his family, greeting them by singing the Irish ballad "Danny Boy" in his hospital ward after the operation.

As witnesses of the events told the journalists, Gregory continued speaking with a marked Irish accent during a period of 30 minutes, until his usual way of speaking haven't returned to him. According to the members of his family, Gregory has never been in Ireland and doesn't even have any relatives there. His wife told the media that "the medical assistants were trying their best not to laugh, but it was impossible", since her husband really looked as if he was insane. Still, she was very glad that the operation was successful.

Doctors think that Gregory's behaviour after the operation can be explained by the so-called "Foreign Accent Syndrome", very rarely met.

This unusual phenomenon was first registered during the Second World War in some patients who had received traumas of the brain.

The last case of this kind occured in 2006, when a woman from Newcastle, after a brain trauma began speaking with a Jamaican accent.

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People who sleep too much or too little have a higher risk of developing diabetes of the second type, since they have lowered glucose assimilation. This is the conclusion to which doctors from the Medicine Faculty of a French University have come after analyzing the habits of 276 people during a period of 6 years. They say that during this time circa 20 percent of those who had sleep disturbances developed diabetes of the second type or a lowered sensibility to glucose.

Even after excluding such substantial factors as, for example, differences in the body mass among the observed participants, the risk of diabetes and the decrease of insulin's effectiveness were 2 times higher in those who didn't respect the optimal times of sleep. Doctors also prevent that diabetes is far from being the only risk related to sleep length. The growing number of studies found some "mysterious" relationships between sleep and obesity, diseases of the cardiovascular system's organs and even mortality. The authors mention that a 7-8-hours-long length of sleep is optimal among the adults in order to protect the organism from well-spread diseases and early death.

People sleep less nowadays. In 1960 the statistics were saying that adults slept 8 - 9 hours in average, while in 1995 the indices went down to 7 hours. In 2004, a third of the adults aged from 30 to 64 reported a 6-hours sleep. Though the question of the influence of lack of sleep on our organism is being thoroughly discussed nowadays, it is also worth paing attention to excessive sleep length. The popular affirmation, according to which sleep is never too much, is gradually becoming a myth that might complicate the state of our health.

The authors of the research – Jean-Philippe Chaput, Angelo Tremblay and Jean-Pierre Despres - published the results of this research on the website of the journal "Medicine of Sleep".

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The consumption of grapefruit juice, along with medicines against cancer, increases the effectiveness of the latter, scientists affirm.

Specialists have analyzed the influence of grapefruit juice on the capacity of assimilation of the medicines by the organism. The study included 25 people who were diagnosed with cancer. To all of these participants doctors couldn't select an effective medicine. The patients administered the necessary doses of the medicine by drinking them with grapefruit juice during a week.

During the study researchers noticed a state stabilization in 7 patients, they even observed an insignificant improvement of health in a patient. In more than half of the patients scientists noticed side-effects: a small increase of glucose in the blood, diarrhea and a low content of leucocytes in the blood.

Scientists have explained this by the fact that some medical substances disintegrate or, on the contrary, increase their effects on the organism under the influence of the juice. However, contemporary tests have shown that medicines, indicated in the treatment of tumors, become more effective.

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Nicotine has a calming effect by the means of changing the activeness of brain areas, which slow down the manifestation of negative emotions, researchers say. Scientists from the University of California studied the emotional reactions of people under the influence of a nicotine plaster.

Non-smoking participants played a computer game, while seeing on the monitor the image of the other participant, their opponent. After each stage of the game, the "winner" was sending an unpleasant audio signal to the participant who lost the game, choosing the volume and the length of the signal.

In some people nicotine was suppressing the aggression, even after their opponent was challenging them.

According to Jean Hehrick, the author of the research, "not only the reactions of fury were changed in the participants, but also brain metabolism". The lowering of revenge stimulus, brought by nicotine, was linked to metabolism changes in the areas responsible for receiving, sending and processing emotional stimuli.

Scientists based their conclusion on the fact that people who have a higher tendency to aggression, easier get used to cigarettes.

Researchers say that the new method of treatment, which influences the areas of the cortex and the limbic system of the brain, and also learning how to control fury will help smokers cope independently with situations that lead to anger, these situations also being the ones that cause nicotine dependency.

