Humans are already among the longest living land mammals and rank pretty high among all large animals land or otherwise. We're already evolutionarily optimized for longevity.
Trying to push further out seems to run into a lot of trade-offs. It seems from what I've read that there are mechanisms that cause aging but also are defenses against cancer, like telomere shortening which imposes a cellular division limit. The immune system causes inflammation which causes aging but turn that off and stuff eats you. And so on...
Not saying it's not possible, just that it's going to require more than tweaking a few knobs. I highly doubt there will ever be a "longevity pill" that radically extends life span, though obviously there are medications that can have some positive effect especially on health span. Anything radical like taking the average well past 100-120 years is probably going to require genetic engineering or radical (and invasive) regenerative medicine.
Trying to push further out seems to run into a lot of trade-offs. It seems from what I've read that there are mechanisms that cause aging but also are defenses against cancer, like telomere shortening which imposes a cellular division limit. The immune system causes inflammation which causes aging but turn that off and stuff eats you. And so on...
Not saying it's not possible, just that it's going to require more than tweaking a few knobs. I highly doubt there will ever be a "longevity pill" that radically extends life span, though obviously there are medications that can have some positive effect especially on health span. Anything radical like taking the average well past 100-120 years is probably going to require genetic engineering or radical (and invasive) regenerative medicine.