Humans have a natural lifespan of only 38 yrs

[WVK]

"Humans have a maximum natural lifespan of only 38 years, according to researchers, who have discovered a way to estimate how long a species lives based on its DNA.Scientists at Australia's national science agency have developed a genetic 'clock' computer model that they claim can accurately estimate how long different vertebrates are likely to survive - including both living and extinct species."

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-7785761/Humans-genetically-hardwired-live-38-YEARS.html

[XenoFish]

Oops, I'm three years past my expiration date.

[+and-then]

24 minutes ago, XenoFish said:

Oops, I'm three years past my expiration date.

I can't even remember when I exceeded my "sell by" date...

[zep73]

I'll soon be having my 29th birthday........ for the 18th time 

[spartan max2]

Sounds like BS. Humans have made it past 38 for centuries, if not killed by disease.

If someone didn't die from disease then it was normal from them to like into their 60s and up 

[Duke Wellington]

46 minutes ago, WVK said:

"Humans have a maximum natural lifespan of only 38 years, according to researchers, who have discovered a way to estimate how long a species lives based on its DNA.Scientists at Australia's national science agency have developed a genetic 'clock' computer model that they claim can accurately estimate how long different vertebrates are likely to survive - including both living and extinct species."

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-7785761/Humans-genetically-hardwired-live-38-YEARS.html

Well thats obviously wrong lol

[Piney]

10 minutes ago, spartan max2 said:

If someone didn't die from disease then it was normal from them to like into their 60s and up 

Nope, your average pre-contact Indian lived to about 35-40. Your average Eurasian nomad the same.  That's why the elderly were so respected. There wasn't many of them. 

[Duke Wellington]

Guys I have thought about this.

I have never broken anything, I have never had a disease or been severally ill. But, I have had 2 tooth extractions in my 41 years. I suspect they would have all killed a lot of people 1000 years ago.

[Piney]

1 minute ago, RabidMongoose said:

Guys I have thought about this.

I have never broken anything, I have never had a disease or been severally ill. But, I have had 2 tooth extractions in my 41 years. I suspect they would have all killed a lot of people 1000 years ago.

That was one of the biggest problems, especially after farming began. Death by abscess. 

[Grim Reaper 6]

5 minutes ago, Piney said:

Nope, your average pre-contact Indian lived to about 35-40. Your average Eurasian nomad the same.  That's why the elderly were so respected. There wasn't many of them. 

That's very interesting, I can see how this would make sense.  Did they come to this conclusion through examination of remains? 

I suppose the introduction of better medical treatments has changed everything.

[spartan max2]

11 minutes ago, Piney said:

Nope, your average pre-contact Indian lived to about 35-40. Your average Eurasian nomad the same.  That's why the elderly were so respected. There wasn't many of them. 

I'm not arguing average lifespan, what I'm asserting is that the body is not "hardwired" to die at 38. It goes up to in the sixties if we get rid of external problems like disease, not enough food, etc. That's external things Killin the body, not the body timing out.

For example,

Quote

Between 1200–1599 and 1600–1900, the median age of Popes at starting pontificate increased from 60.0 to 65.5 years, while the median duration of pontificate raised from 6.5 to 11.0 years, respectively (Table 1). The median age at death of both groups increased in the study period, from 66 to 77 years for Popes, and from 63 to 70 years for artists (Table 1).

https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/34/6/1435/707557

Edited December 14, 2019 by spartan max2

[XenoFish]

Vinegar is one hell of an antiseptic.

[Grim Reaper 6]

2 minutes ago, Piney said:

That was one of the biggest problems, especially after farming began. Death by abscess. 

I also suspect that many died from viruses like the simple Flu, I know the European expansion into the Americas had severe effects, but even before I would think they still had viral infections that could be deadly.

[Grim Reaper 6]

7 minutes ago, XenoFish said:

Vinegar is one hell of an antiseptic.

Yes it is, it's the ascetic acid that makes it a good bacterial solution.

Edited December 14, 2019 by Manwon Lender

[XenoFish]

3 minutes ago, Manwon Lender said:

Yes it is, it's the ascetic acid that makes it a good bacterial solution.

I can't remember where I read it from, but I think they used honey on wounds as well. Not sure if I'm correct on that though. 

[Piney]

11 minutes ago, spartan max2 said:

I'm not arguing average lifespan, what I'm asserting is that the body is not "hardwired" to die at 38. It goes up to in the sixties if we get rid of external problems like disease, not enough food, etc. That's external things Killin the body, not the body timing out.

About 115, Is what DNA is wired for. 

