According to a new study in a journal appropriately titled Aging, scientist at Tel Aviv University have allegedly found a way to make Benjamin Button happen. The process, known as hyperbaric oxygen treatments or HBOT, can reportedly stop blood cells from aging.
From a press release:
The researchers found that a unique protocol of treatments with high-pressure oxygen in a pressure chamber can reverse two major processes associated with 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 study 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.
I don't fully comprehend this, but the New York Post explains it as thus:
They placed elderly participants in the chamber for 90 minutes a day, five days a week for three months and studied its impact on senescent cells, which are associated with tissue and organ deterioration. They also measured the length of each person's telomere, a molecule linked to premature cellular aging.
Remarkably, scientists found that the participants' telomeres had enlarged by an average length of 20 percent while their senescent cells decreased by up to 37 per cent by the end of the trial — the equivalent growing 25 years younger.
Granted, the Post is about as reliable as this "anti-aging serum" on Amazon. But a different study from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in 2016 also claimed to show that age-reversal was indeed possible in both human cells and live mice. So maybe they're onto something after all?
Tel Aviv University study finds hyperbaric oxygen treatments reverse aging process [Eureka Alert]
Image: Public Domain via NeedPix