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Scientists from USA had recently discovered the main cause of extraweight gain. They proved that fatness and obesity are more related to "liquid" calories, especially to drinks containing sugar, than to calories from solid food. This is the first research in which scientists compared the influence of liquid and solid calories on human weight and especially on weight loss. Their work will be published in May in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

American researchers began studying the influence of calories from liquid and solid food on human weight and came to several conclusions. First of all, a decreased consumption of liquid calories significantly helped lose extra pounds in participants who took part in the experiment. Secondly, the effects from decreasing the consumption of liquid calories were stronger than the ones from decreasing the consumption of solid calories. Thirdly, the biggest weight loss was observed when decreasing the consumption of sugar drinks. Other drinks didn't influence human weight changes.

The research included 819 participants – men and women aged from 25 to 79. After 6 months from the beginning of the research and 18 months later, they used to give information about their nutrition in an interview on telephone. The drinks they consumed were divided in 7 categories:

1. Drinks containing sugar (soda drinks, juice drinks etc).
2. Diet drinks (drinks with sugar substitutes).
3. Milk.
4. 100 per cent natural juice.
5. Coffee and tea with sugar.
6. Coffee and tea without sugar or with sugar substitutes.
7. Alcoholic drinks.

The researchers propose several possible explanations for their discoveries. The absence of chewing while consuming liquid food can lead to the lowering of the pancreatic activity. Liquid food is also quicker removed from the stomach, in comparison with the solid one, and this leads to the weakening of satiety signals.

"Our research had strengthened the recommendations of Health Security bodies referred to decreasing liquid calories' consumption, especially the one of sugar drinks", researchers concluded.

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German surgeons successfully removed a malignant tumor of 18 kg during a surgical operation made to a patient from Saudi Arabia. They had to perform 5 operations to remove the tumor, and now the woman weighs approximately 36 kg.

Doctors from Saudi Arabia discovered she had this tumor, called chondrosarcoma, in 2004. The patient refused to be provided the services of the Kuwait doctors, who warned the patient about the obligatory amputation of her right leg.

The woman arrived in Germany for treatment in September, last year. By this time, the tumor was of huge dimensions and wasn't allowing the patient to stand on her feet and walk. As a result of the tumor's groth, the woman also had intestinal obstruction and urinary retention. After some courses of chemotherapy that decreased the mass of the tumor, a group of surgeons led by Dr. Heinz Zurbruegg, removed it.

The general mass of the tumor tissues, removed ater 5 operations (each being performed once in 2-4 weeks), was more than 18 kg.

Currently the patient is submitted to a course of recovery in Germany and is getting prepared to a reconstruction of the bones of the pelvis and to the implantation of the femoral bone's prosthesis. The clinical studies made till now didn't come across any symptom of the tumor's recurrence.

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As a result of a research made recently, scientists proposed a theory, according to which chocolate improves the ability to perform arithmetical calculations.

After volunteers who took part in the experiment were administered a big quantity of a substance called flavonol, contained in chocolate and hot cocoa, they have shown good results in solving arithmetical tasks. Flavonol, being one of the substances also known as polifenols, increases the flow of blood into the brain.

Professor David Kennedy, the manager of the research center, which studies brain and nutrition facts, in Northumbria University, also a co-author of the study, backs the results of the study.

During the research, 30 volunteers were supposed to count in reverse order, by jumping over every 3 numbers, beginning with a random number, chosen by the computer from 800 to 999.

The research showed that they were counting faster and with more exactness after drinking hot chocolate.

However, this result wasn't confirmed when the group was asked to count in reverse order, but by jumping over every 7 numbers, a fact which scientists describe as a more complicated task, requiring the activity of another area of the brain.

Another result of this research also showed that after drinking chocolate, volunteers weren't feeling tired, even when asked to count again and again for an hour.

During the study, each of the volunteers received 500 mg of flavonol.

Apart from the fact that such a big quantity usually isn't contained in a common ration, scientists say that people should regularly get a big quantity of flavonol from fruits and vegetables.

According to Emma Wightman, one of the leading researchers, 100g of chocolate contain approximately 100 mg of flavonol, that's why they plan to study the effect of such small doses of flavonol on the brain.

Besides, dark chocolate seems to have more of these chemical substances than milk chocolate.

According to professor Kennedy, the participants in the experiment were given more flavonol than usually contained in daily food, and, since there are proofs that in big quantities it can prevent lowering work ability, it means it would be better for one to consume more fruits, vegetables and other products that contain a big quantity of polifenols, to maintain a good brain work capacity.