[rashore]

Go Daily Mail for making an article not quite right.... at least they put in the link to the study.

A couple interesting snippets from the study:

Quote

We removed humans (Homo sapiens) from the data set as they were listed with a maximum lifespan of 120 years, which does not reflect the variability and the true global average lifespan (60.9–86.3 years)³⁸.

Quote

We also examined whether lifespan estimates for humans significantly differed from their close relatives, including chimpanzees^51,52 and extinct members of the Hominidae family, Denisovans⁵³ (Homo denisova) and Neanderthals⁵⁴ (Homo neanderthalensis). The lifespan clock estimated a 38.0 year lifespan for humans (hg19). The maximum lifespans of humans is a controversial topic^55,56. In the past 200 years, the average life expectancy of humans has more than doubled because of modern medicine and changes in lifestyle^57,58. Early humans have been reported to have a maximum life expectancy of 40 years^57,58 less than half by modern standards^23,38. Similarly, in chimpanzees the lifespan was estimated at 39.7 years. The maximum longevity of a chimpanzee in the wild is thought to be of a 55 years old female, however it is reported that many live to approximately 40 years of age^23,59. We next estimated the lifespan of Denisovans and Neanderthals. We estimated that Denisovans and Neanderthals both had a lifespan of 37.8 years. This suggests that these extinct Hominidae species had similar lifespans to their early human modern-day counterparts.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-54447-w

 

[Grim Reaper 6]

1 minute ago, XenoFish said:

I can't remember where I read it from, but I think they used honey on wounds as well. Not sure if I'm correct on that though. 

I have also heard that, it's a widely known natural medicine. Apparently it has wound healing properties, I just googled it but it doesn't say how.

[XenoFish]

Just now, Piney said:

About 115, Is what DNA is wired for. 

Oh dear god! My grandmother is going to live forever. 

[XenoFish]

1 minute ago, Manwon Lender said:

I have also heard that, it's a widely known natural medicine. Apparently it has wound healing properties, I just googled it but it doesn't say how.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3941901/

Honey has anti-oxidant, anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory properties. It can be used as a wound dressing to promote rapid and improved healing. These effects are due to honey’s anti-bacterial action, secondary to its high acidity, osmotic effect, anti-oxidant content and hydrogen peroxide content. The use of honey leads to improved wound healing in acute cases, pain relief in burn patients and decreased inflammatory response in such patients. However, it has proven to be ineffective in chronic leg ulcers. Overall, studies have been done in favor of the use of honey in medicine.

Edited December 14, 2019 by XenoFish

[Grim Reaper 6]

1 minute ago, XenoFish said:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3941901/

Honey has anti-oxidant, anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory properties. It can be used as a wound dressing to promote rapid and improved healing. These effects are due to honey’s anti-bacterial action, secondary to its high acidity, osmotic effect, anti-oxidant content and hydrogen peroxide content. The use of honey leads to improved wound healing in acute cases, pain relief in burn patients and decreased inflammatory response in such patients. However, it has proven to be ineffective in chronic leg ulcers. Overall, studies have been done in favor of the use of honey in medicine.

That's pretty interesting, I am going to have to try it the next time I get a minor cut.

[Piney]

8 minutes ago, XenoFish said:

I can't remember where I read it from, but I think they used honey on wounds as well. Not sure if I'm correct on that though. 

Except when it's contaminated itself. 

[L.A.T.1961]

I quite liked the heart beat theory. 

Humans have an average heart rate of around 60 to 70 beats per minute and we live roughly 70 or so years, giving us just over 2 billion beats per life.

Chickens have a faster heart rate of about 275 beats per minute and live only 15 years. On balance, they also have about 2 billion beats.  If we look at it in rough orders of magnitude, there does seem to be a link between living fast and dying young for creatures great and small. 

 

[Grim Reaper 6]

10 minutes ago, L.A.T.1961 said:

I quite liked the heart beat theory. 

Humans have an average heart rate of around 60 to 70 beats per minute and we live roughly 70 or so years, giving us just over 2 billion beats per life.

Chickens have a faster heart rate of about 275 beats per minute and live only 15 years. On balance, they also have about 2 billion beats.  If we look at it in rough orders of magnitude, there does seem to be a link between living fast and dying young for creatures great and small. 

 

I have never heard of that before, but that is interesting. I may check it out in more depth as time permits.

[Grim Reaper 6]

25 minutes ago, Piney said:

Except when it's contaminated itself. 

Yea that makes perfect sense, and in the old days it would certainly be much harder to keep it contamination free during storage unlike today.