Shai Efrati, a professor at Tel Aviv University who runs the Aviv Clinics in Florida, told The Jerusalem Post the study indicates that the cellular basis for the ageing process can be reversed.
“Today telomere shortening is considered the ‘Holy Grail’ of the biology of ageing,” he said.
“Researchers around the world are trying to develop pharmacological and environmental interventions that enable telomere elongation. Our HBOT protocol was able to achieve this, proving that the ageing process can in fact be reversed at the basic cellular-molecular level.”
The study, Efrati said, “gives hope and opens the door for a lot of young scientists to target ageing as a reversible disease”.
His partner at the Shamir Medical Center, Chief Medical Research Officer Amir Hadanny, said interventions such as lifestyle modifications and intense exercise have shown “some inhibiting effect on telomere shortening”, but the hyperbaric oxygen treatment is more effective.
“In our study, only three months of HBOT were able to elongate telomeres at rates far beyond any currently available interventions or lifestyle modifications,” Hadanny said.
According to the study, the physical changes were equivalent to how the participants’ bodies were at the cellular level 25 years earlier.
Key takeaways:
- Israeli scientists say they have managed to not only successfully stop the biological ageing process, but to reverse it, using only oxygen, using a method called Hyperbaric oxygen treatments.
- Telomere length of T helper, T cytotoxic, natural killer and B cells increased significantly, by over 20 percent, following HBOT.
- Significant decrease in the number of senescent T helpers by -37.30%
- This is equivalent to growing 25 years younger.
- Hyperbaric oxygen treatments (HBOT) is already available and in use in hospitals worldwide, for other purposes.
- To get this effect, participants age 65 and older undergo 60 therapy sessions in 3 months. IIRC, this will cost around $1100 per person.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/11/ ... ng-process
https://nypost.com/2020/11/20/scientist ... study/amp/
https://www.prnewswire.com/il/news-rele ... 76053.html
How does a tank of oxygen, out of all methods, do this? Well,
...Low levels of oxygen, or hypoxia, are one of the most powerful inducers of gene expression, metabolic changes, and regenerative processes, including angiogenesis and stimulation of stem cell proliferation, migration, and differentiation.
...Interestingly, fluctuations in the free oxygen concentration rather than the absolute level of oxygen can be interpreted at the cellular level as a lack of oxygen. Thus, repeated intermittent hyperoxia can induce many of the mediators and cellular mechanisms that are usually induced during hypoxia. This is called the hyperoxic-hypoxic paradox (HHP).
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7355982/
I've been interested in the topic of immortality for quite some time, but this seals the deal as it's already happened. Now,
- While the result is too jaw-dropping to be ignored, the sample size is still pretty small. (EDIT: it's 26 people. Holy crap that's pretty small. Then again, telomere elongation isn't something that can happen out of the blue. Until now, no rigorous tests have ever shown that any drug, supplement, or lifestyle change can lengthen telomeres, so the fact that this happens at all with such magnitude is surprising). More research is needed.
- It is still unknown is this process can be repeated after you took it once.
- It's effect on people younger than 65 isn't really known. However, there is little evidence to suggest that such technology will reduce me, currently under 25, to a lump of blastocyte.
Nevertheless, this is a major leap to humanity's quest for immortality. Is immortality here then? Probably not yet. Then again, this is only 2020—imagine the progress we will have in the next 10 years.
But even so, with this current technology, the effects could be profound. For example, if this "reverse aging by 25 years" is true, we can then convert all the 65 y/os to 40 y/os. Meaning, for example, we can subsidize this tech, overwhelmingly cut state pension and healthcare spending, and free up an unfathomble amount of funds—potentially even more funds than if we reduce defense spending to near zero. Imagine: we might be able to fund Green New Deal and cut taxes (or not, I haven't done the math and this is probably a baseless claim). Hell, health spending in general could collapse, as ageing is the single biggest risk factor to major diseases.
On the other hand, overpopulation. 20th century overpopulation is caused by a rapid decrease of death rate due to medical advancements, and only stop when birth rate followed suit due to education, prosperity, and contraception. With longevity reducing the death rate again, it would follow that today's birth rate will need to be reduced again to an even lower level. If not, the population's gonna increase again, an even bigger problem if we remember that around 1 in 3 jobs are being threatened by automation.
Thoughts? Is this just a fluke? Will we ever get to a relative immortality of >1000 years? Will it only be affordable for the rich? What opportunities and threat would arise with the advent of *immortality?
