Science says people will live past 120 in this century; here’s how

The person with the longest lifespan on record was a French woman named Jeanne Calment; she lived to be 122 years and 164 days old. Today, the world’s oldest living person is 118-year-old Kane Tanaka of Japan.

While you may not fare so well, the likelihood of living to 110 or older in the next 80 years has increased, according to a scientific paper published last month in Demographic Research, a science journal published by the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Germany.

The paper, written by scientists from the University of Washington, used mathematically modeled data provided by the International Database on Longevity (IDL). 

Using IDL data collected from 13 countries, including the US, the researchers tracked the extreme longevity of centenarians (people 100 to 110 years old) and supercentenarians (people more than 110 years old).

According to the IDL, as of August 2017, it had “records on 1,304 validated supercentenarians and 18,590 semi-supercentenarians from 15 countries.”

The first person in its verified database who lived to age 110 was born in 1852 and died in 1962 in Quebec, while the last person in its database to live to 110 was born in 1906 and reached that milestone in 2016. 

Breaking longevity records

Michael Pearce, one of the study’s authors and a PhD student at the University of Washington, believes it’s “extremely likely” someone will break Calment’s longevity record by the end of this century.

Utilizing Bayesian analysis, a statistical theory that measures the probability of a future event, the study’s authors concluded: 

• There is a greater than 99% probability that the current longevity record of 122 years will be broken by 2100.
  
  
• The probability that at least one person will live to 126 in the next century is 89%.
  
  
• The likelihood that at least one person will live to 128 over the same period is 44%.
  
  
• There is a 13% chance that at least one person will live to 130 in the next 100 years. 

What’s causing longer lifespans? 

The many advances in education, science, public health, medicine and the biology of aging in recent years may all be contributing to longer lifespans. 

These advances are so numerous, some scientists believe a “cure” for aging will be discovered in the not-too-distant future. 

In pursuit of this goal, scientists are zeroing in on “senescent cells,” aging cells that stop dividing and making new cells. Instead, they linger, releasing chemicals that are unhelpful to the functioning of normal cells and cause inflammation. While senescent cells increase with age, recent experiments have shown they can be removed from mice in laboratory settings, which could one day lead to treatments that offer longer lifespans to humans. 

Scientist Andrew Steele, the author of “Ageless: The New Science of Getting Older Without Getting Old,” believes it’s possible that some who are alive today could live to be 120 or older within the next 100 years. 

“I think there’s the potential for far more exciting breakthroughs by targeting the aging process rather than particular diseases,” Steele told CNBC Make it.

Other studies on aging are ongoing. One such study published in May examined subjects’ blood to search for telltale biological markers of aging. The researchers who conducted this study are so encouraged by their findings, they believe it may be possible for disease-free humans who live in stress-free environments to live for up to 150 years.

Steps you can take to increase the odds of living a longer life

Dan Buettner, a National Geographic Fellow and journalist, believes there are some healthy habits that can increase the likelihood of longevity. These habits include: 

• Having at least three close friends who you can count on for emotional support.
  
  
• A daily walking routine.
  
  
• Taking a 20-minute nap five days a week.

In addition, a 2018 Harvard study found that the following five habits increased life expectancy by up to 10 years: 

• Eating a high-quality healthy diet
  
  
• 30 minutes (or more) a day of moderate to vigorous physical activity
  
  
• Maintaining a healthy body weight
  
  
• Avoiding large amounts of alcohol
  
  
• Not smoking

Other current research indicates that eating two servings of fruit and three servings of vegetables a day correlates with lower death rates.