Poll: Americans reject aging past 100

Most Americans hope to live at least 10 years longer than their average life expectancy,  a new Pew Research Center survey shows, but most don't want to get so old that they spend their final years in poor health and become a strain on society.

The Pew study found that most Americans wouldn't want treatments that would help them live to be as old as 120, with 56 percent saying no thanks -- although two-thirds expected most other people would want to extend their lives to 120, said the report issued Tuesday.  

Few expect such a radical idea to become reality, at least by 2050, although most of those surveyed expect other medical advances that could more gradually extend life expectancy, such as better cancer care.

What is the ideal life span? To most Americans, it's between 79 and 100. The median answer, the answer found in the middle of all the ages arranged from lowest to highest, was 90 years. 

When asked about living to 120 or beyond, the survey found 51 percent of people said that would be bad for society. They worried about a strain on natural resources, and that such treatments probably would be available only to the rich rather than to everyone.  

But the real goal of this research is to make your healthy years longer, according to longevity researcher Cynthia Kenyon at the University of California, San Francisco. She wonders if the public understands that.  

While scientists have extended the life span of certain laboratory animals -- mice, worms, flies -- with various techniques, they've found that results with monkeys is mixed. But for some animals, the results are dramatic.

"It would be the equivalent of a 90-year-old person that you think is looking like a 45-year-old," Kenyon said.

Age itself is behind many of our chronic diseases, so the theory goes that if you stop the aging process, people may stay healthier longer. Not that the results will be as dramatic as researchers have seen with animals.

The study also asked respondents how they felt about their current quality of life. A slim majority said they rated their relationship with their children as "excellent," while just 13 percent said their financial status was so, providing a window into how Americans are thinking about their lives now. 

Al Jazeera and The Associated Press