In terms of genetics, has life span increased for humans?

Question

I know humans live longer by means medicine. Human aging is determined in large part to genes.

Removing enviromental factors. We also want to remove medicine and social economic factors too. Genes play a big part in aging. Some turtles live to be over 100 yrs old. Some bugs only live a month. Can humans live longer than 1000 yrs ago?

Answer 1

Life span has been increasing in the last 50 years because medicine and living conditions have improved.
Our genes are the true determinants of how long can our body live. Genes change slowly and it could take thousands of years for a change in a gene to affect our aging process.

Answer 2

I feel genes are ever evovling to the world around them. I think that on a genetic level, in perhaps another couple of decades, the human gene can be programmed to live longer on its own, without medicine. BUT, and that is a very big BUT, medicine can also damage the human gene, by enabling it to actually evovle in its normal state. Rather we want to admit it or not bacteria and viruses have a huge impact on how our genes evovle and adopt.

I think as far as genes and modern medicine are concerned, our life spans will continue to be at the mercy of medicine and research.

Staying healthy by diet and exercise is one of the best ways to train your genes to pass on longevity to your offspring. It also sets a good example to your offspring that they should do the same!

It is very complicated, but there are cases where no matter how many salads you munch and no matter how many miles you jog, your heart will stop beating at a certain time or cancer will prevail.

In other words, your question can not yet be determined by current knowledge. Nor, can current technology really change much as to the gene factor. We are all still at the mercy of chance.

Good Luck

Answer 3

Actually, no, aging for the most part in humans is NOT determined by genetics....it is enviornmental. Even recently newspaper articles have indicated that enviornmental elements increase/decrease aging: (More stuff in Discovery Magazine, and Scientific American...) Fat people die sooner, black american men die sooner, the wealthy tend to live longer, the poor die sooner, native american men tend to die sooner. Why?

Those people morbidly obese put stress on their cardio-vascular systems, leading to heart attacks, diabetes and those related diseases shorten their lives. Black american men lead for the most part more dangerous lives, native Americans have diabetes problems as well as sever alcohol problems, and the extremely poor get a bad start in life with improper nutrician that affects them from that time onward, not only physicially, but with lower IQ levels as well. The brain was not properly nouristed during prime times in its development...... Poor nutrition will stunt growth -- Richard II of England was only 5'2", and this was a common height in Medieval times. Wealthy Egyptians of ancient times lived easily into their 60's, their peasant counterparts with poorer nutrition and physically demanding life styles lived only into their 30's (Poor people tended to die of overwhelming infections that they got from injuries -- injuries that the wealthy usually were not subjected to. In Third World countries, they die these ways today as well...) There certainly does appear to be an absolute limit of now many times a cell can divide (google telomeres hope that's the correct spelling), and therefore how long someone will live. Certainly there are families that have vascular diseases that are prevalent, or certain cancers that they all seem to get. But apart from those exceptions, life span is indeed something that one can extend somewhat by life-style changes ----by controlling weight, alcohol intake, and diet, and certainly with medications that tend to cure infections, good dental health, and lowering chlorestol levels

Answer 4

Doesn't look like it. Mostly people have just not been dying of awful stuff thay we don't worry about anymore---- in the better neighborhoods.