Man who spent record 100 days underwater shares proof it de-aged him by 20 years
If you spent 100 days underwater, you would probably expect to look slightly different than you did before doing so.
You'd probably be slimmer than you were going in as you wouldn't be able to exercise as much, but that would probably be it - maybe you'd have bags under your eyes from trouble sleeping, but nothing more.
Well, according to Dr Joseph Dituri, changes to his body were a lot more drastic than that as he claims that the experience 'de-aged' him.
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Last year, Dr Dituri challenged himself to spend 100 days underwater in a habitat located 30 feet under a lagoon in Florida.
He didn't just do it for a laugh though, as he was down under for a reason - and I don't mean in Australia!
He was monitoring how his body would react to long-term extreme pressure and alongside breaking a world record, he also discovered a 'brand news species' while doing so.
The reason he was keeping an eye on his body was to research a type of medicine that can help deliver oxygen to the human body under high pressures by helping it to grow new blood vessels, which he was taking.
The former naval officer stayed in a nine meter by nine meter room hidden away at the bottom of the water - which he had to use a scuba diving kit to reach.
When his body wasn't being monitored by himself, as well as medical, psychological, and psychosocial experts, he spent the remainder of his time teaching school children through a video link on his laptop.
A press release from last year added: "Part of the work will see a psychologist and a psychiatrist monitor the effects he experiences while in an environment similar to extended space travel.
"It's an isolating confined extreme environment. And and as humans, we really need to figure out how we're going to be living in that (environment) if we're going to expand our planet, if we're going to go interplanetary, if we're going to find all the cures that we need to find."
When he emerged from his underwater mission last June, Dr Dituri claimed that blood tests showed a 50-percent reduction in every inflammatory marker in his body.
He claimed a lot of areas of his health improved following the 100-day mission, including longer telomeres - structures on chromosomes that are often linked to extending life.
Speaking to reporters at WKMG News in Orlando recently, Dr Dituri said: "I'm 56 now. My extrinsic [biological] age was 44. When I got out of the water, my extrinsic age was 34.
"So, my telomeres lengthened. I actually got younger when I was under the water."
Dr Dituri claims that his telomeres are not as long as they were when he first came out in June, but they are longer than they were before he embarked on his research.
He also believes his phenomenal 'age reversal' was caused by living in a high-pressure or 'hyperbaric' environment.
Joe Yates