A new study out of Israel has shown significant telomere lengthening after only a few months of hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Thoughts?
The aim of the current study was to evaluate whether HBOT affects TL and senescent cell concentrations in a normal, non-pathological, aging adult population.
It found that HBOT did affect telomere length.
This does not allow us to draw any conclusions with respect to human aging/longevity. It is hypothesis-generating for further study.
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Doesn’t telomere length tell us something about aging? Also, the percentage of senescent cells were reduced too. What more do you think we need to know besides doing a follow up to see if the changes are permanent? Thank you for your time. Interesting subject.
We would need prospective, controlled data in actual living humans looking at real-world outcomes (morbidity & mortality).
We can do all kinds of things at a molecular level that we think “should” translate to real effects based one our (often limited, incomplete, or outright incorrect) understanding, but ultimately fail to impact the actual outcomes we care about. No one actually cares how long their telomeres are; rather, they care if they live longer, or live better. Finding effects on the former does not allow us to draw conclusions about the latter, until / unless the latter is studied directly.
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