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An Israeli doctor says he caused physical changes in human blood cells that “reverse” aging, using oxygen therapy.
Shai Efrati reported in a peer-reviewed journal article published Nov. 18 that his research team’s 60-day therapy lengthened telomeres, the structures found at the ends of chromosomes, on average by more than a fifth.
He says this represents a “holy grail” in the fight against aging. However, some other doctors have reservations and fear that he may open a Pandora’s Box that could end up causing health problems.
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“We try to fight aging by exercising and changing our diet, but that only slows the decline,” Efrati told The Times of Israel. “We are showing that we can actually set back the body clock and improve the quality of blood cells. This means that we can begin to think of aging as a reversible disease. ”
The associate professor at Tel Aviv University said that in the near future, large numbers of people may enroll in the therapy he gave to the subjects in his essay: a course of sessions in a pressurized chamber. – or hyperbaric – breathing pure oxygen for some time.
A hyperbaric chamber using Shai Efrati’s anti-aging protocol. (courtesy Sagol Center for Hyperbaric Medicine)
The non-profit Sagol Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Research at Shamir Medical Center near Rishon Lezion, which he runs, offers its oxygen protocol to companies outside of Israel. It is sold to the Aviv Clinic in a retirement village in Florida, which offers it as a response to aging. Efrati is the clinic’s medical advisor.
An illustration of telomeres. (FancyTapis via iStock by Getty Images)
Some other doctors say that claims should be treated with caution.
“I’m skeptical that manipulation can reverse aging, a complicated process with many factors,” senior geriatrician Yoram Maaravi, who is unrelated to the research, told The Times of Israel.
He said telomeres are widely regarded as one of the many factors that impact aging, not just one, the change of which can simply go back in time. And he argued that it was too early in the study of telomeres to make any bold decelerations that their lengthening will solve aging, as much of the knowledge today consists of inferences for humans drawn from studies of mouses.
Maaravi, chief physician of the Geriatric Rehabilitation Department at Hadassah Medical Center and Head of Home Rehabilitation in Jerusalem for the Clalit Health Fund, also said that if oxygen therapy actually lengthens telomeres, it could be a development that will continue turns against us because so little is known yet. their. “Once we see elongated telomeres, it’s with cancer,” he says. “Cancer cells have an enzyme that can make them longer, and we have to be very careful to manipulate nature.”
Efrati reported that in addition to telomere lengthening, his therapy led to a decrease in senescent cells, the population of which is believed to correlate with the onset of various diseases.
Maaravi said the impact of shrinking these cells is not sufficiently understood to be the basis for a claim aimed at fighting aging. “Will Eliminating Senescent Cells Reduce Aging?” He asked. “We do not know yet.”
Professor Shai Efrati of the Sagol Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Research at Shamir Medical Center (courtesy Sagol Center)
Efrati’s new study was written after recruiting 35 people over the age of 64 and taking blood samples. He then gave some of them a 60-day treatment, during which they spent stays in a hyperbaric chamber, breathing pure oxygen for part of the time.
In a previous study published in July, he claimed that the therapy improved cognitive function. In the latest research, he looked at telomeres, which are like protective caps at the ends of chromosomes. They lengthen with age and some studies indicate that their length can affect the rate of physical aging and the onset of age-related diseases.
He excluded the results of nine of his participants from his telomere scan, five because they did not meet baseline assessments and four because their blood samples were of low quality. For the analysis of senescent cells, he excluded 15 participants, five because they did not respond to baseline assessments and 10 because their blood samples were of poor quality.
Among other study participants, there was an increase in telomere length, averaging more than 20 percent, and a reduction in senescent cells on a similar scale, Efrati reported.
“Researchers around the world are trying to develop pharmacological and environmental interventions that allow telomere elongation,” Efrati said. “Our hyperbaric oxygen therapy protocol has been successful in achieving this goal, proving that the aging process can in fact be reversed at the basic cellular and molecular level.
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