Humans Could Soon Live To 140 Years Old And Beyond

A recent study shows the lifespan of humans could soon reach well over a century.

Researchers have challenged the idea that there is a 'maximum limit' to human life as we know it and found that people may one day end up living to a staggering 120 years old and beyond.

But what is too old for humans to live really?

How old is too old? Credit: RODNAE Productions / Pexels

The world’s oldest recorded person to have ever lived, Jean Louise Calment, died at the grand old age of 122 back in 1997.

Since then no other person has been to fill this quota of longest life within the last 25 years.

Even though many people believe that humans have reached their biological limit but one recent study has made quite shocking assumptions. 

Conducted by the University of Georgia, the study has explored the common belief with David McCarthy, an assistant professor of insurance and real estate at the university, explaining otherwise.

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Published in the journal PLOS One, the new study analyzed mortality rates of older people in 19 different countries and investigated how the increase in mortality rates by age differs between cohorts born in different years.

Some of the countries included the US, the UK, Australia, Canada, and France.

The data showed that particular birth year groups tended to live longer than the other cohorts.

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McCarthy wrote:

"There are big generational differences these reports often obscure. In the US, for instance, mortality probabilities have indeed risen for people of middle age and younger."

"But in recent decades," he continued, "mortality probabilities of older people in the US have been improving faster than they have at any time since the decade following the introduction of Medicare."

Though the researchers couldn't point out the real reason behind this, McCarthy and his team theorized that an increase in public health as well as the rapidly-advancing medical technology may have something to do with it.

The researchers concluded: "As newer generations reach these advanced ages, we can expect that longevity records will indeed be surpassed”.

"If there is a maximum limit to the human lifespan, we are not yet approaching it," they added.

While the idea of eternal life may at one point have sounded pretty cool - it's clear that the majority of people were not on board with the 'horror' of living over an entire century - and then some.