Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.
– Mark Twain, American author
How long do you want to live? Forever?
According to a new research, humans can probably live to at least 130, and possibly well beyond.
The outer limit of the human lifespan has long been hotly debated with recent studies making the case we could live up to 150 years, or arguing that there is no maximum theoretical age for humans.
The new research, published recently in the Royal Society Open Science journal, analyses new data on supercentenarians — people aged 110 or more — and semi-centenarians, aged 105 or more.
While the risk of death generally increases throughout our lifetime, the researchers’ analysis shows that risk eventually plateaus and remains constant at approximately 50-50.
Anthony Davison, a professor of statistics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne led the research.
The first data set the team studied was newly released materials from the International Database on Longevity, which covered more than 1,100 supercentenarians from 13 countries.
The second was from Italy on every person who was at least 105 between January 2009 and December 2015. The work involved extrapolating from existing data.
However, just because humans can theoretically reach 130 and beyond, doesn’t mean we’re likely to see it anytime soon, according to Davison.
He explained that the analysis was based on people who had already achieved the relatively rare feat of making it to well over 100.
“And even at age 110, your chances of making it to 130 are about one in a million … not impossible but very unlikely,” he said
He was of the opinion that we could see people reaching 130 within the century as more people made it to supercentenarian status, increasing the chances of one becoming that one in a million.
He pointed out that in the absence of major medical and social advances, ages much over this were unlikely ever to be observed.
Currently, the oldest person on record is Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997 at the confirmed age of 122.
Do you know that Japan has the highest life expectancy in the world and that the Nagano region has the longest life expectancy in Japan?
A healthy diet, regular physical activity, extended work years and aggressive government intervention have contributed to the high life expectancy in Nagano.
Women in the Japanese prefecture can expect to live an average of 87.2 years while men can look forward to living 80.9 years.
Nagano offers unique lessons for those who want to live not only longer but healthy lives. The key is not just to live longer, but to stay healthy longer.
Over the years, many polls have been conducted in various countries on why people want to live longer and how long they want to live.
Living longer means you can stay with your family longer and enjoy a happy later life. It also means you get to achieve most if not all your goals in life.
You may want to live longer if you are healthy and are not riddled with body pains every day and you are independent and mobile.
But what is the point of living longer if you outlive your family and heirs and you are bedridden, lonely, are broke and hungry every day?
Some people simply live longer than others because they have the right genes. Studies have found that a long lifespan may be linked to genetics.
When talking about longevity, I cannot help recalling two stories. One is the story of Rip Van Winkle, first published in 1819. It follows a Dutch-American villager in colonial America named Rip Van Winkle who meets mysterious Dutchmen, imbibes their liquor and falls asleep in the Catskill Mountains. He awakes 20 years later to a very changed world, having missed the American Revolution.
Another story is about an old 8th century Japanese legend about Urashima Taro. In the story Urashima is rewarded with long life, for rescuing a small turtle, who turns out to be the daughter of the Emperor of the Sea.
Urashima is taken to a palace beneath the ocean, where he spends a few days. The emperor’s daughter gives Urashima a box to take home with him but makes him promise not to open it.
When he returns to his native land, he discovers that 300 years have passed, and that his family and friends are long dead. In his sadness, Urashima opens the box, which contains his old age and immediately turns into a crane.
For those who long to live past 130, they can plan but remember, that in the end, God decides.
We must remember that some people don’t live past their first birthday. Hence, we must be grateful we have lived for as long as we have and that every morning, we get to see another brand-new day.
At the end of the day, it is not how long we live that matters but how well we live.
I’d like to conclude this week’s column by quoting former American actress, Loretta Young, who died in 2000. She once said, “If we have lived our lives fully and well and have accomplished, at least in part, the things we were put here to do, we should be prepared.”
So dear friends, let us not wish that we live up to 130 but let’s pray for a happy, full and healthy life until we bid Mother Earth goodbye.
