HYPERBARIC OXYGEN THERAPY IN THE AGING PROCESS

Discover the hyperbaric medicine center opened within our clinic.

Centrokinetic has the most advanced hyperbaric chamber in Bucharest, with multiple medical and anti-aging uses. The Baroks chamber has 5 seats and operates at a constant pressure of 3 atmospheres, being fully automated and equipped with protocols dedicated to each condition, and can be used individually for each patient.

Benefits of hyperbaric therapy

Patients who use the clinic's hyperbaric therapy services benefit from:

• The only medically accredited hyperbaric therapy chamber in Bucharest, operating at 3 atmospheres (those for aesthetic use operate at 1 atmosphere and have no medical benefits).
• A safe medical procedure, with no radiation, no pain, and no side effects. The chamber offers complete protection against CoVid-19 transmission, as each patient has an individual mask during therapy, and breathing movements are made only through this pressurized mask.
• A specialized medical team made up of rehabilitation doctors, orthopedists, rheumatologists, neurologists, and neurosurgeons. In other words, a multidisciplinary team specialized in all conditions that can be treated through hyperbaric therapy.
• Premium conditions at an affordable and fair price. Our clinic is recognized for the conditions offered and for the care given to each patient. However, there is no need to pay exorbitant prices to access quality medical services. At Centrokinetic, you will find an affordable and fair price. It should be noted, however, that we do not have a contract with the National Health Insurance House (we do not offer state-reimbursed services).

Centrokinetic is in constant contact with prestigious clinics and universities in Belgium, the Netherlands, France, and Greece to continuously update treatments and offer patients the best medical solutions.

The aging process

Every time one of your body’s cells reproduces, a fragment of your youth is lost along the way. This phenomenon occurs due to the shortening of telomeres, the structures that cap the ends of our chromosomes.

Scientists in Israel say they can reverse this process by lengthening telomeres, in a study involving 26 patients, published at Tel Aviv University in November 2020. The study participants stayed in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber for 90 minutes per session, five sessions a week, for three months. As a result, some of their cell telomeres were lengthened by 20%.

It’s an impressive claim, and something many other researchers have attempted in the past without success. But of course, we must note that it is still a small-scale study, and these results will need to be replicated before we celebrate. Nevertheless, the fact that hyperbaric oxygen therapy influences telomere length is a lead worth investigating further.

The head of research, Shair Efrati, a physician at the Faculty of Medicine and the Sagol School of Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University, told ScienceAlert that the inspiration behind this experiment came, somewhat, from out of this world.

After NASA’s twin experiment, in which one twin was sent into space while the other remained on Earth, demonstrated a significant difference in their telomere lengths, we realized that the environment can influence cellular changes that occur during the aging process, Efrati said.

Telomeres are repetitive sequences of genetic code and represent the DNA equivalent of the small metal or plastic tubes that cover the ends of a shoelace.

They are copied along with the rest of the chromosomes each time a cell divides. However, with each replication, small fragments of the telomeres fail to be transmitted to the new copy, causing the chromosome to become increasingly shorter.

As anyone who has ever lost the metal tip of a shoelace knows, it doesn’t take long for the integrity of the lace to deteriorate. Similarly, telomeres that become progressively shorter expose chromosomes to a high risk of mutations. These mutations lead to cellular changes that predispose us to many age-related diseases, including cancer.

The fact that we age due to telomere shortening is not a certainty, but there is a strong link between their length and our health level, a connection that researchers are eager to explore.

Longer telomeres mean better cellular performance, says Efrati.

There are many ways to accelerate telomere shortening, including sleep deprivation, consumption of processed foods, and even childbirth. Slowing telomere shortening, on the other hand, requires a bit more effort, but one thing is certain: exercising regularly and eating healthy are two ways to help your chromosomes stay longer for a longer time.

A real success would be to turn back the chromosomal hourglass and regain the lost telomere sequences. The fact that the tissues lining the intestines do this naturally with the help of an enzyme called telomerase has fueled research over the years.

Many significant milestones have been reached in attempting this. Gene therapy has shown us in mice that one day it might be feasible in humans. More recently, the telomeres of stem cells from the world’s oldest woman were reset outside her body.

Several studies have shown potential increases of a few percent through supplement intake, such as vitamin D. But while many remedies claiming to slow or even reverse aging appear on the market, the reality of scientifically supported therapies that could restore our telomeres to those of a 20-year-old can be overwhelming.

That’s why this latest study is attracting so much attention. Far from a negligible increase, this latest analysis showed that telomeres in white blood cells collected from 26 patients regained one-fifth of their length.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy in reversing the aging process

The key to this achievement seems to be hyperbaric oxygen therapy—the inhalation of pure oxygen while sitting in a pressurized chamber for a certain amount of time. In this case, 90 minutes per session, five sessions per week, for three months.

This therapy has sparked much controversy over time due to claims that it could treat a wide range of conditions. It is the kind of therapy a diver would undergo after surfacing too quickly from deep waters, or to neutralize oxygen-sensitive microbes around a wound.

But oxygen-rich environments are also behind a strange paradox—one where the body desperately triggers a series of genetic and molecular changes that usually occur in low-oxygen environments.

In this study, researchers managed to show that the genetic changes caused by hyperbaric oxygen therapy lengthened telomeres and had a positive effect on tissue integrity.

Whether we would sit in a small chamber every day for a quarter of a year is a matter of preference, but future research could make the entire process more efficient, at least for some people.

“Once we have demonstrated the anti-aging reversal effect on study subjects using a predefined hyperbaric oxygen therapy protocol, further studies will be needed to individualize this protocol for each person,” says Efrati.

In a press conference held at the Sagol Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Research, Efrati stated that understanding telomere shortening is considered the Holy Grail of aging biology.

No matter how significant telomere shortening seems, the failure of our biology as we age is undoubtedly a complex matter involving much more than lost chromosome sequences.

Reactivating telomerase is also a trick used by cancer to stay ahead of the cellular growth curve, making this Holy Grail a poisoned chalice we must strive to understand before drinking eagerly from it.

Ultimately, a study like this will help us form a more optimistic picture regarding the aging process.