Scientists claim to have successfully reversed human aging process in group of older adults

Scientists claim to have successfully reversed the process of human aging in a group of older adults in a groundbreaking study.

The oxygen treatment changed the bodies of older people at the cellular level to what it was 25 years earlier, the researchers said.

In a unique study, scientists used oxygen therapy to reverse two key indicators of biological aging: telomere shortening and a buildup of defective senescent cells.

As humans age, their bodies experience the shortening of telomeres – the protective caps on chromosomes – which leads to diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease.

Scientists at Tel Aviv University have found that breathing oxygen while sitting in a pressurized chamber allows telomeres – the protective caps on chromosomes – to grow back. (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 the deterioration of these two features of the aging process.

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 in pure oxygen through a mask.

The sessions lasted 90 minutes each and took place five days a week for three months.

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

The results show that the test allowed telomeres to grow back by more than 20%, while their senescent cells were reduced by up to 37%.

It’s the equivalent of how their bodies were at the cellular level 25 years earlier, the scientists said.

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

“ With telomere shortening considered to be the ‘holy grail’ of the biology of aging, many pharmacological and environmental interventions are being explored extensively in hopes of enabling telomere elongation, ” said Professor Shai. Efrati, professor at the Tel Aviv Faculty of Medicine. 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 and biological level,” added Efrati.

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

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

Parrish has been criticized for undergoing the experimental treatment by scientists, but she claims the gene therapy has reversed the biological age of her immune cells by 20 years. She recently claimed that death was optional.

Previous studies have found that a healthy diet and intense exercise can also preserve telomere length – but this experience was unique because it went beyond natural interventions, the researchers said.

“ Until now, interventions such as lifestyle modifications and strenuous exercise had an inhibitory effect on the expected shortening of telomere length, ” said study researcher Dr Amir Hadanny. , from the Sagol Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Research in Tel Aviv.

“ However, what is remarkable to note 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 interventions or style changes. of life currently available. ”