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NEW YORK, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) -- Although more people have reached a greater age over the past few decades, the ceiling for human lifespan appears to be stuck at around 115 years, a new study has found.
"It seems highly likely we have reached our ceiling. From now on, this is it. Humans will never get older than 115," said the study published on Wednesday in the journal Nature.
The oldest human who ever lived was French woman Jeanne Louise Calment. She died in 1997 at the age of 122, setting a record of human longevity. She is unlikely to lose the top spot any time soon, the study suggested.
Analyzing figures from Human Mortality Database of 41 countries and territories, the team, led by Jan Vijg, an expert from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, has found that life expectancy at birth increased over the last century due to a number of advances in such sectors as childbirth, maternity care and epidemic prevention.
However, although the proportion of people surviving to 70 and over has risen since 1900, the rates of improvement in survival are different between levels of old age.
There are large gains for people living 70 years and up, but for individuals aged over 100 years, the rate of improvement drops rapidly, the study said.
"For the oldest old people, we are still not very good at reducing their mortality rates," Vijg said.
Scientists have long debated whether there is a limit to human lifespan. Aubery de Grey, chief scientific officer at the U.S. Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence Research Foundation, claimed years ago that the first person to reach 1,000 years old is likely to be alive today.
Meanwhile, researchers from Stanford's Lifespan Development Lab claimed a year earlier that the first human expected to live to age 150 is already alive.
Those are highly impossible, Vijg believes. "The point is that people should focus on enjoying life and staying healthy for as long as possible," he said.
