We Can't Escape Aging Even With Greater Life Expectancy, Scientists Warn - ScienceAlert

After all, with considerable gains in human life expectancy, and scientists discovering new ways to reverse aging and potentially extend human lifespans, one could be forgiven for thinking that the legendary elixir of immortality might be real after all.

Rather, an alternative view – called the 'invariant rate of aging' hypothesis – theorizes that the rate of aging within a species is fixed, suggesting that gains in life expectancy don't show evidence of slower aging processes, but instead reflect lower levels of death in young individuals over time.

In the study, the team looked at the relationship between life expectancy (the average age at which individuals die) and lifespan equality (which measures the concentration of deaths at different ages).

Ultimately, the analysis suggests that the same general pattern of mortality exists across groups, suggesting differences in life expectancy and lifespan equality are primarily driven by age variations in which the young members of a population die, not the same kinds of variations in the old.

If lifespan equality can be increased – with less individuals dying young – then overall a population tends to live longer, the researchers say, but there is little evidence so far to suggest that slowed or delayed aging in older adult individuals has much effect on life expectancy.