Scientists claim to have reversed human aging at the cellular level

Scientists claim they successfully reversed the human aging process in a group of seniors in a groundbreaking study.

The oxygen treatment altered the bodies of the elderly on a cellular level as they were 25 years ago, the researchers said.

In a unique study, scientists used oxygen therapy to reverse two key indicators of biological aging: the shortening of telomeres and the accumulation of malfunctioning senescent cells.

As they age, their bodies undergo the shortening of telomeres – the protective caps on chromosomes – which leads to diseases including cancer, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

Tel Aviv University scientists found that breathing oxygen while sitting in a pressurized chamber allowed the telomeres – the protective caps on the chromosomes – to regrow. (Stock Image)

Senescent cells, or so-called zombie cells, prevent regeneration as they build up in the body over time.

The study used a method called Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy in an attempt to prevent these two characteristics of the aging process from deteriorating.

In the study, published in the journal Aging, 35 healthy adults aged 64 and older were placed in pressurized oxygen chambers in Israel and breathed pure oxygen through a mask.

The sessions lasted 90 minutes each and were held five days a week for three months.

The pressurized chamber mimics a state of “hypoxia,” or oxygen deficiency, allowing tissues to dissolve more oxygen, with well-known regenerative effects.

The results show that the study allowed telomeres to regrow by more than 20%, while their senescent cells had been reduced by up to 37%.

This is the equivalent of how their bodies were at the cellular level 25 years ago, the scientists said.

The sessions lasted 90 minutes each and ran five days a week for three months. (Stock Image)

“As telomere shortening is considered the ‘Holy Grail’ of the biology of aging, many pharmacological and environmental interventions are being extensively explored in hopes of enabling telomere elongation,” said Professor Shai Efrati, professor at the Faculty of Medicine of Tel Aviv University and co-author of the study.

“The significant improvement in telomere length shown during and after these unique protocols provides the scientific community with a new basis for understanding that aging can indeed be targeted and reversed at the basic cellular biological level,” added Efrati.

The study is the latest in a series of trials that are trying to understand the anti-aging process and increase life expectancy by making people feel younger. The premise is that aging can be treated like a disease, scientists say.

In 2015, BioViva CEO Liz Parrish flew to Colombia to receive two experimental gene therapies that, she said, could have made permanent changes to her DNA in order to fight muscle loss and grow her telomeres.

Parrish has received criticism for undergoing the experimental treatment from scientists, but says the gene therapy reversed the biological age of his immune cells by 20 years. He recently stated that death is optional.

Previous studies have revealed that healthy eating and strenuous exercise can also preserve telomere length, but this experiment was unique in that it surpassed natural interventions, the researchers said.

“Until now, interventions such as lifestyle modifications and strenuous exercise have been shown to have some inhibitory effect on the shortening of the expected telomere length,” said lead researcher Dr. Amir Hadanny, of the Sagol Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Research in Tel Aviv.

“However, what is noteworthy in our study is that, in just three months of therapy, we were able to achieve such significant telomere lengthening, at rates far superior to any intervention or lifestyle modification. currently available. ”