The first human to be able to live past 150 years old has already been born, an expert has claimed. Currently, the world's oldest human being is 118 years and 137 days old.
Lucile Randon lives in France and was born in February 1904. However, an expert in computational biology has claimed that this record could be smashed in just a few generations.
Dr Andrew Steele, the author of a new book on longevity and living longer, said that there is no reason why a human could not actually live to the ripe old age of 200, The Daily Star reports. He said: “I don't think there is any kind of absolute cap on how long we can live.
"Studies come out every few years that propose some kind of fundamental limit on human lifespan, but they're always missing one crucial piece: we've never tried treating the ageing process before. I can't see physical or biological reason why people couldn't live to 200 — the challenge is whether we've can develop the biomedical science to make it possible.”
Dr Steele did not, however, explain how that could happen – something he has probably kept for his new book Ageless: The New Science of Getting Older Without Getting Old.
So far, the oldest ever recorded person was Jeanne Calment, who was born in February 1875. She died in August 1997 at the impressive age of 122 years and 164 days.
The oldest verified male was Jiroemon Kimura, who died in 2013 having been born in 1897.
Another expert, Dr Peter Fedichev - a Russian molecular physicist who runs a biomedical AI firm Gero - said: “Such life extension would increase their lifespan past the end of their health span and thus reduce their quality of life.
“Only addressing the root causes of ageing may help bring humans closer to negligibly senescent animals, intercept aging and increase our productive lifespan by a hundred years or more.”
Dr Steele agreed, and added: “'Tackling the hallmarks of ageing can affect the whole ageing process, from disease risk to the cosmetic stuff, and can do so preventatively — this is the holy grail of anti-ageing medicine.”
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