Living longer has been a goal that scientists of every generation have been trying to achieve. If you look at the stats, the average age of mortality has increased immensely. According to data provided in the Our World In Data organization, in the 1900s the average life expectancy of a person was 32 years of age, and by 2021 it has more than doubled to 71 years. So, does this mean we may be able to live longer with each passing period? Could we reach 200 years of average life expectancy one day? Although, the idea may be looked into for research, current findings indicate we may not live longer than 150 years. According to a 2021 study indicates that the hard limit on human life is about 150 years. This isn't because of specific diseases like cancer or heart disease. Instead, it’s because our bodies naturally lose their ability to recover from stress and health setbacks, a process called physiological resilience. Even if a person manages to avoid major illnesses for decades, their body eventually runs out of the energy and resources needed to bounce back from even minor challenges. This discovery challenges the ambitious goals of some who believe we can use technology to live forever. How Long Can Humans Actually Live? A study from a biotech company called Gero and the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center looked at large groups of people in the U.S., U.K., and Russia. They tracked two key health indicators: changes in blood cell counts and the number of daily steps a person took. The researchers discovered that the problem wasn't a slow, steady decline in health. Instead, people experienced sudden "step-downs" where their bodies couldn't fully return to their previous level of health after a setback, like getting sick. For example, a young person might recover 100% from a cold, but an older person might only get back to 95%. This small, repeated loss of health is what ultimately limits our lifespan. Why Can’t Humans Live Forever? To reach their conclusions, researchers analyzed data from large groups of people in the U.S., U.K., and Russia. They tracked two key indicators of aging: Blood cell counts White blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets all have a normal range. Deviations from these ranges can signal health issues. Daily steps While a more subjective metric, changes in daily steps can reflect a person's physical activity and energy levels. The study found that even though these two variables seem very different, they both showed a similar pattern of decline over time. Rather than a steady, predictable decrease, the decline happened in a series of "step-downs," where the body would face a challenge and fail to return to its previous level of health. This steady loss of resilience, the researchers say, is what ultimately puts a hard limit on our longevity. What This Means for Human Life The study suggests that without major medical breakthroughs, like replacing body parts, there's a natural, built-in limit to how long we can live. The researchers found that both blood cell counts and daily steps showed the same pattern of declining resilience. The fact that two very different variables showed the same trend makes the study's findings more convincing. This means that a loss of resilience is a real and fundamental part of aging. The oldest person on record lived to be 122, which falls right within the study's projected limit of 120 to 150 years, supporting the idea that there is a biological barrier to human longevity.
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