Life expectancy Are we going to be 140 years old tomorrow?

Maximum life expectancy could be increased through interventions

The life expectancy of the Germans has reached a record level in recent years. In other countries too, people are getting older on average. Israeli scientists now report that the maximum lifespan of certain interventions could be further increased. "Even 140-year-old people are conceivable," says the study report.

Life expectancy keeps rising

According to experts, average life expectancy in Western industrialized countries will soon exceed 90 years. In other countries too, people today live significantly longer than a few decades ago. But "while average human life expectancy has increased dramatically in the last century, maximum lifespan has increased only marginally," Israeli researchers write in the journal The Journals of Gerontology. The experts have looked at whether and how the range of the maximum lifespan of humans can be exceeded. They even think that a lifetime of 140 years is possible.

The average life expectancy of the people rises and rises. Researchers now report that people could possibly even reach the age of 140. But this would require certain interventions. (Image: WavebreakMediaMicro / fotolia.com)

People could possibly be 140 years old

Some scientists think that human life expectancy can be increased tenfold.

However, a study by scientists at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine concluded that maximum life expectancy was limited to 115 years.

However, further investigation has shown that there is no evidence of an upper life limit.

Researchers at McGill University in the United States have come to the conclusion that such a limit on maximum human life expectancy is at least not 115 years.

Israeli scientists at Bar-Ilan University even consider it possible that people could become as old as 140 years, through certain interventions.

Less age-related diseases

For their study, published in The Journals of Gerontology, researchers analyzed human causes of death throughout the 20th century.

In addition, they investigated by means of experiments with mice, rats, worms and flies, whether certain interventions can influence the average life expectancy and maximum lifespan.

According to the researchers, it has been possible to increase the maximum lifespan by up to 30 percent with changes in diet, genetic engineering and drug treatment.

In addition, the experts found that the treated animals developed less age-related diseases such as diabetes.

Higher life expectancy through healthy lifestyle

The Israeli scientists believe that similar interventions in humans could increase average and maximum life expectancy.

German researchers have also shown that it is possible to reach a higher age through certain interventions.

For example, scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg calculated in a study how much lifetime costs which way of life.

They came to the conclusion that you can live up to 17 years longer, if you leave the fingers of cigarettes, dispensed alcohol and red meat and obesity avoids.

But at some point, a limit is reached, as US researchers in the journal "Nature" reported: "Our results suggest that the maximum lifespan of people is set and subject to natural constraints," the experts said. (Ad)