Humans are trying to reverse aging since ancient times. Israeli scientists have become one step closer to the dream with their new findings. Scientists from Tel Aviv University (TAU) along with Shamir Medical Center in Israel have been successful in finding ways to reverse the aging process in humans.
The research is led by Professor Shai Efrati and Dr. Amir Hadanny. The findings of the study have been published in the journal Aging. The study used hyperbaric oxygen treatment in their clinical trials. The trials were conducted on healthy aging adults mostly above 60 years of age. The clinical trials successfully stopped the aging process of blood cells and reversed the aging process as well.
The press release read that in the clinical trials, the blood cells of the volunteers actually grew younger as the treatment progressed, in a biological sense.
In the treatment, they exposed the participants to high-pressure oxygen in a pressure chamber. This process has seemingly revered the two main aging process and its illnesses.
The treatment was highly effective in the shortening of telomeres that are the protective regions at both ends of every chromosome. It also eliminated old and faulty cells in the human body. As per the analysis of the DNA of the participants, the telomeres lengthened up to 38% and the aging cells decreased by 37% after the clinical trials.
Professor Efrati said that in the study they wanted to examine the influence of ‘of HBOT on healthy and independent aging adults’ and to find out if this type of treatment can ‘slow down, stop or even reverse the normal aging process at the cellular level.’
In the clinical trials, a series of 60 such hyperbaric sessions were conducted on 35 healthy adults aged 64 and above, over a period of 90 days. Their blood samples were taken before, during, and at the end of the treatment. The last and final samples were obtained sometime after the research ended.
The two major aging aspects were affected by the treatment. The telomere grew in length at the rate of 20% to 38% depending on the type of the cells. The senescent cells in the body got eliminated by 11% to 37% for the different cell types.
Professor Efrati said, ‘For many years our team has been engaged in hyperbaric research and therapy – treatments based on protocols of exposure to high-pressure oxygen at various concentrations inside a pressure chamber.’ He also explained that their achievements over the years have successfully improved brain functions damaged by age, stroke, or brain injury.
In the biology of aging, the shortening of telomere is seen as the ‘Holy Grail’, said professor Efrati. He says that scientists all over the world are venturing to develop ‘pharmacological and environmental interventions’ that shortens the telomere. ‘Our HBOT protocol was able to achieve this, proving that the aging process can in fact be reversed at the basic cellular-molecular level.’
