From a scientific point of view, how old can a person live at most?

December 16, 2021, is an unusual day because Alimihan, one of the oldest people in the world, passed away with a smile on this day.

Alimihan Seyiti, female, was born on June 25, 1886 in Paikunwuyila Village, Kumuxilik Township, Shule County, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and died on December 16, 2021. In 1886, it was still the end of the Qing Dynasty, and the Sino-Japanese War had not yet started. From birth to death, spanning three centuries, she is not only one of the oldest people in China, but also one of the oldest people in the world.

In addition to this old man, Luo Mezhen from Bama County, Guangxi, my country is also one of the oldest people in the world. It is said that Luo Mezhen was born in 1885 and died in 2013. She lived to be nearly 128 years old.

If we don't count the number of centenarians, Shule County, where Alimihan Seyiti lived before his death, can also be considered a longevity town in China. It is reported that there are more than 20,000 people in the county, but there are 8 centenarians. According to international regulations on longevity towns, an average of 75 centenarians per 1 million people can be called a longevity town. Shule County has exceeded the international standard for longevity towns. There are actually quite a few longevity towns in China, and Bama in Guangxi is relatively famous.

Whether it is the ancient emperors or ordinary people, most people want to live long, and even dream of immortality. But life and death are a process that everyone and every life must go through. When humans have not completely solved the mystery of life, death is inevitable.

In ancient times, due to poor living environment, especially the low level of medical technology, people's average life expectancy was generally not high. Living to the age of sixty or seventy, or even sixty or seventy years old, was considered a long life.

Since entering modern society, human life expectancy has been increasing. The average life expectancy in my country reached 76.34 years in 2015. Nowadays, if you are not in your 80s or 90s, you can hardly be considered a long-lived person. However, there are still very few people who live to be 100 years old.

In nature, one of the longest-lived animals is the tortoise, which can live for hundreds of years.

So from a scientific point of view, how old can a person live at most?

Humans are made up of cells. Modern biological theory believes that the fundamental reason why humans age and die is the aging and death of cells. The human body is like a ship. Only by replacing the planks and repairing them from time to time can it avoid sinking at sea. The damaged cells in the human body also need to be constantly updated in this way. Cells replicate themselves by dividing, but the number of cell divisions is limited. Each time a cell divides, the telomeres at the ends of the chromosomes, the genetic material in the cell, become shorter.

In other words, from a scientific point of view, the maximum life span of human beings has long been determined. According to statistics on the world's centenarians, it is almost impossible for a person to live longer than 150 years.

Among these centenarians, there is a big characteristic: most of them are women. It seems that the average life expectancy of women is indeed longer than that of men.

There are many people who lived long lives in history, but some of them may be recorded incorrectly. The longest-lived person in Chinese history, Chen Jun (881-1324), lived to be 443 years old, but this is probably just a legend like Zhang Sanfeng.

In modern times, the oldest person in recorded world history is said to be Mba Godo (formerly known as Maba Goso) who lived in Indonesia. According to legend, he was born in 1870 and died in 2016. He lived to be 146 years old, which is close to the maximum lifespan of a human.

Longevity is the wish of almost everyone, and longevity is affected by many factors. Scientific research shows that human life span depends on many factors, including genetics, social factors, medical conditions, climate environment, living habits, etc.

However, in order to break the physiological limit on lifespan, fundamental changes must be made. There are two main directions: either starting from the genetic perspective or making consciousness immortal.