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According to a new study made by British scientists, approximately 3 quarters of people suffer from depression. However, a lot of them claim that they will never address for help to a doctor. One of the causes is that people don't trust the methods of treatment that specialists usually propose.

The British Charity Organization "Depression Alliance" carried out a questioning that showed that 3 out of 4 people suffer from depression, and that this year the number will increase because of the crisis. More than 10 percent of the people questioned are not ready to entrust themselves to their family doctor. Among those who were at least once submitted to a treatment from depression, 40 percent consider that the doctor didn't give them the chance to choose the method of treatment, and half of them weren't informed about the different types of existing antidepressants.

Almost half of the questioned people complained about the fact that they were practically not even given the necessary information about the side-effects of antidepressants. According to the researchers, some family doctors couldn't even determine the symptoms of depression, and very few of them discussed with the patient about all the methods of treatment that there are nowadays. For persons with depression and anxiety, the possibility of choosing the methods of treatment can be very important in the process of recovery, experts consider. All-in-all, 2750 people have taken part in the study, 500 of which are submitted to a course of treatment now.

Despite of the huge number of people suffering from depression, researchers have come to the conclusion that there aren't enough specialists in this domain and a lot of doctors know this problem very superficially. The Government of Great Britain had given 173 million of pounds for the 3-years-long national program, made to prepare specialists in problems of depressions. "The sooner we have a well-prepared staff, offering first class help, the faster the situation will change", Phil Hope, the Minister of Health Security, had commented the decision of the government.

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A research initiated by several producers of chewing gum revealed that chewing gum or sugar-free dragee can help some people decrease their daily calorie consumption.

The results of the research were presented at the last conference in New Orleans, called "Experimental Biology – 2009". According to scientists, the results of their work must be considered as a part of the studies already made in this domain, and shouldn't be considered as a new strategy of fighting with extra-weight.

The experiment, in which 115 men and women took part, had 2 stages. At the beginning of each stage, all participants ate a sandwich, and then, for about 3 hours, they didn't consume anything. During this period they were questioned about the level of their hunger and of their energy. Every participant in the experiment, during the first stage, was given sugar-free chewing gum to chew for 15 minutes every hour. During the second stage, the volunteers were not given a chewing gum.

The results of the experiment show that during the first stage of the study, participants had their hunger levels lowered. According to the volunteers themselves, they were feeling more energetic and less passive. At the end of each stage of the experiment, all participants were proposed a lot of snacks. After the first stage, during which the participants were given a chewing gum, calorie consumption was decreased.

Scientists consider that chewing gum played the role of a simple and practical instrument for lowering the quantity of snacks eaten, especially of the sweets.

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Scientists from the University of Liverpool came up with a new method that helps discover the genes responsible for the process of ageing.

They were able to determine the genes in various tissues of human beings and animals, submitted to a long-term ageing. The analysis included more than 5 million measurements and put on the first place the mechanisms used by the body for the protection from cellular changes, typical for the age, related to the degeneration of muscles and the ageing of the brain.

Such a method will allow finding the genes that indicate the biological changes during the process of ageing. If, as a result of the activity of such genes, the number of certain proteins will be increased, then it will be possible to create medicines for the maintenance of youth.

According to Joa Pedro Magalhis from the Academy of Biological Science, they have created a new algorithm for the analysis of genes of different types and have received a general representation about the way genes influence ageing in the organism. This method is similar to the study of molecular particularities of cancer, but it is for the first time directed towards the study upon ageing.

According to scientists, genes can adapt to ageing, can protect the body, and also slow down this process. By the means of receiving a lot of data about different tissues, they will be able to build a model of adaptative genes' behaviour of animals and people. Our body has natural mechanisms, which help us react on age changes.

"We have seen that some genes, not linked to ageing earlier, are activated along with the age in order to protect the body. We can use these genes as biomarkers of ageing, so that scientists can elaborate products and methods of treatment against the process of ageing", said Magalhis.

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A scientist from a university in Halvestone (USA) published an article, in which he tells the truth that lies beneath some myths about pregnancy, and also brings a set of scientific comments as arguments for future mothers.

According to George Saade, the affirmation saying that if a mother's belly is compact and looks like a ball, then she's more likely to give birth to a baby boy, is wrong.

