Life expectancy is constantly increasing, but everyone eventually ages and dies. This “discrepancy” raises the question: is there a natural limit to human life? Is there an age beyond which no one, either today or in the future, is destined to survive?
According to Richard Faragher, professor of biogerontology at the University of Brighton, the answer to this question can be found by focusing our search in three main directions.
First, we can try to figure out why aging exists at all, why nature needs representatives of a particular biological species to age and die.
Secondly, it would be useful to understand the details of the aging process and to understand how exactly the mechanism works that mercilessly sends all living things into oblivion.
Researchers from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City focused their efforts on the third area. Hoping to understand whether there is a natural limit to human life, they examined statistical data.
Advances in medicine in recent years have led not only to an increase in the average life expectancy and average age of the human population, but also to an increase in the maximum age to which only a very few live.
How much has the bar been raised, and can it be raised even higher? It's very difficult, if not impossible, to reliably calculate the age limit—or how much it's increasing thanks to scientific advances (or perhaps decreasing?).
But attempts at such calculations are being made. For example, in 1921, it was first “scientifically” proven that it is impossible to live beyond 105 years. Since then, the calculations have been repeatedly adjusted, but the practical result has always, sooner or later, exceeded the calculated limit.
This “chase beyond the horizon” even convinces some that there is no limit. How, exactly, are hydras any better than us humans? After all, they live virtually without aging for over 1,400 years, as shown by laboratory simulations, which, of course, have not been confirmed by observations. Coveredinsevindust,
The authors of a new study analyzed global demographic data on centenarians aged 110 years and older and identified an interesting trend.
It turns out that over the course of several years from 1970 to 1995, the average age of supercentenarians at death increased by approximately 45-55 days annually. But after 1995, the increase in maximum life expectancy stopped.
The dataset the researchers used contains information on nearly 600 centenarians. Not that many, considering the overall population of the planet? But centenarians are very rare among us, so the observed trend is likely quite real.
The model built by the researchers shows that
The probability of the appearance on Earth of an inhabitant who has crossed the 125-year mark is less than one chance in ten thousand.
The authors argue that we may, in fact, “hit a wall” that will require significant efforts to increase maximum lifespan to overcome.
Thus, researchers from Einstein College, who published an article in the journal Nature, have calculated, like their predecessors in 1921, yet another age limit beyond which it is impossible to live. How correct will they be? Time will tell…