Scientists claim: Human lifespan has stopped increasing since 2011.

(Patria) - Perceptions of long life, even immortality, have always been part of human consciousness and are repeated in religion, literature, films, music, and even consumer goods.

Although science and medicine have not mastered something like cryogenic freezing, developments since the 19th century have led to people living longer than in the previous period.

However, it seems that life expectancy has stopped increasing, at least in Europe, since 2011.

"We are no longer living longer," is the stance of dozens of researchers from the universities of East Anglia, Washington, Exeter, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, and the UK Department of Health and Social Care.

"The food we eat, physical inactivity, and obesity are largely to blame, as is the Covid pandemic," say experts after studying European health data.

"The rate of improvement was lower in the period from 2011 to 2019 than in the period from 1990 to 2011 in all countries except Norway," reads the study published in the medical journal "The Lancet Public Health".

"Advances in public health and medicine in the 20th century led to life expectancy in Europe improving year after year. But that is no longer happening.

In the decades between 1990 and 2011, life expectancy improved significantly due to advances in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases and cancer," says Nick Steel from UEA.

After that peak in 2011, "major risks" such as obesity, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol have increased, largely due to obesity and poor diet.

The findings follow the publication of research by the Max Planck Institute and the University of Edinburgh last September, which suggests that millennia of genetic mutations make humans less capable compared to our ancestors.

A relatively comfortable lifestyle and advances in medical care seem to have a counterintuitive effect, making today's people more vulnerable to such mutations than in the past, scientists believe.