Scientists found that the hyperbaric oxygen treatments (HBOT) in healthy ageing adults could help stop the ageing of blood cells and may even reverse the ageing process. They added that adult blood cells may actually reverse-age and become younger. The study, a collaboration between Tel Aviv University and the Shamir Medical Center, administered high-pressure oxygen in a pressurised chamber and said it reversed two processes relating to ageing and illness. Using hyperbaric oxygen treatments (HBOT) on ageing healthy adults, the researchers found the shortening of telomeres (chromosome ends) and the accumulation of old and malfunctioning cells in the body could be reversed. That is, the adults’ blood cells actually grow younger as the treatments progress. Some 35 adults over the age of 64 took part in the study and were given HBOT for 90 minutes a day, five times a week for three months. The study was published in Aging magazine on November 18. As we age, our bodies deteriorate due to DNA sequences called telomeres. Telomeres are protein caps on human chromosomes that begin to shrink with age. But each time a cell divides, its length gradually decreases and gradually it decreases to such an extent that its functions cease and chromosomes become unstable. After middle age, cells continue to divide and replicate and slowly die. The reduction in the length of telomeres and the gradual death of cells are the focus of physical ageing, and this study aims to reverse this process. This technique is used to treat wounds that are becoming fistulas, but this study looked at the extent to which this technique protects telomeres and increases their length. Telomere shortening is the holy grail of ageing in Biology; a process successfully reversed in this study. He says all pharmaceuticals and research laboratories across the globe are striving to find a way to elongate telomeres which their HBOT protocol could do.