What is the longest a human being can live? Scientists say

As the decades pass and investments in health and well-being increase, the average life expectancy of human beings slowly increases. You may have heard that one day it will be possible to live to be 200 years old and other stories like that. But how much can the human body handle?

Well, the answer was calculated in 2021 by a group of scientists from Singapore. At the time, researchers discovered that the maximum we can reach is still far from 200, but much longer than the current average human lifespan.

According to the study, with perfect health, people can live between 120 and 150 years. This is a very high number if we take into account that, in Brazil, life expectancy today is around 75 years.

But don’t get too excited about the possibility of living to 150 years old. To blow out so many candles, in addition to perfect health, never seen before, you also need a lot of luck. The 150 years estimated by scientists are calculated according to the natural aging process.

How did they calculate the maximum life expectancy of a human being?

The group that carried out the research is part of the company Gero, based in Singapore. They examined the rate of aging of people living in the United States, United Kingdom and Russia. The scientists’ study was published in Nature Communications.

When observing steps taken or changes in blood cell counts, as age increases, the body decreases these numbers at a predictable rate. Thus, between the ages of 120 and 150, the body’s natural resilience fails completely and leads the individual to death.

Even managing to reach the number, scientists point to an even more important issue than longevity. Experts argue that, instead of asking how long a person can live, we need to think about how long it is possible to lead a healthy life.

“Other things, like quality of life, start to matter more and more as people experience their loss,” said Heather Whitson, director of the Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development at Duke University.

While 150 years is just a maximum life expectancy for humans, the oldest person on record was Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment. She was born in 1875 and died in 1997, at 122 years of age. The oldest living person is Japanese woman Kane Tanaka, aged 118, born in 1903.