Doctors analyze the DNA of a 117-year-old to discover one food that may help people live longer.

She also became one of the longest‑lived humans in documented history, placing her among an elite group of supercentenarians whose lives defy typical biological expectations.

But Branyas’s story was not only astonishing for its length.

It was also inspiring for its quality, its resilience, and the profound lessons it offered about how humans can age — not merely survive, but live with clarity, engagement, and purpose almost to the very end.

A Life That Spanned Worlds

When Maria Branyas was born in 1907, the world was dramatically different from today.

She entered life in a period before commercial airplanes, antibiotics, or radio broadcasts were widespread. She lived through:

World War I and its aftermath.

The Spanish Civil War and the rise of fascism in Europe.

World War II and its global reshaping of politics and society.

The Great Depression and massive economic upheavals.

Major medical breakthroughs, including the creation of vaccines and treatments for once‑fatal diseases.

The COVID‑19 pandemic, which Branyas survived at age 113 — becoming one of the oldest documented survivors of the virus.

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