While there are generally three schools of thought around this topic, it’s interesting to explore the idea that our lifespans could be unlimited if we care for our bodies in a certain way. At the moment, there’s limited data to depict the likelihood of living past the age 110, but one study has found that your chance of death actually plateaus at that age. Patrick explains the researchers used “extreme value theory,” which is a field of statistics focused on predicting incredibly rare events. According to the research, while your chances of dying (obviously) increase with age, they level out at 110, and your odds of living to the next year lands at about 47 percent. She likens this to flipping a coin.
“In the other study, researchers investigated whether people will likely surpass 120 years of age (the current records), or even older, in the next century,” Patrick explains in her newsletter. “Their findings suggested that the current records will likely be broken in the next 80 years or so, but it’s unlikely that anyone will live beyond 135 years.”
Interestingly, in 110 to 115 year olds, there was no statistically significant differences in sex, genetics, diet, and general lifestyle. Of course, the sample size of these findings is quite small (566 lifespans were studied and only nine lived to the age of 115) so only time will really tell if we can continue to increase the average age.
