Humans can live up to 150 years!4 min read

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The oldest person living on the planet right now is Kane Tanaka from Japan, who is 118 years old. However, she’s still young, at least based on new research that suggests that humans can live up to 150 years! 

The catch though, according to the study, is that we can only reach 150 if we avoid “stressors“. The ‘loss of resilience‘ has been found to be the reason for death in absence of other obvious reasons, like murder, cancer or fatal accidents. 

According to the Scientific American, three large groups from the US, UK and Russia were a part of a study that analysed the pace of ageing. It was conducted by Gero, a Singapore-based company in partnership with Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in New York. The results of the study were published in Nature Communications.

Resilience is the body’s capacity to recover quickly from difficulties. The study found that an 80-year-old individual might take three times longer to recover from stressors as compared to a 40-year-old person. After a body goes through a stressful event like a disease, accident, etc, the rate of recovery was found to worsen with age, and the time it takes to recover gets longer and longer. For a 40-year-old, healthy adult, the rate of recovery is around two weeks, but it takes an 80-year-old adult around six weeks on average to recover.

The research estimates that somewhere between the ages of 120 years to 150 years, human resilience is completely gone. This is observed even in people who do not have any major illnesses. The researchers believe that if we want to increase our life span, changes need to be made in our resilience factor and in the ageing process. 

“The investigation shows that recovery rate is an important signature of ageing that can guide the development of drugs to slow the process and extend healthspan,” said David Sinclair, Harvard Medical School professor of genetics.

Animals that outlive humans

Some animals, like tortoises, live longer than humans. However, due to reasons such as habitat destruction, poaching, bad weather conditions, predators, etc, they don’t usually reach their maximum age limits. Here are some of them:

• Macaws – They can live up to 60-80 years. 
• African Elephant – The largest mammals on Earth can live up to 80 years! 
• Longfin Eel – Longfin eels typically live up to 60 years old. 
• Galapagos Giant Tortoise – These reptiles can live to be well over 100, with the oldest known to be 152! 
• Red Sea Urchin – Red sea urchins are believed to be almost immortal and are known to live for over 200 years with no signs of ageing!
• Koi Fish – The average lifespan for Japanese Koi is around 40 years but they can live a lot longer if kept in the right conditions. One particular koi named Hanako was 226!
• Bowhead Whale – Bowhead whales can live for over 200 years, which is longer than any other mammal.
• Greenland Shark – Greenland sharks live for between 300 and 500 years and are the longest-living vertebrate.
• Ocean Quahog – Ocean Quahogs are clams with long life. Many will live up to 400 years. The oldest one was 507 years old!

Now that we’ve listed out the names of these long-living animals, can you solve the jigsaw below of one of these fascinating creatures?

Sources: Live Science, Firstpost, One Kind Planet