Life expectancy has slowed down

Research has revealed that the human race seems to be reaching the limits of longevity despite significant leaps in the past two centuries as a result of advances in medicine.

It was predicted in the 1990s that children born now would reach 100 years of age but analysis revealed that females born in recent years only have a 5.3 per cent chance of celebrating their centenary – with the figure reduced to just 1.8 per cent for males.

Professor Stuart Olshansky, lead author of the study at the University of Illinois, said: "Most people alive today at older ages are living on time that was manufactured by medicine.

"But these medical Band-Aids are producing fewer years of life even though they're occurring at an accelerated pace, implying that the period of rapid increases in life expectancy is now documented to be over.

"We should now shift our focus to efforts that slow ageing and extend healthspan.

"Healthspan is a relatively new metric that measures the number of years a person is healthy, not just alive."

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