Researchers Put Cap of 85 Years on Average Human Life Expectancy

Humans may soon expect an average lifetime of 85 years, but probably not much more, even if medical science defeats all of the major killer diseases, researchers said today.

An average life expectancy of four score and five may be the upper limit because the human body by then is slowly deteriorating from a cascade of aging effects, University of Chicago researcher S. Jay Olshansky said. And science, he said, has yet to find a way to overcome this apparent design of nature.

“Even if we found a cure for most fatal diseases, such as heart disease and cancer, the natural degeneration of the body puts a cap of about 85 years on the average age of death,” Olshansky and two co-authors report in the current issue of the journal Science.

Other experts on human aging, however, strongly disagree.

“If we keep making progress as we have made in the past, then a baby born today can expect to live 100 years,” said James Vaupel of the University of Minnesota. “There may well be some biological barriers, but we are spending a lot of money on biomedical research and the sciences are poised to make some really significant breakthroughs.”