Why do not we humans actually get older despite increased life expectancy?

What influences our life expectancy?
General life expectancy in Germany continues to rise. Figures from the Federal Statistical Office show that newborn girls are about 83 years old today. After all, boys who are born in this day and age reach the age of 78 years. Everyone has a kind of genetic make-up. This has a big impact on our overall life expectancy. Whether a person turns 70 years old or that person lives 30 years longer and thus reaches the age of 100 years is strongly linked to genetic make-up, said researcher Karl Lenhard Rudolph, scientific director of the Leibniz Institute for Aging Research. In his estimation, the increase in life expectancy will eventually have reached its limit, according to the news agency "dpa".

Of course, many people already had the idea that they have grown old and the body is slowly starting to stop functioning properly. What exactly happens to our body when we age and when does that condition begin? When our body has reached its maximum functionality, it begins to degrade slowly. This process starts in humans at the age of about 25 years. From this point on, the function of our organs gradually becomes worse and worse. This is clearly visible in professional sports. There are hardly any old professional athletes in most sports. When playing football hardly professionals who are over 30 years old. The body just breaks down too quickly, so it's very hard to keep up with younger players.

The maximum life expectancy will not increase significantly, but people age in better health. (Image: olly / fotolia.com)

At the age of 40, the body is losing weight
As we get older, more and more diseases develop and the body's defenses diminish. Surely almost every elderly person has already noticed that one develops more and more small complaints and it usually takes a little longer to recover from illnesses. Physical stress is harder the older man becomes. What does all this relate to? At the present time, it is well known that our stem cells have a massive impact on our health and regeneration. These cells perform important tasks in the maintenance and regeneration of human organs and our tissues. But the power of the stem cells decreases over the course of our lives. Our cells work optimally between the ages of 25 and 30 years. At this age, the human body is set for reproduction, the researchers said to the news agency "dpa". As the body gets older, there are more and more minor problems. From the age of 40, disorders of our bodily functions increasingly occur, triggered by misdirected internal signals. Genes are starting to work worse, and the chances are greater that mutations arise. As a result of these dominant changes in the genetic make-up, the cells would begin to become more and more unstable, the scientists added to the "dpa".

Life expectancy is increasing, but what about our health?
People have always dreamed of immortality. Eternal health and continued youth would certainly be rejected by no one. But what is the reality? Our life expectancy is increasing. But does that increase the number of years we are sick and frail? Or do we stay healthy longer overall and automatically gain more years with full health due to a higher age? A variety of factors determine how our aging process works. There are body mechanisms that can lead to dysfunction through the process of aging. These could trigger an increased risk of cancer.

Ever new studies are likely to enable physicians in the near future to better understand such processes and then to slow them down therapeutically, the researchers from the Leibniz Institute for Aging Research said. So it is possible to strengthen the immune function in old age or reduce the risk of cancer, the researchers added to the news agency "dpa". However, everyone should realize that we do not have the ability to completely prevent aging. However, there would be realistic possibilities of how certain diseases could be treated better or perhaps even completely defeated, quoted the "dpa" the researcher Karl Rudolph. That would not make us immortal, but the number of healthy years of our lives would increase.

Average life expectancy doubled
In the last 200 years, life expectancy has increased annually by about 0.25 years. It was not likely that this process would go on and on. Because that would mean that people in thousands of years would be about 250 years older than today. A view that is unrealistic, the scientist explained. At the present time, many diseases that were previously fatal are curable through medicines and therapies. For example, child mortality has fallen significantly in most countries. There have always been people who have become very old. Also in the past there were individuals who were ninety years or even one hundred years old. But these were and are rather exceptions. The maximum life expectancy has remained about the same. So you could say that not the maximum life expectancy has doubled, but the average average life expectancy, the scientists said.

The increase in life expectancy will eventually reach a maximum. The oldest known woman in the world was 122 years. Should there be an increase, this will be minimal. How old a person becomes depends mainly on his genes. Although it is possible to get closer and closer to the maximum limit of our life expectancy, but we would not be able to postpone this, said Rudolph to the "dpa".

Significant influence on aging through healthy lifestyle
Do other factors, such as our environment or psyche influence our maximum age? There is no way we can outsmart our genes so that we get older every 20 years from now on. However, we may be able to strengthen our overall health, for example, through our diet or exercise. Even without cigarettes and alcohol, we can significantly influence our aging process.

Thus, while we do not extend our maximum age, we live longer healthy lives within our normal life expectancy. For example, if a person would normally turn 80, he will not live to be one hundred years old, even through a healthy lifestyle. But the same person would not turn 80 if they had an unhealthy lifestyle, the researcher said.