Immortality? Unless you’re a vampire like Pharrell Williams, living longer than 122 is not in the books for anyone – and this is according to science.

You see, the oldest human to ever live died at the age of 122, and that was some 20 years ago. Since then, an analysis of global demographic data suggested that this may be the maximum age, and that it’s extremely unlikely anyone will live beyond it.

Watch someone celebrate their 123 birthday soon.

Here’s the deal, according to Gizmodo:

In a new study published in Nature, molecular geneticist Jan Vijg and his team from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx make the case that human lifespan has a natural limit, and that we’ll probably never exceed this maximum bound.

As this study points out, the benefits wrought by interventions, and all the things we do to stay vibrant and healthy, only go so far. Our bodies, no matter what we do, eventually become worn out and expire.

Vijg and his colleagues took a look at the Human Mortality Database, a publicly available research tool that provides global mortality and population statistics to researchers, students, and others interested in human longevity.

The researchers discovered that jumps in survival rates reached a plateau around 1980. A follow-up analysis of data from the International Database on Longevity, which included demographic statistics from developed nations like the US, UK, France, and Japan, showed that the longest lived people haven’t been getting any older since the time of [Jeanne Louise] Calment’s death in 1997 [at the age of 122].

Taken together, the researchers say this reveals a natural limit to longevity.

While scientists have been aware of this since the 90s, they suggest that in no way should research into extended lifespan stop, and that the perfection of a healthy life be of utmost importance.

Even if we can’t live forever, we should try be as mobile and dependent as we can for as long as possible.

Gozmodo has a whole breakdown of research in this field, so read HERE to get the full debate.

[source:gizmodo]