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Thursday, November 07, 20026:22:56 PM
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A Biological Limit to Aging
Researchers cannot seem to accurately determine the biological barriers to human longevity. In a famous 1928 study on the US population, the ultimate human life span was predicted to be 65 years. Clearly that hypothesis was incorrect. More recent studies haven't performed much better. A study conducted in 1990, asserted that life expectancy “should not exceed…35 years at age 50 unless major breakthroughs occur in controlling the fundamental rate of aging.” This limit was surpassed six years later. Clearly we are gaining new control over the aging process
For over 150 years, life expectancy has continued to rise at the steady pace of an additional 3 months per year. To put this into perspective, the average woman in 1840 lived about 45 years, while life expectancy for today’s woman has reached 85 years in some countries. This incredible increase in duration of life has greatly enhanced the length and quality of people’s lives. A basic straight-line extrapolation of this trend shows that life expectancy will reach at least 100 in the next 50 years, meaning the number of centenarians is about to explode. And this is likely a very conservative, middle of the road scenario, as we will see.
5:40:15 PM
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