Extending the limits

Yesterday, I passed by an advertisement at a bus stop that immediately caught my attention.

Half of the babies born today will live to be 100 years old. Human longevity has been increasing over the centuries.

Many factors contribute to longevity, starting with health and medical care, hygiene, and access to food, as well as environmental factors and safety.

At one time, it was less than 30 years, as in the early Roman civilizations. Infant mortality has always played a major role in life expectancy. Factors such as vaccination and the prevention of other rapidly spreading and deadly diseases were obviously among the factors that most positively influenced our longevity.

A substantial increase has been achieved in each decade...

Nowadays, in certain countries, the population already has an average life expectancy of over eight and a half decades... Japan is one of the countries that stands out, largely due to a culture that favors a regulated diet, with calorie restriction, and a demand for less processed foods.

Is humanity approaching its biological limit for longevity? What is the value of living longer if those years, especially the last ones, are not spent with quality and integration?

This topic is very important to me. I have a degenerative neurological disease, but fortunately it is slow-progressing, which means that dependence on others is one of my biggest concerns. The deterioration of intellectual capacity ends up being one of my greatest fears, because physical deterioration, even when associated with some dependence, is not as debilitating and, in a way, as “degrading.”

The disintegration of the mind from the body is something that makes me apprehensive. I know that mental deterioration or change is a continuous process. In some people, and in certain situations, it may not even occur until very close to the end of life, but the probability that I will have to deal with this condition before I turn 70 exists.

At the moment, what I can do is try to minimize all other factors, or most of the factors that influence long-term quality of life. A more careful diet, regular physical exercise (in my case, low intensity), and being more present in the moment through meditation can make aging less abrupt in my case.

I confess that I would prefer not to live for many years, but the years I have been here should be spent with quality, without being dependent or completely oblivious to everything that is going on around me.

Although I have not yet reached the half-century mark, I feel that, in a way, I have already passed the two-thirds mark... Living a long life has never been a dream for me. After all, it all boils down to one sentence: “Who wants to live forever?”