While Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and solitary scientists toil away at pushing the boundaries of human mortality, a dose of reality was recently interjected into the ongoing conversations about how long humans can live. A multi-national team of scientists just published findings that conclude that aging continues to be a relatively fixed concept in the human species. Even though life spans are increasing, the reality is that we haven’t slowed down what appear to be hard-wired limits on how long humans can live. The study was published in Nature Communications.

Essentially, human life spans have increased about 3 months/year since the mid-1800s, and no doubt people are living longer today than they did in previous generations. However, much of the progress we’ve gained has more to do with eliminating deaths among younger individuals rather than pushing the boundaries of human mortality. More people are living longer but the boundaries of life expectancy in human beings have been largely unchanged. As one expert exclaimed, “This study suggests that evolutionary biology trumps everything and, so far, medical advances have been unable to beat those biological constraints.” However, giving hope to those who continue to pursue a longer human lifespan, the researchers did also make clear that, “It remains to be seen if future advances in medicine can overcome the biological constraints…and achieve what evolution has not.”

And therein lies hope for us all. Just because biology may currently be fixed- and success in extending the human life span may be a generation away- we do already know through advances in science and medicine that in individuals, rather than the species as a whole, there are ways to extend both your “healthspan” and your life span and that biology and genetics are not necessarily your destiny. In many developed countries, the average life span is around 80 years, though we also know that there are a growing number of individuals who live well beyond that number. Furthermore, experts agree that your genetic makeup is only partially responsible for how long you live (perhaps 30% responsible) and that the rest is very much determined by the usual list of lifestyle behaviors that significantly impact our health and well-being (diet, exercise, sleep, smoking, etc.). In that regard, it’s useful then to reacquaint yourself with the work and insights that arise from studying Blue Zone geographic areas. As we’ve previously discussed on agebuzz, Blue Zones are distinct geographic communities around the world where residents routinely live to be centenarians and where diet, exercise, sleep, socialization, and other lifestyle habits have been studied to better learn what these communities are doing to foster and support healthy aging and longer lives. In fact, there are communities now that have taken on the project of adopting many of the lifestyle behaviors associated with Blue Zones and there are even now travel and tourism opportunities to visit these sites and take away ideas and behaviors to get yourself on a path to a longer and healthier life.

For a shortcut to the Blue Zones success, you may want to take a look at some recent posts from the website Well + Good, which highlight the Blue Zone behaviors to adopt at sunrise and sunset. For example, in the morning it’s suggested you find your ikigai to motivate you out of bed, along with your healthy breakfast and cup of coffee, and in the evening, you need to “downshift” your mind, and develop a consistent and full night’s sleep schedule (and skip the late evening snacks) to prepare you for a healthy day to follow. While these habits may not ultimately push the biological boundaries of how long you can live, they will help ensure that the days that remain are healthier and of higher quality than you might have otherwise experienced.