‘Back in time’: Israeli scientists claim to reverse aging | Middle East



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Administration of pure oxygen in a pressurized chamber could reverse aging and disease, according to research.

Israeli scientists say they have managed not only to successfully stop the biological aging process, but to reverse it, using only oxygen.

The study, a collaboration between Tel Aviv University and Shamir Medical Center, administered high-pressure oxygen into a pressurized chamber and claimed to have reversed two processes related to aging and disease.

Using hyperbaric oxygen (HBOT) treatments on healthy aging adults, the researchers found that shortening telomeres (chromosomal ends) and the accumulation of old, malfunctioning cells in the body could be reversed.

That is, the adult blood cells actually get younger as the treatments progress.

About 35 adults over the age of 64 took part in the study and received HBOT for 90 minutes a day, five times a week for three months.

The study was published in the journal Aging on November 18.

‘Holy Grail’

Shai Efrati, a professor at Tel Aviv University who runs the Aviv Clinics in Florida, told the Jerusalem Post that the study indicates that the cellular basis of the aging process may be reversed.

“Telomere shortening is now considered the ‘Holy Grail’ of the biology of aging,” he said.

“Researchers around the world are trying to develop pharmacological and environmental interventions that enable telomere elongation. Our HBOT protocol was able to achieve this by demonstrating that the aging process can actually be reversed at the basic cellular-molecular level. “

The study, Efrati said, “gives hope and opens the door for many young scientists to target aging as a reversible disease.”

His partner at Shamir Medical Center, Chief Medical Research Officer Amir Hadanny, said interventions such as lifestyle modifications and strenuous exercise have shown “some inhibitory effects on telomere shortening,” but hyperbaric oxygen treatment is more effective.

“In our study, just three months of HBOT were able to lengthen telomeres at speeds far beyond any currently available intervention or lifestyle modifications,” Hadanny said.

According to the study, the physical changes were equivalent to how the participants’ bodies were at the cellular level 25 years earlier.

“We are not [just] slowing the decline – we are going back in time, ”Efrati said.

Oxygen treatment improved attention, information processing speed, and executive functions in the subjects, the researchers said.

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