The American expert says that the shape of a pregnant woman's belly depends on the state of the abdominal muscles and also on how much the hormones have relaxed the muscles in order to make space for the baby.

Saade says there is scientific "confirmation" for the legends that say that if the mother during her pregnancy has continuous heartburns, then the baby will have thick and dense hair. According to the specialist, this happens because estrogens, capable of bringing about the gastro-esophageal reflex, also control hair growth in the baby.

Besides, the scientist told about the relationship between the future mother's appetite and the birth of a baby boy. Until the baby is born, weight is constantly increasing. His testosterones increases appetite in the mother.

It is necessary to note that earlier specialists from Great Britain have come to the conclusion that women during their delivery shouldn't refrain themselves from food.

Another group of scientists told the media about the creation of a new medicine that allows treating some symptoms of the Down syndrome directly in the uterus of the mother.

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Daily beer consumption doesn't lead to weight increase, but enriches the organism with vitamins and even favors weight loss! This is the sensational discovery recently made by American scientists.

It is considered that people who like beer usually have a belly of a considerable size. The link between weight increase and beer consumption seems doubtless to many. However, scientists from Indiana have doubted that and tried to discover what lies beneath this myth.

According to the results of their research, moderate daily beer consumption doesn't lead to obesity. More than that, it turned out that one can even lose weight by simply replacing carbohydrates in his menu with beer. Besides, beer consumption prevents kidney gravels' forming, but the concrete mechanism of this process isn't known yet.

Beer is the only alcoholic drink that stimulates the secretion of gastric juice and bile, and the only one that stops the negative effects of alcohol. Its extractive substances have a calming, analgesic and even disinfecting action.

Studies made by Czech and German doctors have shown that moderate beer consumption lowers the risk of cardiovascular diseases, and also influences the regeneration of the mucous membrane in such diseases as gastritis and ulcer.

Austrian doctors consider that cool beer, especially when it's hot outside, is not only pleasant, but can also prevent heart attacks and brain hemorrhages. However, doctors underline that one must have a limit in beer consumption, otherwise beer can have a negative impact on inner organs, especially heart and liver destruction.

During almost 10 years of researches, scientists from the University of New South Wales have established the fact that men and women who drink 1 or 2 glasses of beer per day live longer than those who don't drink it. It is also known that beer lowers blood coagulability and the level of cholesterol.

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Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania, USA) have found that the longer a woman feeds her baby with breast milk, the smaller is her possibility of developing heart diseases. The results of the study will be published in the next magazine of the Obstetrics & Gynecology series.

Scientists have questioned almost 140,000 women who were already in menopause. In average, they had finished suckling their babies some 35 years ago.

Women who never fed their babies with their own milk had a 10 percent higher possibility of developing heart diseases, including heart attacks, in comparison with the ones who had done this for more than a year. Even a month of breast feeding lowers the chances of developing diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol level, which are, in their turn, the cause of heart diseases.

According to Dr. Eleanor Schwarz, cardiovascular diseases are the cause of death of the majority of women, that's why it is important to know which prophylactic measures women should take. Dr. Schwarz had added that earlier it was already known about the influence of the suckling period's length on the baby, but now it is clear that increasing this period is also useful for the baby's mother.

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The relationship between body and mind is the subject of scientific researches for almost 20 years. Doctors noticed a long time ago that psychological and social events in a person's life strongly influence their state of health. Hving the goal of finding whether positive emotions can really help in treating diseases, the specialists of the University Loma Linda, United States, have made a 12-months-long study on people with diabetes, the experiment consisting in proposing patients to watch humoristic small videos. Doctors were regularly analyzing the patients' blood, monitoring the content of stress hormones, cholesterol, inflammatory cytokines and markers of cardiovascular diseases.

It was found that laughter has significant effects on the state of patients' health: the levels of 2 hormones – beta-endorphin, which improves the mood, and of the hormone of human growth, which helps maintain immunity functions, - were increased by 27 and 87 percent respectively. Besides, positive laughter lowered the harm made by the stress hormones: the level of cortisol (also called the steroid stress hormone) decreased by 39 percent, the level of adrenaline – by 70 percent and the level of dopamine – by 38 percent. Chronic concentrations of these hormones in the organism have a negative influence on the immune system. It was also discovered that the quantity of "bad" C-reactive proteins was also lowered by 66 percent.

