Key points:
- Researchers analyzed data on thousands of people in Netherlands to determine maximum lifespan.
- Focus was on individuals who lived long, healthy lives, not average life expectancy.
- Study suggests a plateau in maximum lifespan, with women potentially reaching 115.7 years and men 114.1 years.
- This limit hasn’t changed in recent decades, despite rising average life expectancy.
- However, exceptions like the recently deceased 118-year-old French nun show some people might exceed this limit.
Overall:
This study suggests a potential limit to how long humans can live. However, individual cases show the possibility of exceeding this limit, leaving room for further research and debate.
Other research indicates that the rate of aging is not fixed, but can vary. There are promising early studies on turning the aging clock backwards. Obviously that would be a game changer, and it would change this supposed aging “limit”.