What is preventing us from living till 200 years old ?

Question

if we live a healthy life, no ciggie, no bad food, no pollution but yet still we max only about 100 - 110.

what is it that prevent us ? deteriorating organs ? our body ? our mind ?

Answer 1

Wow there are some really interesting answers people are submitting for this.

As a Doctor in Residency I can tell you for a fact that what is preventing us from living till 200 or even to 900 (Like in the Bible as one answer got into) is the diminished production of hormones mainly from our Pituitary and Thyroid glands.

Your pituitary gland produces dozens of hormones that regulate your bodies natural functions. When we are young and still growing our glands are over active. Cellular mitosis is the biological function of a cell dividing into two exact copies of itself. This process is why we grow as children. When we get older the hormone from our gland diminishes slowly down causing our cell division rate to diminish as well. This is why an 80 year old looks the way they do versus when they were 20. Their cells aren't dividing and replacing lost ones at the same rate.

Answer 2

Little things can eventually catch up with you--take osteopenia (low bone density) for instance. Caused by not enough calcium when young & no treatment. If the bones thin out and you fall and break a hip, suddenly you're vulnerable to infections from surgery, deadly blood clots in the lungs, etc. My point is that even "little things" can kill you.

Pneumonia from not moving is a biggie for older people (this can happen after a minor setback which reduces mobility temporarily).

Some people think that apoptosis(cell death) is responsible--eventually all cells die, and there are certain cells the body does not normally make again automatically once they're gone.

So to answer your questions, I think that for the healthy older people, it is usually a series of unfortunate events that leads to a gradual decline, and finally there is some straw that breaks the camel's back.

Answer 3

Well, I didn't want to get into the Bible, but did you know that there were people who lived to be 900 years old? I'm wondering what the secret there was. Probably eating 'fresh meat' just killed, and fruit and veggies...just picked. No additives, no preservatives...no growth hormones.

My uncle was a farmer and lived to 96...and one of my aunts was 101. She was very fussy about what she ate. Nothing from the store that was frozen. Amish chickens only...fresh fruits and veggies that she would blanch and freeze herself.

From what I hear, 'juicing' is really the best answer. ALL the berry family as 'total antioxidants'...fresh veggies such as tomatoes, cucumbers, broccoli and the list goes on.

Myself, I'm budgeting for the Jack La Lain Juicer. It seems to have the best quality to it. I want everything fresh, no frozen, not canned. I think the better we treat our bodies, the longer we'll live. My aunt had the right idea. She would never eat soup out of a can, either. Always 'fresh, home made' from the best of the best. I want to follow her example.

Answer 4

Yes, deteriorating organs and so on. We have evolved the means to maintain the body up to a certain length of time, to counteract the deterioration that naturally occurs.

But there is no reason, from an evolutionary standpoint, for this system of preservation to be refined for longer life. We reproduce, the species continues, and afterwards we as individuals can be discarded.

If there were any substantial evolutionary advantage to our having a longer life, and if it was possible for our bodies to be "engineered" for it, we would likely evolve that capability.

if however the evolutionary advantage was gained by having us live shorter lives (by thus increasing the rate of mutation for example), we would likely evolve shorter lives.

Evolution doesn't proceed in accordance with our individual wishes. We likely live about as long as we do because, as a species, this is about the optimal life span for us to ensure procreation of the species, within the practical limits of our biological "engineering."

Answer 5

At the end of our DNA strands are little hairs called "telemeres". Telemeres wear down through the years and when they are worn down to the nubs, we die. BUT, what if we found out that our telemeres are naturally supposed to continue to grow, sort of like a hair? AND, what if we found out that a virus had made a living out of locking down that telemere growth at the base where it grows out of the DNA end, artificially shortening our lives to about 100 years? AND, what if we were to kill that beastie and began to live as long as we are really supposed to? Wouldn't that be something, huh? It's for real. Plan on living at least 200 -300 years as a young, healthy person. Then, when you get over the shock of getting to live so much longer and so healthily, you'll be ready to hear how long we REALLY are naturally supposed to live. : )

Answer 6

Gravity

Answer 7

Our bodies are not meant to live that long.

Answer 8

"the pnuishment for your sins will be death."