Ageing is the new frontier in medicine. Although it may not seem that way as we face continuing global hysteria over the Wuhan plague, medicine has largely conquered the worst maladies that have afflicted humans since time immemorial. Now, medical science is setting its sights on the big one: ageing.
Although eternal youth, let alone immortality, is almost certain to remain the stuff of fantasy, science is fast closing in on techniques that may allow us to soon become a generation of sprightly Methuselahs.
The ageing process has been biologically reversed for the first time by giving humans oxygen therapy in a pressurised chamber.
Scientists in Israel showed they could turn back the clock in two key areas of the body believed to be responsible for the frailty and ill-health that comes with growing older.
It has long been a puzzle as to just why advanced organisms age and die. But, if we can figure out the why, we’re getting closer to nailing the how.
As people age, the protective caps at the ends of chromosomes – called telomeres – shorten, causing DNA to become damaged and cells to stop replicating. At the same time, “zombie” senescent cells build up in the body, preventing regeneration.
Increasing telemere length and getting rid of senescent cells is the focus of many anti-ageing studies, and drugs are being developed to target those areas.
Now scientists at Tel Aviv University have shown that giving pure oxygen to older people while in a hyperbaric chamber increased the length of their telomeres by 20 per cent, a feat that has never been achieved before.
And we all laughed at Michael Jackson!
Scientists said the growth may mean that the telomeres of trial participants were now as long as they had been 25 years earlier.
The therapy also reduced senescent cells by up to 37 per cent, making way for new healthy cells to regrow. Animal studies have shown that removing senescent cells extends remaining life by more than one third.
In the very near future, 100 may well be the new 70.
But, beyond life-extension, such therapies may also alleviate some of the more intractable ailments that still plague us, including such dreaded conditions as neurodegenerative disease, and other age-linked illnesses like cancers.
Many scientists now believe ageing itself is responsible for major conditions such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, arthritis, cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.
It is also known that obesity, smoking, lack of physical activity, vitamin deficiency and inflammation can speed up the shortening of telomeres, demonstrating that they have a major impact on longevity[…]
The Israeli team has also previously demonstrated that the pressurised oxygen therapy can improve cognitive decline.
What is particularly remarkable about the therapy is that it showed significant results in the absence of any other lifestyle or dietary regimes.
The trial included 35 healthy independent adults aged 64 and older who did not undergo any lifestyle, diet or medication adjustments. Each patient was placed in a hyperbaric chamber for 90 minutes for five days a week over three months while breathing 100 per cent oxygen through a mask.
The pressurised chamber allows more oxygen to be dissolved into the tissues and mimics a state of “hypoxia”, or oxygen shortage, which is known to have regenerating effects[…]
Dr Amir Hadanny, chief medical research officer of the Sagol Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Research[…said ] “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.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/11/18/human-ageing-process-biologically-reversed-world-first/
This pioneering study opens the door for further research which, while it may not open the gates to the Fountain of Youth, at the very least promises to add decades of vigour to our lives.
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