«Of course there are limits to
human lifespan if you don't interfere,» says Richard Faragher, a biogerontologist at the University of Brighton, UK.
Not exact matches
Hypothetically,
if the drug treatment did add 35 percent to the
lifespan of
humans, it would bring average life expectancy to between 95 and 100 years.
«
If caloric restriction does not extend
human lifespan, we're an exception on the planet,» says gerontologist David Sinclair of Harvard University.
«
If we could do that with humansshortly after birth, before the mutations have a chance to creep in, «he says, «we could potentially add a hundred years to the
human lifespan.»
If it wasn't possible to extend the maximum
lifespan in
humans, says Faragher, «this would make us different from every other experimental species we've tried».
If a journey to another star takes longer than one
human lifespan, generations may be born and die in space, leaving their descendants to complete the mission.
Although of course there are a number of caveats since mice can be cured from cancer at higher rates, they don't suffer from some of our diseases, they are sensitive to being handled (
if grabbing them can shorten their
lifespan through stress, the mouse version of standard
human medical care may do the same), so I guess that increases in maximum
lifespan are indeed the only reliable indicator that an intervention is impacting age - related mortality.
Even
if the C. elegans model were not to capture a putative connection between Parkinson's disease and aging in
humans, it serves as an eloquent signal that a clear distinction needs to be maintained between age - dependence (which is mere time - dependence) and aging - dependence (which is a dependence on the process that determines
lifespan).
Recently, Harris asserted that all biomedical scientists aim to extend the
human lifespan, and that they have a moral duty to work toward this end, even
if it means creating beings that live forever.
If you look past their short
lifespans, you would find that they lived their lives with more zest and vitality than the average
human today.
Cats have a shorter
lifespan than
humans (the record age for a cat is 36 years) although most owners would like to think their cat is immortal, especially
if it is hale and hearty in its late teens.
«However,
if successful, we then should observe an incremental rise in mean values of height,
lifespan and most
human biomarkers.