People's maximum life expectancy is limited to 115 years

Physicians are studying how old we humans can become in this day and age
Humans are getting older. Especially in the last century, life expectancy increased exorbitantly. Although every person has to die once, the question remains "when"? Researchers have been asking themselves for some time if there is an upper limit? Some scientists now believe that this limit is around 115 years.

The scientists from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine found in their study that people will not be older than 115 years in the future. It seems we have reached the upper limit of our life expectancy. The physicians published the results of their study in the journal "Nature".

People are getting much older than 100 years ago. This is partly due to our diet and currently available medicines. Physicians were now looking for an upper limit of our life expectancy. (Image: Sondem / fotolia.com)

Record of human longevity is 122 years
There are always people who reach a very old age. For example, on August 4, 1997 Jeanne Calment died in a nursing home in France. The elderly woman was at the age of 122 years. This age represents the current record for human longevity.

People have already reached their maximum life expectancy?
Dr. Jan Vijg from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine doubts that people will reach this age in the future. The upper limit of human longevity seems to be reached. In the future, people will not be older than 115 years, adds the physician. There has long been a debate among scientists about whether there is a natural limit to human life expectancy. Some experts still think that people have not yet approached their upper limit of life expectancy.

Life expectancy has risen sharply in the last century
When children were born around 1900 in the United States, they had an average life expectancy of nearly 50 years, the experts explain. If an American child is born at the present time, it lives on the average up to the 79th year of life. In Japan, the current life expectancy for comparison is about 83 years. Dr. Vijg and his team studied this data more closely. The scientists determined how many people live at a certain age. Then they compared these figures for their calculations with how fast the population was rising at any age.

The fastest growing part of society is old people
The fastest growing part of the society was old people, Dr. Vijg. For example, in France in the 1920s, the 85-year-olds were the fastest growing women's group (starting from a very low level). As the average life expectancy lengthened, so did the top of the fastest-growing age groups. In the 1990s, the fastest-growing group of French women, women at the age of 102, said the doctors. If this trend continued, 110-year-old French women would be the fastest growing group in the world today.

Increase in the maximum age stagnates
Instead, however, the shift in peak age slowed in the current calculations and seemed to stop gradually, the researchers report. Dr. Vijg and his team then looked at data from forty different countries. They were able to find the same trend. This change in the growth of the older and older population began in the 1980s. At that time, growth slowed in the peak age groups. The reason for this could be an upper limit of the longevity that we humans have reached in the meantime. Vijg.

Doctors use international database for longevity
The researchers also analyzed an international database on longevity. It contained detailed reports on 534 very old people. In 1968, the highest age reached was still 111 years. In the 1990s, this value had risen to about 115 years. Then this increase stagnated, with a few rare exceptions. One of these, for example, was Jeanne Calment, say the scientists.

Theoretically, the probability is 122 years old at 0 percent
Even though we look at the data of the other oldest people, the tendency has always been the same, Dr. Vijg. Given the current trend, the likelihood of reaching the age of Jeanne Calment now seems to be practically nil.

People will probably not be older than 115 years in the near future
We assume that in the foreseeable future, the oldest people will be around 115 years old, explain the experts. Scientists have long been debating whether there is a limit to the lifespan. But it is only thanks to the long-term increase in average life expectancy that people live long enough to reach this limit Vijg.

Antibiotics, medications and healthy nutrition contribute to a longer life
From the end of the 19th century, average life expectancy began to increase. This was mainly due to lower mortality rates in children. The health of adult humans has also improved in recent decades, the researchers explain. Some of the health improvements are due to stopping smoking and better nutrition. Of course, antibiotics and other medicines have also helped treat chronic conditions, thereby increasing our life expectancy, the researchers explain.

Due to age, our DNA is damaged
According to the researchers, aging is an accumulation of damage to DNA and other molecules. Our body can slow down this process by repairing some of the damage, the scientists explain. In advanced age, however, the body is no longer able to repair any damage. (As)