Thanks to laughter, the levels of "good" cholesterol increased by 26 percent and the inflammatory processes in the organism lowered. It is considered that laughter also helps in preventing cardiovascular disturbances and the development of the metabolic syndrome. According to doctors, laughter can be an auxiliary simple therapy of diabetes without any danger or risks.

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Endometrial cancer is met in 9 percent of women with tumors and has the 7th place among the causes of death from malignant tumors. Women older than 50, suffering from obesity, and those who were submitted to treatment with estrogens after menopause, enter the group of risk of developing this disease.

Approximately 1,100 women have taken part in the new research. As it turned out, in the ones who were daily drinking tea and coffee, endometrial cancer was diagnosed fewer times than in those who didn't. Among participants who were drinking more than 4 cups of coffee and tea per day, the oncological disease was developed only in half of them. And, finally, in the groups of the women whose norm was more than 2 cups per day the risk was lowered by 29 percent.

Scientists still cannot explain how tea and coffee protect from endometrial cancer. Possibly, the protective properties of the drinks are due to caffeine, which stimulates the secretion of certain enzymes that help in neutralizing potential cancerogens. A big role is also played by other substances, contained in tea and coffee, such as flavonoides, catehins and izoflavons, known to have antioxidant properties.

It is also worth reminding that caffeine protects from senile madness. Daily consumption of 3-5 cups of coffee per day can decrease the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease by 60-65 per cent.

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Laziness leads to serious stress and psychological problems. This is the conclusion made by experts from the University of Carlstadt in Switzerland.

Involuntary rest from working is usually linked to the worsening of relationships with the boss, colleagues, friends and close people, thus favouring the development of psychic disturbances, psychologists say. They say that a long-term rest from work empties one from the emotional point of view. For many people, work is an important part of social life and its loss can negatively influence one's state of mind.

More than that, long periods of such rest, especially when the person has always been busy working before that, lead to chronic stress. The conclusions of therapists are based on the analysis of the consequences of substantial changes in the labouring area of Switzerland in the early '90's. Long-term holidays usually complicate the process of one's returning to work.

Researchers underline that the results of the study can also be applied to jobless people. Thus, labouring sphere's problems become problems of social health security.

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French scientists discovered that daily make-up improves the feeling of balance and movement coordination, thus playing the role of gymnastics. That's why old women, who are used with decorative cosmetics every day, rarely fall down and have a better gait.

Scientists from the University of Saint-Etienne carried out their study on 100 women, aged between 65 and 85. At first, the goal of the research was studying the influence of make-up on self-esteem. A series of experiments included the evaluation of the gait and the weight center of the participants' bodies with the help of special belts.

It turned out that women who regularly use make-up, even in small quantities, are certainly more self-confident when they stand on their feet and have a better gait than the ones who don't use cosmetics at all.

According to the leader of the research, a co-worker of the L'Oreal Company, Patricia Pineau, the results of the study say that the habit of using make-up can help women in avoiding falling down when they're older. The danger of falling down is caused by the fact that in this age the balance and the movement coordination get worse, and the bones' density is lowered, while muscles and ligaments are also submitted to age changes. This often leads to fractures that may be dangerous for one's life. Thus, the fracture of the femur in people older than 65 in 20 percent of cases leads to death in less than a year.

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The oldest person on Earth has just reached 115. Gertrude Banes has celebrated her birthday in one of the clinics of Los Angeles. She affirms that her long life is something she owes to God and to a healthy lifestyle.

On the celebration of Gertrude's birthday on Monday not only her friends, but also the representatives of Guinness Book of Records were invited. They have given the old lady a certificate confirming that she is one of the oldest people on our planet. The clinic was also the place where Gertrude was sent a birthday congratulation from the president of USA himself, for whom Gertrude claims to have voted in the last election session.

Gertrude was born in 1894 in USA. She was the granddaughter of slaves and her only child had died as a baby from abdominal typhus. She had never smoked or drunk alcohol in her whole life.

According to the doctor who is curing Gertrude, the woman has a mild personality and almost never complains about anything. Gertrude has become the oldest woman in the world on January 2nd, 2009, after the death of – Maria de Jesus from Portugal. The oldest man on the planet is Tomodzy Tanabe from Japan. He is now 113 years old and he holds the record for almost 3 years.

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