A new study published October 01 in the medical journal The Lancet suggests that 50% of babies born since 2000 in the United States will likely live to 100, following a pattern noted in the `1840′s for life spans to increase in wealthy western nations:

Kaare Christensen, of the Danish Aging Research Center at the University of Southern Denmark: “The linear increase in record life expectancy for more than 165 years does not suggest a looming limit to human lifespan. If life expectancy were approaching a limit, some deceleration of progress would probably occur. Continued progress in the longest living populations suggests that we are not close to a limit, and further rise in life expectancy seems likely.” 

This sounds like good news in terms of longevity and medical advances, but it does pose challenges in term of economics and the care of the elderly.

“If people in their 60s and early 70s worked much more than they do nowadays, then most people could work fewer hours per week than is currently common — if they worked correspondingly more years of their longer lives. Preliminary evidence suggests that shortened working weeks over extended working lives might further contribute to increases in life expectancy and health. Redistribution of work will, however, not be sufficient to meet the coming challenges. Even if the health of individuals at any particular age improves, there could be an increased total burden if the number of individuals at that age rises sufficiently.”

As for what it takes to be a centenarian? Well Nova Scotians may have a leg up in that department, even if no one is quite sure why. Dan Buettner, who studies what he calls “Blue Zones” - areas of the world with pockets of great longevity – thinks that if Canada has a Blue Zone, it is the south shore of Nova Scotia, where there are more centenarians than anywhere else in Canada. Clinician Dr. Chris Macknight, from Dalhousie University, has done some preliminary work on the issue of centenarians in Nova Scotia, but it is still not clear why, in what is otherwise an unhealthy area of the country, with a lower than average life expectancy, some people seem to live so long.

Here’s to future research!