Can immortality be achieved scientifically, is it possible to live forever

If a person is placed in an ideal environment, given a balanced diet and forced to engage in physical activity, it will not even guarantee that he or she will live to be at least 80-90 years old.

Almost 25 years ago, Frenchwoman Jeanne Louise Kalman set a world record for life expectancy – she died at the age of 122 years 5 months and 14 days. Since then, no one has been able to reach this milestone. Why? Scientists who have been struggling with this question have recently found the answer. Let’s hear it!

cardiologist

We have not yet conquered all diseases, and the fight against them is still in its infancy. In addition to lifestyle, there are things we cannot yet influence.

Kazalo vsebine

What do the scientists say?

Science is constantly coming up with new ways to extend human life. If 200 years ago people lived on average up to 40 years, now this period has increased to 73. But while we can live longer, we can’t become immortal. Scientists gave a disappointing forecast: “No one can live forever, death is inevitable. No matter how many vitamins we take, how clean the environment is or how often we exercise, we will eventually grow old and die”.

This is the conclusion reached by experts in population biology. They compared demographic data from nine generations of humans and 30 populations of different primates (gorillas, chimpanzees, baboons) and found out the real reasons for longevity. As it turned out, it’s not that we were able to slow down aging, but something else entirely – mortality among children has noticeably decreased. If previously every fourth child did not live to his first birthday, now the number of deaths has decreased by nine times. At the same time, the average life expectancy has increased.

Why is immortality a utopia?

Cardiologist Tamaz Gagloshvili says that it is impossible to overcome all diseases to live forever – now it is akin to science fiction. According to him, in addition to lifestyle, there are things that we cannot influence.

There are certain risk factors for the development of certain diseases, and they can be divided into two groups.

Modifiable risk factors. These are unhealthy lifestyle, bad habits such as smoking and alcohol abuse, improper nutrition, overweight and obesity, sleep problems, lack of physical activity and sedentary lifestyle.

Tamaz Gagloshvili

cardiologist

We can change these factors. But even if a person is placed in an ideal environment, it will not guarantee that he will live at least 80-90 years. So there is nothing to say about eternal existence. Take atherosclerosis (a chronic disease of the arteries): millions of people die every year from complications. According to the WHO, this is about 18 million people, can you imagine? And this is only according to official statistics, perhaps the real figure is even higher. But cardiovascular pathologies are the main cause of death in most countries of the world.

Even now, in the era of coronavirus, people die not from the infection or pneumonia itself, but from its complications. Coronavirus aggravates the course of cardiovascular diseases, provoking, for example, arrhythmias, heart attacks, strokes.

All the drugs that exist now only slow down the course of the disease. The other does not exist yet.

Non-modifiable risk factors. These include age, gender, genetic predisposition or genetic diseases (these are not always the same thing).

Tamaz Gagloshvili

cardiologist

These factors cannot be changed and we cannot influence them. Every cell in the body has a certain genetically laid down duration of functioning. Therefore, it cannot and will not live forever. Even if we imagine that we can overcome cardiovascular diseases, there is also oncology. And it depends primarily on ecology and the environment in which we live.

Meanwhile, in our country almost every second person has hypertension. And more than 60% of the population of Russia and CIS countries suffer from obesity, which increases the occurrence and course of such diseases as hypertension, atherosclerosis, diabetes mellitus. They significantly reduce life expectancy.

Will organ transplantation help to live longer?

According to the cardiologist, even organ transplantation does not guarantee a longer life expectancy.

Tamaz Gagloshvili

cardiologist

In my practice I often meet people with transplanted kidneys and heart. Among them there are those who have been living like this for 15-18 years. But in order to prevent the immune system from rejecting this organ, they have to undergo immunosuppressive therapy all the time. Because this organ is foreign to the body, and if you do not take special drugs, it will not take root and will not function normally.

In 2005, a man received a heart transplant, with which he lived a wonderful life for many years. All this time he was undergoing immunosuppressive therapy. But after 15 years, the body began to reject the organ, and everything ended sadly. So life expectancy depends not only on lifestyle, treatment, but also on the body’s own response to these transplanted organs. It is impossible to say unequivocally that if a person has a transplanted organ, he will live 15-30 years longer than he should. Everything is very individual, and life expectancy depends on many factors that we cannot influence yet.

It turns out that science is powerless against aging and immortality? Biogerontologists (those who study the biological processes of aging) say that not all is lost: by 2036 we will be able to defeat old age, they believe. Perhaps one day we will be able to easily replace internal organs, take supplements to slow down the aging of our cells, and live forever. After all, who knows what will be waiting for us in 50 years?