The fountain of youth may be highly sought after, but according to a recently published study, it may not be a fountain but a hyperbaric oxygen chamber.
Researchers at Tel Aviv University and the Shamir Medical Center in Israel have found that hyperbaric oxygen treatments can prohibit blood cells from aging and reverse the aging process.
According to a news release from the university, the first clinical trial reverses two biological processes linked with human cells’ aging. These processes are the shortening of telomeres, which are protective areas at the ends of every chromosome, a DNA molecule, and the growth of the body’s old and failing cells.
The study, which was published in the journal Aging on Nov. 18, zeroed in on immune cells extracted from participants’ blood. Researchers discovered the telomeres lengthened as much as 38% and the presence of deteriorating reduced by as much as 37%.
“For many years our team has been engaged in hyperbaric research and therapy — treatments based on protocols of exposure to high-pressure oxygen at various concentrations inside a pressure chamber,” lead author professor Shai Efrati of the Sackler School of Medicine and the Sagol School of Neuroscience at TAU said in a statement. “Our achievements over the years included the improvement of brain functions damaged by age, stroke or brain injury.
“In the current study we wished to examine the impact of HBOT on healthy and independent aging adults, and to discover whether such treatments can slow down, stop or even reverse the normal aging process at the cellular level,” added Efrati, who is also the founder and director of the Sagol Center of Hyperbaric Medicine at the Shamir Medical Center.
Thirty-five healthy people age 64 or over were exposed to a set of 60 hyperbaric sessions in 90 days for the study. Participants gave blood samples before, during and at the end of the treatments and some time following the conclusion of the treatments. Then, researchers evaluated different blood immune cells and compared the results.
Outcomes showed the treatments reversed the aging process of two major parts.
Rather than growing shorter, the telomeres at the ends of the chromosomes grew longer by 20%-38% for the varying cell types. Depending on the cell type, the percentage of aging cells in the general cell population decreased by 11%-37%.
“Until now, interventions such as lifestyle modifications and intense exercise were shown to have some inhibiting effect on telomere shortening,” said co-lead author Dr. Amir Hadanny, chief medical research officer of the Sagol Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Research at the Shamir Medical Center. “But in our study, only three months of HBOT were able to elongate telomeres at rates far beyond any currently available interventions or lifestyle modifications. With this pioneering study, we have opened a door for further research on the cellular impact of HBOT and its potential for reversing the aging process.”
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