[ad_1]
An Israeli doctor says it has caused physical changes in human blood cells that “reverse” aging, using oxygen therapy.
Shai Efrati reported in a peer-reviewed journal article that her research team’s 60-day therapy lengthened telomeres, the structures found at the ends of chromosomes, by more than a fifth on average.
He claims that this represents a “holy grail” in the battle against aging. However, other doctors have reservations and are concerned that you may be opening a Pandora’s box that could end up causing health problems.
Receive The Start-Up Israel Daily Kick-Off by Email and Never Miss Our Top Stories Free Signup
“We try to address aging with physical exercise and dietary changes, but this only slows the decline,” Efrati told The Times of Israel. “We are showing that we can actually turn back the biological clock and improve the quality of blood cells. This means that we can begin to view aging as a reversible disease. ”
The Tel Aviv University associate professor said that in the near future, a large number of people could enroll in the therapy he gave the subjects in his trial: a course of sessions in a pressurized or hyperbaric chamber, breathing pure oxygen. for some of the time.
A hyperbaric chamber that uses Shai’s Efrati anti-aging protocol. (courtesy of the Sagol Center for Hyperbaric Medicine)
The nonprofit Sagol Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Research at Shamir Medical Center near Rishon Lezion, which he directs, offers its oxygen protocol to companies outside of Israel. It is sold at the Aviv Clinic in a retirement town in Florida, which offers it as an answer 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 am skeptical that manipulation can reverse aging, a complicated process with many factors,” lead geriatrician Yoram Maaravi, who is not related to the investigation, told The Times of Israel.
He said telomeres are widely believed to be one of several factors that impact aging, not a single factor, the change of which can simply turn back time. And he argued that it is too early in the study of telomeres to make bold slowdowns that by lengthening them address aging, since much of the current knowledge consists of inferences for humans drawn from studies in mice.
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 is actually lengthening telomeres, it could be a failing development, as very little is still known. they. “Once we see elongated telomeres it is with cancer,” he said. “Cancer cells have an enzyme that can lengthen them and we must be very careful when manipulating nature.”
Efrati reported that, in addition to lengthening telomeres, his therapy led to a decrease in senescent cells, the population of which is believed to correlate with the occurrence of various diseases.
Maaravi said the impact of shrinking these cells is not well understood to be the basis for a claim to tackle aging. “Will eliminating senescent cells reduce aging?” I ask. “We don’t know yet.”
Professor Shai Efrati of the Sagol Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Research at Shamir Medical Center (courtesy of the Sagol Center)
Efrati’s new study was written after he recruited 35 people 64 and older and took blood samples. He then gave some of them a 60-day treatment, during which they spent periods in a hyperbaric chamber, breathing pure oxygen for part of the time.
In a study published in July, he claimed that therapy improves cognitive function. In the latest research, he looked at telomeres, which are like protective caps on the ends of chromosomes. They lengthen with age and some studies indicate that their duration can affect the rate of physical aging and the appearance of age-related diseases.
He excluded the results of nine of his participants from his telomere analysis, five because they did not meet the initial assessments and four because their blood samples were of poor quality. For the analysis of senescent cells, it excluded 15 participants, five because they did not meet the initial 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 for telomere lengthening,” Efrati said. “Our hyperbaric oxygen therapy protocol was able to accomplish this, demonstrating that the aging process can indeed be reversed at the basic cellular-molecular level.”
[ad_2]
