Breakthrough Study: Scientists Discover Reversing Human Aging Process

Emerging technologies have opened the floodgates to a possible way to slow down aging.

According to Popular Mechanics, the cure for aging has been a "Holy Grail" of medicine.

CRISPR, one of the emerging technologies to edit genes, has opened the door to a possible medical science future. However, the key to slow down aging may be through a simple and age-old technique.

For the first time, Israeli scientists showed the reversal of aging in two essential biological chromosomes known as telomeres, gradually becoming shorter. When the telomeres become too short, the cell will no longer replicate and eventually die, which is not necessarily bad.

By giving patients oxygen therapy in a pressurized chamber, the reversal of aging works in two key biological clocks in humans.

Shortening of telomere could prevent multiplication of rogue cancerous cells uncontrollably. But this process comes with the cost of genetic aging.

The geriatric cells that could no longer divide are called senescent cells, which accumulate for the entire period of human life and believed to be one of the significant causes of aging.

In a first-of-its-kind study, Israeli scientists have successfully reversed the aging process of elderly people through "oxygen therapy," as per New York Post.

The researchers came from Tel Aviv University. They used hyperbaric oxygen chambers targeting specific cells and DNA linked to shorter lifespans. The process led the scientists to the "Holy Grail" of reversing aging, according to a press release about the discovery.

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During the study, researchers investigated if the therapy could reverse the effects of aging in 35 people aged 64 and above. According to the study published in the journal Aging on Wednesday, the treatment involves breathing pure oxygen in a pressurized environment.

Elderly participants were placed in the chamber for 90 minutes each day, five days per week, for three months and observed its impact on senescent cells. Scientists also measured the length of each human's telomere.

They remarkably found that the participants' telomeres had an enlarged by an average length of 20 percent while their senescent cells reduced by up to 37 percent by the end of the trial. They had a total growing 25 years younger.

The study's co-author Shai Efrati said the significant improvement of telomere length provides the scientific community with a newfound understanding that aging can be reversed at the basic cellular-biological level.

Participants of the study did not change their lifestyle, medications, or diets while undergoing the sessions, which impact a person's biological age.

The scientists, including doctors from the Shamir Medical Center, claim that the pressurized chamber triggered temporary oxygen shortages that caused cell regeneration.

Dr. Amir Hadanny, who co-authored the study, said: "Until now, interventions such as intense exercise and lifestyle modifications were shown to have some inhibition effect on the expected telomere length shortening."

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