Saturday, March 19, 2011

Is there a limit to life expectancy?





Move over Methuselah. Future generations could be living well into their second century and still doing sudoku to boot, if life expectancy predictions are anything to go by.

Increasing by two years every decade, they show no signs of flattening out. Average lifespan around the world is already double what it was 200 years ago.

Since the 1980s, experts thought the increase in life expectancy would grind to a halt but forecasters have repeatedly been proved wrong.

So can we go on living longer and longer? Is there a limit to how long we can survive into old age?

The reason behind the steady rise in life expectancy is "the decline in the death rate of the elderly", says Professor Tom Kirkwood from the Institute of Ageing and Health at Newcastle University.

He has a theory that our bodies are evolving to maintain and repair themselves better and our genes are investing in this process to put off the damage which will eventually lead to death.

As a result, there is no ceiling imposed by the realities of the ageing process.

"There is no use-by-date when we age, ageing is not a fixed biological process," Professor Kirkwood says.

A large study of people aged 85 and over in Newcastle, carried out by Professor Kirkwood and his colleagues, discovered that there were a remarkable number of people enjoying good health and independence in their late 80s and beyond.

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