Could human beings live more than 150 years? Science explores the reasons for limitations

When one thinks of extending longevity, the imagination soars to believe that human beings will stay in cold rooms for a long time. However, a study published yesterday in the journal Nature communications points out that it would be possible to increase longevity to 150 years or more.

The study combines blood test data and exercise information to identify a new measure of “biological age.” The results suggest that there is one aspect of human longevity that may be crucial if you want to reach your full potential, and it has nothing to do with illness or lifestyle choices.

“What we are saying here is that the strategy of reducing frailty, that is to say reducing the burden of disease, has only one additional capacity to improve life,” explained Peter Fedichev, lead author of the study and researcher at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. The scientist is a co-founder of the longevity company Gero.

According to Fedishev and his team, humanity could go beyond treating the disease. He argues that while his results are validated by further research, There is a good chance that human beings can live decades longer than the maximum lifespan they have determined: 150 years.

The study identifies patterns of aging and morbidity to extract the maximum “biological age” possible from humans. They collected data from analyzes of blood samples from 544,398 participants and combined it with data provided by using smartwatches from another smaller subset of people.

The researchers then used the data to predict the onset of various diseases and to determine trends in how people ‘”biological ages” seemed to change over time. “Biological age” is basically the age of the cells in your body, rather than their chronological age. To increase life expectancy, it is necessary to decrease biological age in relation to chronological age.

What lifestyle choices can make a difference? If you start to smoke tobacco, start a new exercise regimen, or even move to a more rural area, your biological age may decrease and increase over time. It does not remain constant. In the new study, the researchers found that a factor appeared to be behind individual biological fluctuations in age. It is a value that researchers call a “dynamic quantitative indicator of the state of the organism”.

They explained that as we get older, the rate of recovery from stress (whether it’s illness, lack of sleep, or even heavy training) slows down. In other words, it takes longer and longer to regain the basic level of resilience. Thus, the resilience of individuals to stress is the key to determining their longevity. “If the loss of resilience is not addressed, any medical intervention will fail,” the researchers write in the study.

The study could have an impact on disease management. If medicine advances to the point that it can cure diseases of aging, researchers believe humans could age even beyond the maximum lifespan they have determined without addressing resilience, between 120 and 150 years old.

Beyond this range, resilience deteriorates beyond the point of no return. Even the healthiest people who live longer and resist the onset of chronic diseases cannot hope to live beyond this age because their resilience would have been completely depleted.

The approach proposed by the researchers is to find a way to address resilience. There are issues that come with age that affect human beings as organisms. In other words, at the individual level, lifestyle factors do not always explain why a person lives to old age or not. But resilience can.

Fedishev and his co-authors do not want to settle for the gradual increases in half-life that can result from improved health. He noted that it is confirmed that people live longer if they eat a good diet, exercise regularly, are able to avoid disease and have a high socioeconomic status. But he pointed out that There are people who live to extraordinary ages and may also carry certain genes that predispose them to longevity. Maybe these genes affect resilience. For researchers, if resilience can be increased, life could be extended beyond the maximum.

The research team has developed an application, called GeroSense, which calculates biological age using data provided by users. They hope to use the information gathered to measure resistance and ultimately find a solution to stop aging. Some of the factors they want to take a closer look at are lifestyle choices regarding supplements, diets, and genetic markers.

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