Human lifespan in the Star Trek universe

[TomDixie]

I could easily imagine that longevity isn't significantly prolonged on average, but that the average person says fitter longer.

An example from canon would be Picard who was 59-74 played by the (fit for his age) 47-62 year Patrick Stewart.

In "The First Duty", Boothby (Starfleet Academy Groundskeeper) tells Picard, now in his mids 60s, that he is the age Boothby was when Picard was at the Academy, approximately 40 years earlier.

So we have Boothby being over 100 and physically fit and able to do a reasonably strenuous role.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

I must point out that 80 is already "the new 60." But on the other hand, your mileage may vary. My mother died at 78, her respiratory system and her mind both having given out (the former undoubtedly the result, in part, of having grown up in the Los Angeles Smog Basin before pollution controls, in a house in which her father chain-smoked); my paternal grandmother (who spent almost her entire life in rural North Dakota) died at over 100, her marbles entirely intact.

In all likelihood, as diseases are conquered one by one, and as we learn to repair normal wear and tear on the body ("That doctor gave me a pill, and I grew a new kidney!"), lifespans, and the portion thereof in which we are able to remain active, will lengthen.