There’s no certainty about how long you’re going to live for, but scientists do think they know just how long we might be able to stretch it to.
Okay, so there are people who can try to live for as long as possible through uber expensive means like biohacker Bryan Johnson, but the rest of us without money might be hard pressed.
However, statisticians at Tilburg and Rotterdam's Erasmus universities, have determined the 'maximum' age humans can live to through a study of 75,000 deceased people, and the results are interesting.
Researchers studied the age of the subjects when they died in the three decades leading up to 2017, hoping to find out how long a person could live if they took care of themselves.
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This includes not dying of illnesses, or any other circumstance.
Basically, dying of old age and natural causes was the goal.
What did researchers find?
The researchers were able to find that a person's maximum lifespan typically comes to a stop in their nineties.
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While there are those who manage to live until 100, it’s certainly not without struggle.
For those who are able to pass this centurion milestone and are healthy, you’d be glad to know that a human could potentially live to 115 years old maximum.
If you’re a woman, there’s also even better news as the research found that women could live to 115.7 years, while men could hope to reach 114.1 years old.
Professor John Einmahl, one of the three scientists conducting the study explained more about the findings.
He told AFP: "On average, people live longer, but the very oldest among us have not gotten older over the last thirty years.
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"There is certainly some kind of a wall here. Of course the average life expectancy has increased. Nevertheless, the maximum ceiling itself hasn't changed."
Why can you not live any longer than 115?
Even though research suggested that 115 years is the maximum age people can reach and it’s unlikely that anyone could live beyond that, Einmahl shared that there have been instances of people living beyond these suggested maximum lifespans.
The oldest man verified by the Guinness World Records (GWR) was a Japanese man named Jiroemon Kimura, who lived to 116 years old.
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In another case, French nun Sister André was 118 when she died.
In September 2024, Guinness World Records awarded Japan’s Tomiko Itooka as the current oldest living person, who is now more than 116 years old.
So, there’s going to be some people who defy all odds.
The previous world's oldest person, a Spanish woman named Maria Branyas Morera, died in August at the age of 117, leaving Tomiko to take home the title.
In Tomiko’s case, her breakfast of a Japanese dairy drink Calpais and banana a day might be something I can get on board with if it means that I can live to her age without being struck down by an illness.
Britt Jones