Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatments Contradicts Aging Process, Study Reveals

Tel Aviv University researchers in collaboration with Shamir Medical Center in Israel discovered that Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatments (HBOT) in healthy aging adults are capable of stopping the blood cell's aging and reversing it instead as the treatment advances.

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What is HBOT?

According to Mayo Clinic, hyperbaric oxygen therapy involves breathing pure oxygen in a pressurized environment. They added that it is a well-established treatment for decompression sickness which is a potential risk for scuba diving. Mayo Clinic also mentioned that other conditions treated with this therapy comprise serious infections, wounds that may not heal resulting from radiation injury or diabetes. John Hopkins Medicine added that undergoing this therapy, individuals shall enter a chamber to breathe in pure oxygen in air pressure three times higher than the average.

In the release by Tel Aviv University, the researchers found that the said unique protocol (entering a chamber with higher air pressure and pure oxygen levels) can reverse two major processes connected to aging and its illnesses which are namely the shortening of telomeres, and the accumulation of the old and malfunctioning cells found in the body.

Methods and Results of the study

Led by a professor from Sackler School of Medicine and Sagol School of Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University, Shai Efrati, MD, according to the release the clinical trial was conducted as a part of a comprehensive Israeli research program that focuses on aging as a reversible condition.

The release also further said that the researchers focused on the immune cells containing DNA from the participants' blood which made them discover an elongation of 38% of the telomeres and a lessening of up to 37% in the existence of senescent cells. According to a statement from professor Efrati from the release, their team has been engaging in hyperbaric research and therapy - treatment for many years, based on protocols of exposure to high-pressure oxygen at various concentrations inside a pressure chamber. He added that their achievements over the years include the development of brain functions which is damaged by stroke, brain injury, or aging.

In the study, the researchers exposed 35 healthy participants aged 64 or over to a series of 60 hyperbaric sessions over a period of 90 days. Each participant provided blood samples for them to test, before, during, and after the treatments. The release further said that the findings show that treatments actually reversed the aging process in two major aspects: the telomeres at the end chromosome grew longer instead of shorter at a rate of 20 to 38 percent depending on the cell type; the senescent cells in the overall cell population was significantly reduced by 11 to 37 percent depending on the cell type.

(Photo: Colin behrens)
blood samples are provided by participants so that the researchers can observe the telomere elongation on chromosomes

Professor Efrati stresses in the release that telomere shortening is considered the 'holy grail' of the biology of aging. He added that their HBOT protocol was able to achieve pharmacological and environmental interventions enabling telomere elongation, proving that the aging process can in fact be reversed at the basic cellular-molecular level. Co-author of the study and chief medical research officer at the Shamir Medical Center, Dr. Amir Hadanny, highlights in the release that three months of use of HBOT in their study were able to elongate telomeres at rates beyond any available interventions or lifestyle modifications.

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