(Photo by Ethel Harrison)
Elizabeth Francis, a Louisiana native who now lives in Houston, Texas, is 114 years old — and has just been crowned the oldest living American.
To put her longevity into perspective, Francis was born 11 years before women won the right to vote and has since lived through two World Wars, the moon landing, John F. Kennedy’s assassination and COVID-19 pandemic.
Francis first held the title of the second-oldest living American until Edie Ceccarelli of California died Thursday at 116 years old.
While Francis was asked about her secret to longevity when she spoke with Today.com in August, the grateful great-great-grandmother responded, “It’s not my secret. It’s the good Lord’s blessing. I just thank God I’m here.”
“Try to do the best thing you can to everybody,” she told the outlet. “Love everybody.”
During her certification as the oldest living person in the country, Francis told LongeviQuest, an organization that tracks human longevity, that her life advice is: “If the good Lord gave it to you, use it! Speak your mind, don’t hold your tongue!”
Speaking your mind and not stressing about things like Francis said is actually healthy for you and plays a role in how long you live.
In a new study, Yale researchers conducted research to answer two questions: How much does chronic stress accelerate that biological clock? And are there ways to slow it down and extend a healthy lifespan?
According to their findings, published in the journal Translational Psychiatry, stress does indeed make one’s life “clock” tick faster — but individuals can help manage the factors that cause this acceleration by strengthening their emotion regulation and self-control.
Rajita Sinha, the Foundations Fund Professor of Psychiatry at Yale, a professor of neuroscience and professor at the Yale Child Study Center, and one of the authors of the study, has spent decades studying stress and the myriad and pernicious ways that it erodes our mental and physical health.
(Photo by LongeviQuest)
Prolonged stress, for instance, increases the risk of heart disease, addiction, mood disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorder, said Sinha, who is also director of the Yale Interdisciplinary Stress Center. It can influence metabolism, accelerating obesity-related disorders such as diabetes. Stress also saps our ability to regulate emotions and to think clearly.
Francis’ age, which has been validated by the Gerontology Research Group, also shared that she is now the fifth-oldest person on Earth. Born July 25, 1909, in St. Mary Parish, Francis moved to Houston as a child to live with her aunt when her mom died.
She worked in a cafeteria at the local ABC13 News station for 20 years and retired in 1975.
The supercentenarian isn’t the only one in her family who lived to be older than 100, however, as Francis’ sister Bertha Johnson died at 106 years old in 2011.
Francis lives with her 94-year-old daughter, Dorothy Williams, in a private residence where caregivers come to the home every day, Francis’ granddaughter Ethel Harrison told TODAY.com.
“It’s just amazing,” Harrison, 68, said. “We’re so grateful that she’s still here, and my mom, who’s her daughter — she only had one child — is still alive also.”
According to TODAY.com, she is confined to her bed and has some memory problems, but in general, she remains alert and recognizes her family.
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