In a new study, researchers found that hyperbaric oxygen treatments (HBOT) in healthy aging adults can stop the aging of blood cells and reverse the aging process.
In the biological sense, the adults’ blood cells actually grow younger as the progress of the treatments.
The research was conducted by a team from Tel Aviv University (TAU) and the Shamir Medical Center in Israel.
In the study, the researchers aimed to examine the impact of HBOT on healthy aging adults and to discover whether such treatments can slow down, stop or even reverse the normal aging process at the cellular level.
They exposed 35 healthy people aged 64 or over to a series of 60 hyperbaric sessions over a period of 90 days.
Each participant provided blood samples before, during, and at the end of the treatments, as well as some time after the series of treatments concluded.
The researchers then analyzed various immune cells in the blood and compared the results.
They found that a unique protocol of treatments with high-pressure oxygen in a pressure chamber can reverse two major processes linked to aging and its illnesses:
The shortening of telomeres (protective regions located at both ends of every chromosome) and the accumulation of old and malfunctioning cells in the body.
Focusing on immune cells containing DNA obtained from the participants’ blood, the team discovered a lengthening of up to 38% of the telomeres, as well as a decrease of up to 37% in the presence of senescent cells.
The findings suggest that the aging process can in fact be reversed at the basic cellular-molecular level.
The study has opened a door for further research on the cellular impact of HBOT and its potential for reversing the aging process.
One author of the study is Professor Shai Efrati.
The study is published in Aging.
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