Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) involves breathing 100% (pure) oxygen in a special space called a hyperbaric chamber. The air pressure inside is raised to a higher level than normal air pressure. The increased air pressure in the chamber helps the lungs collect more oxygen. One of the most recent and well-known people in this field is Dr. Shai Efrati (cofounder of Aviv Clinics), developing oxygen therapy programs since 2017 and offering hyperbaric sessions in their high-end clinics in Israel, Florida, and Dubai.

 

Aviv Scientific was the subject of substantial media coverage surrounding the results of a clinical study in late 2020, which purported to demonstrate ‘age-reversing’ effects resulting from hyperbaric oxygen therapy. The study's authors showed telomere elongation in circulating immune cells and a reduction in the number of circulating immunosenescent cells, which indicates age reduction.

 

However, the media coverage of the study has been accused of overhyping it by many experts in ageing research. A closer look at the data in context reveals that, although hyperbaric oxygen therapy did show an increase of ~20% in average telomere length in certain immune cells, the T cells being examined have highly dynamic telomeres. Depending on their situation, they can fluctuate considerably, something that can happen anyway as a result of regular exercise. In other words, the study is less revelatory than it first appears. On the other hand, during a discussion on this study in an April 2021 webinar hosted by Aging Analytics Agency in which Dmitry Kaminsky took part, alongside gerontologist and integrative medicine physician Dr. Arkadi Prokopov, it quickly became evident that much of the criticism surrounding the study is the result of measuring just a few biomarkers (i.e., telomere length and the number of circulating immunosenescent cells). It became clear that a more diverse and comprehensive set of Biomarkers of Longevity could have produced a more revelatory and evident study.