Longevity

How long can humans live? It’s a question that’s engaged scientific minds for centuries, especially as earlier public health advances and now medical and technological breakthroughs continue to push the boundaries of the human lifespan. A recent piece in The Conversation noted that since the 1950s, there’s been a significant…

The quest for immortality has always been a part of the human condition, even if never a realistic possibility. Yet, in today’s climate of significant medical and technological breakthroughs, we are certainly pushing the boundaries of the average human life span. Just in the last 2 centuries the average life…

Some of us have been very lucky in our lives: we’ve found a life partner, nurtured a healthy family and maybe even found our life’s “purpose”- be it work, religion, volunteering or some other passion. And while luck and good timing may play a large role in these efforts, new…

While it’s easy to come up with excuses not to exercise, those reasons generally don’t hold up when it comes to walking. It’s cheap, it’s easy and it’s something you’ve been doing since your toddler days. So unless you have a disability that prevents you from walking, there’s little reason…

It’s been said that grandmothers “are wonderful mothers with lots of practice.” But since most species don’t live long beyond their reproductive years, it’s curious that older women often live decades beyond menopause. Now, two new studies out of Finland lend credence to the evolutionary purpose of older women for the well-being…

Perhaps more remarkable than just their stories of surviving the Holocaust, it turns out that Holocaust survivors in Israel are averaging a life span seven years longer than their native-born peers. In a new study published in JAMA, researchers have found that while survivors have higher rates of chronic illness…