How to live longer: Why scientists think they can 'increase life expectancy to 200’

From Express.co.uk (Apr. 30):

SCIENTISTS identified a gene with the potential to extend human life to an age of 200, thanks to the case of one woman with a unique condition.

The action of a single gene can have huge effects on how long humans live. A gene is a sequence of nucleotides that codes a molecule’s function in a strand of DNA. Over the first 18 to 20 years of our life, these undergo a vital process where they communicate with each other to develop humans from a child to an adult.

It is around this age, though, that genes begin to deteriorate, with the body slowing down over the next half a dozen decades until eventually, some form of illness takes over.

Dr. Christophe De Jaeger, a French expert in the science of longevity, has suggested there could be a way of “restoring” genes that begin to malfunction.

Speaking on Amazon Prime’s “Steps to the Future”, he explained how this could mean humans could extend life expectancy.

He said in 2010: “We will be able to modify and correct our various healing systems in order to allow us to constantly restore capacities from the age of 18 or 20.

“We will fix ourselves and we are capable of doing it – at 18 years old, our systems functions are operational.

“It’s only after that they deteriorate.

“So if these systems can remain operational, our lifespan, which we now set at a statistic of 120 maximum, could reach 150, 200, or even more.”  [read more]