The average life expectancy in Germany is 78.9 years for men and 83.6 years for women – and the trend is upward. Some people even live to be more than 100 years old. Medical progress in particular, but also a healthier lifestyle, are likely to play a role in this.
Worldwide it is investigated whether there is a maximum for the natural lifetime of humans. A few years ago, a study still limited the maximum lifespan to 115 years. But some scientists are of the opinion that a higher age is quite realistic.
Seniors keep fit with these sports
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Researchers determine maximum lifespan of humans
An international team of researchers has now studied the rate of aging in three large cohorts in the U.S., U.K. and Russia. They looked at the change in the subjects’ blood cell counts, recorded the steps they took each day and analyzed the values by age group. This allowed them to assess the health of the study participants. The results were published in the English-language journal "Nature Communications" Published.
Both the number of blood cells and the number of steps showed the same pattern: with increasing age, the body had less and less success in bringing the blood cells or the gait back to a stable level after a disturbance.
In short, resilience decreased with age. The body then needed more time to recover from stress factors. As a consequence man becomes frail.
Physical resistance as a factor
When the researchers used this information to determine when resilience would completely disappear and lead to death, they came up with a lifespan of 120 to 150 years. But that is the absolute limit.
Such a long life is therefore possible if the combination of luck and genetics is right. Because most people die beforehand as a result of heart disease or cancer, as a result of an accident or simply because of old age.
The oldest people in the world
In fact, there are people who have grown so old. The oldest known person to have ever lived is a woman from France: Jeanne Calment lived from 1875 to 1997 and lived to be 122 years old.
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Jeanne Calment: The oldest woman in the world lived until 1997. (Source: Georges Gobet/dpa)
Currently, Kane Tanaka from Japan is the oldest living person in the world at 117 years (as of June 2021). The woman was born on 2. Born January 1903. Tanaka has already been listed by the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest living person in the world since March 2019.
- Nature Communications: "Longitudinal analysis of blood markers revealsprogressive loss of resilience and predicts humanlifespan limit"
- MDR: "Life expectancy: 120 to 150 years possible", 29. May 2021
- Own research
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