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The fountain of youth can be made of air, not water.
Scientists say they have successfully reversed the aging process of the elderly through “oxygen therapy” in a one-of-a-kind study.
Tel Aviv University researchers used hyperbaric oxygen chambers to target specific cells and DNA linked to a shorter lifespan and found the “holy grail” of staying young, according to a news release on the discovery.
During the study, researchers investigated whether the therapy – which involves breathing pure oxygen in a pressurized environment – could reverse the effects of aging in 35 people over the age of 64, according to the study, published Wednesday in the journal Aging. .
They placed the elderly participants in the chamber for 90 minutes a day, five days a week for three months and studied their impact on senescent cells, which are associated with tissue and organ deterioration. They also measured each person’s telomere length, a molecule linked to premature cell aging.
Surprisingly, the scientists found that the participants’ telomeres had grown by an average length of 20% while their senescent cells had decreased by up to 37% by the end of the process, the equivalent of growing 25 years younger.
“The significant improvement in telomere length shown … provides the scientific community with a new basis for understanding that aging can, in fact, be targeted and reversed at the basic cellular-biological level,” said study co-author Shai Efrati. . “Since telomere shortening is considered the ‘Holy Grail’ of the biology of aging.”
During the sessions, participants did not change their lifestyles, diets or medications, which in the past have been shown to impact a person’s biological age.
Scientists, which include doctors from Shamir Medical Center, believe the pressurized chamber triggered brief oxygen deficiencies, which caused cell regeneration.
“Until now, interventions such as lifestyle modifications and strenuous exercise have been shown to have some inhibiting effect on shortening the expected telomere length,” said Dr. Amir Hadanny, co-author of the study.
“What’s noteworthy in our study is that in just three months of therapy, we were able to achieve such significant telomere lengthening – at speeds well beyond current available interventions or lifestyle modifications.”
In 2016, experts found they could stop aging in mice by giving them drugs that kill senescent cells.
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