Have humans reached the max life span?
The goal of many peoples lives is to live past the age of 100 years. It is quite the goal and many people have achieved it. Some people however seem to contradict what we think is the maximum age, and push the limits even further.
In 1997 a person by the name of Jeanne Calment , a French woman that lived to be 122 years old. It was thought before her that the maximum age of any person could only be 110 years. That changed with Clament and it is being looked into further. Can the human lifespan be extended farther than ever before?
A new study done on the mortality rates from old age from several different countries says no. Data was collected from the Human Mortality Data base said that the mortality rates from age had increase from 70 since 1990 and has steadily increase. This would make sense with current medical practices, but that it has stopped to increase in recent years.
Up until around 1980 humans have had increased life expectancy. After 1980 though the age seamed to hold steady and had very little change and suggested that there may be a natural limit to how long a person can live.
Researchers looked deeper into the age of humans specifically at narrowed down to between 1968 and 2015. It was also that they looked primarily at the United States, United Kingdom, France and Japan which were the places with the most number of people that lived beyond 110 years old. With the data, they found that the max life span had plateaued, and actually slightly decreased since the time of Calment.
Many researchers still think that the life of a human can still be extended with medical science but it would most likely have a natural limit. Tests done on mice have shown that age can be extended by restricting and controlling their caloric intake, and by manipulating their genes. It is still to be tested if this would work with humans or not.
Sources:
c2.staticflickr.com/4/3543/3501432476_0ccfce919e_b.jpg
www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/figures/s5902a1f9.gif
www.reuters.com/article/us-science-aging-idUSKCN1252FH
www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2016/10/125-years-scientists-say-maximum-age-for-humans-has-been-reached.html
100yrs? Seriously?
With diapers and all that?
Strange notion, as many who would wish for eternal life already get terribly bored on a rainy friday afternoon.
Guess it all depends on whether you believe in life before death.
And if you do, you should better live in the here and now, focus on what you consider important.
Do not worry. You will die.
We all will. It is the only thing we can be absolutely sure of.
A very close friend of mine got a terrible cancer diagnosis. A friend and medic had to tell her on the phone.
When she got the call, I stood next to her. I do not know much about cancer but the celltype was highly aggressive and the location of the tumours did not look good. Not at all. Too many lymph vessels affected, metastases were highly likely. It was more like a death sentence.
She retreated into a little cabin in the woods for two weeks, contemplating her life. And what of all the things she did now still had relevance. Keeping her tears and dispair to herself.
And coming back, she started to fight the cancer.
Accompanying some of her path was one of the greatest teachings, I received in my life.
Very high age?
She would laugh at this idea. It is not really relevant.
Just be prepared to die.
And then live as long, as fearless, useful and intensive as you can.
She does.
We will meet next week in London.
At 98 years old my great grandmother looked at me almost tearing up and told me she didn't know who I was. She then went on to tell me that she wasn't herself anymore, that she was going crazy, her body not responding correctly and that all she wanted to do was die. This really changed my perspective in that existing is not necessarily good, pleasant. I don't know if having optimal health she would had felt the same way, but at least now I know getting to be so old is not neccesarily a blessing as some people would have you believe.
you have my vote! long live turtle-humans!!! :-O
Actually the lifespan of humans hasn't increased more than a year or two in history. Medicine and hygiene just keeps people from dying as children, even a thousand years ago if you lived past your childhood years and didn't die in war you could be expected to make it pretty close to today's average lifespan.
There is only so much that common sense medicine, hygiene, and good food can do though, truly lengthening, and even perpetuating, the human lifespan is more than doable, but it will involve genetic manipulation, I.e., forced and controlled evolution.
Living up to 100 years old does not seem a goal as such to me. Just getting there without bringing and leaving anything to the world does not look very satisfactory, IMO.