You cannot live forever: Ageing is unstoppable
We probably cannot slow the rate at which we get older, because of biological constraints, an unprecedented study of lifespan statistics in human and non-human primates has confirmed.
The study set out to test the ‘invariant rate of ageing’ hypothesis, which says that a species has a relatively fixed rate of ageing from adulthood. An international collaboration of scientists from 14 different countries, including José Manuel Aburto from Oxford’s Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science, analysed age-specific birth and death data spanning centuries and continents.
Led by Fernando Colchero, University of Southern Denmark and Susan Alberts, Duke University, North Carolina, the study was a huge endeavour requiring monitoring wild populations of primates over several decades.
Our findings support the theory that, rather than slowing down death, more people are living much longer due to a reduction in mortality at younger ages...This suggests that biological, rather than environmental factors, ultimately control longevity...a steep rise in death rates, as years advance into old age, is clear to see in all species
