Has humanity reached its maximum lifespan limit?

The study was published in the journal Nature Aging on October 7th. Researcher S. Jay Olshansky at the University of Illinois-Chicago, the lead author of the study, said that people must recognize that life expectancy is limited and should re-evaluate assumptions about when to retire and how much money will be needed to live out their lives.

Researcher Mark Hayward at the University of Texas shares the view that humanity is reaching a life expectancy limit. He says that humans currently lack the ability to create breakthroughs to increase their lifespan further.

Emma Morano celebrated her 117th birthday in 2016 in Verbania, Italy. Photo: AP

What is average life expectancy?

Average life expectancy is an estimate of the average number of years a given person is expected to live from birth. However, determining how long a person can live based solely on average life expectancy is often inaccurate, as many factors can affect life expectancy, such as deadly pandemics, miraculous cures, or other unexpected events that can kill or save millions of lives.

In the new study, Olshansky and his colleagues tracked life expectancy estimates from the 1990s to 2019, drawn from a database maintained by the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research. The researchers focused on the U.S. and eight other places in the world where people live the longest: Australia, France, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Spain, and Switzerland.

Who lives the longest?

Researchers have found that women still live longer than men, and women's life expectancy is improving, albeit at a slower pace. In 1990, the average improvement was about two and a half years per decade. By the 2010s, this figure had risen to one and a half years.

Life expectancy in the US is more problematic because it is heavily impacted by a range of issues that can kill people even before they reach old age, including drug overdoses, mass shootings, obesity, and inequality that makes it difficult for some people to access adequate medical care.

Eileen Crimmins, a gerontology expert at the University of Southern California, said she agrees with the study's findings. She added, "For me personally, the most important issue is America's relatively bleak and declining position."

Why can't life expectancy be increased?

Olshansky said the research shows that most people have a lifespan limit and we are nearing it. "Life-extending technologies are being used up, the reason being that aging is getting in the way," he said.

Experts say the number of people living to 100 is likely to increase in the coming decades, but that's due to population growth. Olshansky said the percentage of people reaching 100 will remain limited, possibly less than 15% of women and 5% of men in most countries. In 2019, just over 2% of Americans lived to 100, compared to about 5% in Japan and 9% in Hong Kong (China).

Ngoc Anh (according to AP)

Source: https://www.congluan.vn/nhan-loai-da-dat-den-gioi-han-tuoi-tho-toi-da-post315820.html