Below are two excerpts from a very interesting article, which you can read here.
“Several aging experts suggest within a short time it may be possible to increase life expectancy by decades. Even without new discoveries, the United Nations now estimates life expectancy over the next century will approach 100 years for women and a few less for men. According to the most recent census (2010) the U.S. centenarian population has grown 65.8 percent over the past three decades, from 32,194 hundred-year-olds in 1980 to 53,364 centenarians in 2010. In contrast, the total population has increased only 36.3 percent over the same time period. Most aging experts agree that, on average, our bodies are biologically capable of successfully functioning to 100 ±5 years or so.”
“Believe it or not, some carefully done research shows genes account at best, for only about 15-30 percent of lifespan. This estimate derives from the famous Danish twin study (published in 1996). Researchers studied some 2,872 pairs of Danish twins born between 1870 and 1900—a group selected because by now their life “experiment” has run its course—and found lifespan is only “moderately heritable,” estimated to be about 15-30 percent at the most! (In fairness, some gerontologists think those who live to 100 years or older might prove an exception to the rule. They posit centenarians owe their good fortune to their inheritance of a small number of powerfully acting longevity genes, variants that are uncommon in the general population but that have dramatic life-extending effects at older ages.)”
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