An American born a century ago would have been expected to live, on average, just 54 years. Many children died young, and giving birth was one of the most dangerous things a woman would do. But thanks to vaccinations, antibiotics, sanitation and better maternal care, we are now much more likely to die in old age than in our youth. An infant born today should live to see a 78th birthday.

The easy gains against the grim reaper have been won. Now as people live to ever older ages, they confront two broad sets of forces that conspire to impose the ultimate human limit. First, each extra year we live means another year of accumulated damage to the body's cells and organs—damage that slower cellular-repair systems cannot quite fix. In addition, age is the biggest risk factor for common deadly ailments that researchers have been relatively powerless against, such as cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer's.

This article was originally published with the title How We All Will Live to Be 100.

8 Comments

1. 1. Diesel67 05:34 PM 9/4/12

   Terrific. Long life is already a curse. To get old is to deteriorate into a complete physical and mental wreck. If you can't give us continued vitality with the increased life span, don't bother.

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2. 2. HubertB 07:53 PM 9/4/12

   Stem cells are not the answer. Some women have received heart and liver transplants. When some of them died their hearts and livers matched their husbands tissues. It is assumed that their husbands semen not only contained sperm but also primitive stem cells. Those stem cells replaced the cells in the transplanted heart and liver. Still the patient died.
   From that it can be assumed that human female bodies have been receiving primitive stem cells for a few million years. If stem cells have caused women to live longer, they have not extended women's years by much.

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3. 3. Lunacentaur 08:18 PM 9/4/12

   Actually, we've missed the most important of the "easy gains" - we still have a complete mis-understanding of what humans need to eat to maximize their body's healing process, so that we can recover from toxins, oxidation & normal daily damage. Despite the numerous scientific debates regarding nutrition - our metabolic pathways quite clearly indicate what we need to eat to be healthy. Unfortunately “common wisdom” has seen fit to disagree with simple scientific evidence such that many continue to eat a very nutrient deficient, toxic high carb/grain/plant based diet - it has become the "law of the land". So we resort to pharmaceuticals, advanced medical procedures, supplements, meditation, chelation, super duper antiseptic soaps, excessive vaccinations, etc …. Some of which may actually shorten lifespan. Eventually, healthy human nutrition will become self evident -until that time, I’ll keep eating my liver, butter, cream, homemade lard & egg yolks (with a nice variety of veggies braised in fat) so that I'll be around to celebrate our "homecoming" back to what our ancestors took for granted. Meanwhile, I'd be careful about any nutritional programs designed by politicians, bureacrats, medi & agri business. Vive Vida!

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4. 4. Raghuvanshi1 12:33 AM 9/5/12

   There are limit to extend the human lifespan.After 80 most men became vegetable,helpless to walk,after 90 most men are burden to family and society.I think we must not increase the human lifespan fantastically.

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5. 5. alanpeart 10:10 AM 9/5/12

   Increasing lifespan needs to be accompanied by increased responsibility for their own wellbeing on the part of individuals. Many commenters have noted things like "After 80 most men became vegetable,helpless to walk", or "To get old is to deteriorate into a complete physical and mental wreck" - as if these things are inevitable. In fact these are just the results of living a long and unhealthy life. Little exercise and poor nutrition, obesity and diabetes, all these things contribute to our supposedly inevitable decline into an unbearable physical and mental senescence.
   
   However, you only have to look at examples of people from cultures with more of a tradition of healthy living and regular intelligent exercise to see countless examples of men and women in their eighties and beyond being completely physically capable and healthy. These people have many of the problems of aging, but without this total decline that is common in Western societies where we expect to be able to eat whatever we want, and do as little as we want, without consequences for our bodies.
   
   To put it more directly - stop eating junk food, stop eating and drinking so much sugar, stop eating too much, stop drinking so much beer, do Yoga or Tai Chi every day for the rest of your life, and you can have a reasonable expectation of being physically and mentally capable until the day you die.

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6. 6. G. Karst in reply to VivaLaEvolucion 03:38 PM 9/8/12

   "I would not be surprised if someone who is currently alive lives to 200 years old or older."
   
   You are conflating "life expectancy" with "maximum life span". While it is true, that minimizing birth deaths has increased our life expectancy, we have not extended our life spans by so much as a year.
   
   Aging may be a "all or nothing" proposition. If we crack the genetic/chemical processes and mechanisms, of aging and regeneration, we probably win the prize of practical immortality.
   
   I say "practical" because someone once calculated, fatal accidents would still limit our immortal life span to about 600 years. GK

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7. 7. G. Karst 04:04 PM 9/8/12

   Kinda makes one wonder: Why the majority of our research funding, isn't going toward aging and regeneration research??
   
   It will be the ultimate cancer and disease cure also... as regeneration programing of cells, become our blase. Space travel... more doable. It changes every aspect.
   
   Instead we have a small slow incremental progress. GK

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8. 8. jgrosay 06:24 AM 9/13/12

   Who wants to live forever? (Queen)

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