Can science verify any of the outrageous longevity claims out there? Is this woman really 120 years old?

Question

This woman claims to be 120 years old.

http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/article-515351/Israeli-woman-claims-worlds-oldest-person.html

This woman says she's 134 years old.

http://alternativeapproaches.com/pnuke1/Article4448.html

Can these, and other documented claims like them, be proved or disproved by science? Or can we only make rough guesses?

Answer 1

The only thing that they have is their birth certificates

According to her birth certificate, issued by the Ottoman Empire authorities, she was born near her current home in the village of Jisr az-Zarka in 1888.

However this guy has complete documentation that has been proven to be credible:

“Christian” Mortensen, Danish-American, was 115 years 252 days old when he died in 1998, and according to Professor John Wilmoth of the University of California, Berkeley’s Department of Demography, Christian was the surest, oldest male in the world. He still was alive and lived in San Rafael, California, just across San Francisco Bay from Berkeley, so Wilmoth interviewed him many times over 3 years, and together, they retrieved all the supporting documentation from both countries.

Many times, especially in less developed countries, claims to longevity are made, but it is important to be accurate, so Christian deserves the unassailable title, as no hearsay or local “lore” is involved — his claim is backed by an amazing multiplicity of documents and complete factual disclosure. Until then, the longest-lived male with impeccable documents was a man who lived to be 112. Wilmoth says Christian’s claim is the only legitimate one for those older males. All other currently “older” men cannot reach the same standard of authenticity, and were regarded by academicians as erroneous, at that time.