“I think we’re in striking distance of keeping people so healthy that at 90 they’ll carry on waking up in the same physical state as they were at the age of 30, and their probability of not waking up one morning will be no higher than it was at the age of 30.” — Aubrey de Grey (biomedical gerontologist)

Re-read the above quote and let it sink in. How cool would that be?

Longevity and the Human Body

The human body has been studied extensively for centuries. Grave-robbed bodies dissected in laboratories. Leonardo da Vinci carved into the newly deceased and drew his findings.

Diseases have been analysed. Cures have been sought. Average lifespans have been extended.

When defining maximum human lifespan today, many scientists default to the Hayflick Limit — the number of times a normal human cell population can divide until cell division stops. This is thought to be 120 years.

Some researchers believe that the first human who will live to be 200 years old is already living.

Those in the know say we are in the infancy of the science of longevity — the extension of human life.

We do not have the technology today to extend human life to 200 and beyond. But the possibility may not be as far off as it sounds. Companies such as Google are investing billions of dollars in longevity research. Studying telomere lengthening, developing nanorobotics, stem cells, and tissue regeneration will all contribute to unlocking some of the secrets to living a longer life.

Human lifespan will increase significantly in the next 100 years. We will see new technologies able to reverse some types of aging in the next 20 to 30 years. While that may not take us babyboomers to the big 2-0-0, there certainly is reason to incorporate an anti-aging lifestyle to just maybe catch an extra 10 to 20 years of quality, healthy living.