Humans have always sought ways to reverse the aging process to stay forever young. The thought of growing old frightens many of us with big business and multinational companies selling the dream. Lotions, supplements, exercise, and diets can sometimes hold or portray fantastical claims to keep our health, vitality, and youth.
Hollywood too has touched on the subject with movies such as Brad Pitt’s ‘The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button’ and the comedy film ‘Death Becomes Her’ starring Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn, and Bruce Willis. Now, scientists say the dream could become reality as researchers in Israel claim to have discovered a world first in clinical trials carried out in elderly adults.
Aging Reversed
In the “Holy Grail” study, scientists say, “aging can, indeed, be targeted and reversed at the basic cellular level”.
As age increases the human body experiences the receding of telomeres – protective caps at the end of chromosomes – and an increase in older, malfunctioning senescent cells (known as zombie cells). With diet and exercise have previously shown to have a positive effect, this new study showed significantly greater results in patients who did not undergo any lifestyle, diet, or medical adjustments. (1)
Cell Regeneration
The ground-breaking experiment involved 35 adults aged 64 and older, and used a method called Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy to try and prevent the degeneration of these two areas of the aging process. Placed in a pressurized chamber the subjects were given pure oxygen for 90 minutes a day, five days a week for three months. The chamber mirrored a state of hypoxia – also known as oxygen shortage. (2) This caused cell regeneration to occur.
Data analyzed at the end of the trial showed the participants’ telomeres had increased in length by an average of 20 percent and their senescent cells reduced by up to 37 percent – equivalent to body cellular levels 25 years younger.
Disease Prevention
With many scientists now believing diseases such as cancer, diabetes, arthritis, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s are a result of aging, and indeed aging itself is a disease, it is hoped the results of this test, plus further studies, can help reduce the risk of certain diseases and ill-health that comes with growing older. (3)
“Until now, interventions such as lifestyle modifications and intense exercise were shown to have some inhibition effect on the expected telomere length shortening,” said Dr. Amir Hadanny, chief medical research officer of the Sagol Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Research.
“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 elongation – at rates far beyond any of the current available interventions or lifestyle modifications.
“With this pioneering study, we have opened a door for further research on the prolonged cellular impact of the therapy to reverse the aging process. After dedicating our research to exploring its impact on the areas of brain functionality and age-related cognitive decline, we have now uncovered, for the first time in humans, biological effects at the cellular level in healthy aging adults.”
For those of us who want to elongate our lives, stay alert and active for longer, this is the fairytale we all crave. Like in those fantasy movies, perhaps one day we can all be…. forever young!
