Spanning the many arcs of One Piece Over the years, Monkey D. Luffy has put himself in danger from one brutal saga to the next. In fact, it's safe to say that rubber pirate or not, Luffy is lucky to be alive.

Despite the youthful vitality he displays, one vital question must still be asked about him: how long will Luffy live?

Not only is Luffy constantly making enemies of dangerous opponents, but he also puts his body through all sorts of physically taxing experiences.

Sooner or later, the things he has done to himself will almost certainly take their toll. It is virtually guaranteed that the hero will not die of old age.

The One Piece The ending could be bittersweet, with Luffy becoming the Pirate King just in time to have only a few years left in his tired, overused body.

Gear 2 increases Luffy's blood pressure

Will Luffy die young? That may depend in part on how much he continues to use his powerful but physically taxing Gear techniques.

For example, using Gear 2, the first and mildest of Luffy's Gears, definitely shortened Luffy's lifespan.

The technique involved pumping blood through your body at an accelerated rate in order to increase speed and strength.

World Government agent Rob Lucci was quick to point out the problem with this technique, explaining that pumping blood through the heart and the rest of the circulatory system in this manner was a good way to destroy it.

Even as a rubber man, Luffy was undoubtedly creating lasting damage to himself from the inside.

What Lucci was describing is a real-life phenomenon.

When the heart enlarges due to high blood pressure, it can lead to all sorts of fatal conditions, such as cardiomyopathy and cardiac hypertrophy, which can result in heart failure.

By forcing blood through his body, Luffy inadvertently strained his heart muscles and made it harder to pump blood normally.

Will Luffy die from this? Probably not, but Gear 2 is still working against him and stressing his body even more than physical trauma usually does.

Luffy took 10 years off his life by altering his own hormones

Gear 2's health-reducing side effect is compounded by how often Luffy relies on the technique.

In short, occasional bursts, your rubber body should be able to keep up with the tension.

However, the more he struggles and the more often he uses it, the more likely it is to pave the way for heart problems later in life.

Another life-threatening experiment occurred while Luffy was in Impel Down. In order to save the Straw Hat Pirate from Director Magellan's poison, Emporio Ivankov used his Devil Fruit powers to alter the hormones in the boy's body to strengthen his immune system.

The process was excruciating, lasting hours, but how much was Luffy's life shortened because of it?

This risky process is estimated to have shaved approximately 10 years off Luffy's life expectancy, which is why Ivankov was hesitant to use it.

Luffy only survived the ordeal because of his indomitable will to live, as well as the tireless emotional support of Mr. 2 Bon Clay.

These two points and a few more are submitted by Quora commenter Tevin Davis.

They also suggested that Luffy's Gear 3 and Gear 4 techniques place a similar tax on his life, though this is not explicitly stated in the narrative.

Tevin believed that Luffy would die young, like his idol Gol D. Roger. Other Quora commenters have their own responses to this theory.

Someone mentioned that Roger died at the age of 53, so even if Luffy dies young, fans will still get a lot out of him. Along those same lines, some believe that Luffy's early death will be saved for an epilogue at the end of the series or won't appear at all in the story.

Could Trafalgar Law transform Luffy into the Immortal Sun God?

Some have predicted that Trafalgar Law will use the powers of his Ope Ope no Mi to perform Perpetual Youth Surgery on Luffy to save his life.

One commentator even imagined this surgery transforming Luffy into the “immortal Sun God, sailing the seas forever, always seeking new adventures and new tyrants to stop in an eternal quest to prevent another world government from arising again.”

This is loosely based on the rumor of Nika, the sun god, mentioned by Who's-Who. If this turned out to be true, it would have to be saved for the end of the series, since everyone from One Piece central conflicts are resolved.

Otherwise, all the tension in the story could be removed by making the protagonist immortal.

Whether it happens during or after the series, Luffy's untimely death seems almost guaranteed.

However, this shouldn't be seen as such a bad thing; Luffy has had enough adventures and experiences to last several lifetimes, and he still has plenty more ahead of him.

He hasn't even found One Piece yet. If he died having lived his life so short and sweet, he shouldn't have any regrets when he dies.

Luffy would rather die free than live forever

Will Luffy die young? How many years has Luffy lost? These are questions that greatly concern One Piece fans and members of Luffy's own crew, but Luffy himself never asks these questions or concerns himself with these topics.

From the beginning, Luffy has been the type who cares less about how long he lives than simply as he lives and why he lives. Luffy is a practical, no-nonsense pirate captain who takes life as it comes, and his friends and enemies are repeatedly shocked by his "Devil may care" attitude about his adventures and even his mortality and health.

Above all, Monkey D. Luffy is a free spirit who would rather die in freedom than live in captivity or oppression.

All of this makes watching Luffy's adventures in One Piece a tense but also liberating experience.

He takes terrible risks with his health and safety that not even Naruto Uzumaki and Izuku Midoriya would do.

Luffy is a likable anti-hero protagonist who isn't just about the power of friendship and dreams – he wants to find freedom for benignly selfish reasons.

At no point did Luffy promise to become a great hero or savior, but instead, a free life as the Pirate King. If Luffy must cut his lifespan in half to achieve this goal, it's a price worth paying in his mind.