A Florida scientist who spent 100 days under water claims that he still carries some of the health benefits, nine months after he returned to land.
Retired Navy diver Joseph Dituri spent this record-breaking span of time in a bunker 30 feet below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean, in a high-pressure environment that he credits with reversing his body’s age on a cellular level.
When Dituri emerged in June of last year, he claimed that blood tests showed a 50-percent reduction in every inflammatory marker in his body, 17 times the number of stem cells that he had before the stint, and longer telomeres – structures on chromosomes that have a theorized link to extending life.
Joseph Dituri spent 100 days under water in 2023, breaking the previous world record of 73 days. He claimed that his blood showed signs of reversed aging when he resurfaced
‘I’m 56 now. My extrinsic [biological] age was 44. When I got out of the water, my extrinsic age was 34,’ Dituri told reporters at WKMG News in Orlando. ‘So, my telomeres lengthened. I actually got younger when I was under the water.’
At the end of your chromosomes are telomeres, which are like the plastic tips at the ends of shoelaces.
Every time your cells divide, the telomeres get shorter. Once they are gone, the chromosome unravels and the cell dies. So the idea is that keeping them long will help cells live longer, slowing the overall aging process.
This longevity idea has not yet been proven in human experiments, but other researchers are working on gene therapies to lengthen telomeres in hopes of slowing the aging process.
Dituri claimed that his telomeres are not as long as they were when he first came out, but that they are still longer than they were before.
He also reported that his cognition improved during his underwater stay.
Dituri believes his age reversal was caused by living in a high-pressure or ‘hyperbaric’ environment.
In modern medicine, a hyperbaric chamber usually contains pure oxygen, but in the case of undersea pressurization, the mixture is closer to that of regular air.
The health benefits of hyperbaric chambers have been well documented since a British physician built the first one in 1662 – over 100 years before the discovery of oxygen.
In many cases, though, proponents of the healing effects of hyperbaric therapies have relied more on anecdotal evidence than on high-quality clinical trials.
Nonetheless, the medical literature shows that some people have received profound, almost miraculous, benefits from hyperbaric therapy.
In his underwater pod, Dituri took many readings on his physical health, including encephalography (EEG) recordings
In an interview with an Orlando news station this week, Dituri said that he still shows residual signs of anti-aging in his cells
Doctors treated patients of the Spanish influenza of 1918 with hyperbaric therapy, pulling them back from the brink of death just by bringing them into chambers filled with pressurized air.
‘I mean, come on! This has been around. So why wouldn’t we treat post-COVID [complications],’ Dituri said.
He added that scientific studies should be performed, but that the anecdotal evidence provides should be proof enough that there is something there worth exploring.
Specifically, he said, scientists should be exploring the ‘mechanisms of action’ – what is going on on a molecular level that leads to health effects.
One that he points to is ulcerative colitis, a chronic bowel disease that is linked to inflammation.
‘This is the kind of stuff that we need to do studies on,’ he said.
Though further research is needed, since its beginnings hyperbaric therapy has been linked to improved wound healing and decreased inflammatory markers.
Recent research even showed that hyperbaric oxygen therapy can reduce the rate of blood cells dying and even lengthen telomeres.
Inflammatory molecules have been linked to autoimmune diseases like Crohn’s and ulcerative colitis, and even long COVID.
Lowered inflammatory markers are linked to lower cancer risk, improved cognitive function, and decreased risk of heart disease.
Dituri also carried 17 times the number of stem cells that he had had before his underwater stay, he claimed.
Dituri spent his time in a 100-square-foot pod, where his REM sleep improved considerably over his baseline
When Dituri emerged, he was reportedly three-quarters of an inch shorter than when he went inside
Stem cells can develop into any other cell type in the body, so they are associated with regenerative medicine.
Dituri’s effects were seen in 100 days of 24-hour exposure to a hyperbaric environment.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy, on the other hand, is usually done in one-hour increments over the course of a few days to a couple of months.
Nonetheless, most of the studies showing its health effects were performed under those conditions, so it should not be necessary to sequester yourself under the ocean to reap the anti-aging rewards.
Dituri also said: ‘We’ve been seeing great results on long-haul COVID – only 10 treatments.’
It can be costly, however. Dituri said each one-hour treatment should cost about $250, but he suggested that some providers may be charging much more.
Dituri is careful to note that more studies are needed to prove the purported anti-aging effects of hyperbaric therapy
Dituri insists he has no financial conflicts of interest, but he does earn a living training clinicians in hyperbaric medicine at his Undersea Oxygen Academy.
The effects were not all positive, though.
‘I shrank by three-quarters of an inch, I had some significant problems, I cracked a tooth while I was down there,’ Dituri told the reporters.
Compared to astronauts who are in zero-gravity and tend to get an inch taller or more during long journeys, Dituri lived under immense pressure.
‘When you go underwater you increase the pressure – in my case I almost doubled it,’ he said.
Dituri isn’t too concerned about losing height, though.
‘I’ve got what I’ve got, and these are the cards that I was dealt,’ he told the reporters, after they pressed him on being disappointed about being a mere six feet tall.
Dituri maintains other trendy health practices, too, beyond living in a submarine capsule.
During the interview, he told reporters that he fasts throughout much of the day, subsisting on water and bone broth until about 3pm.
So hyperbaric therapy may not be the only treatment that helped him slow or reverse his aging process.
And though Dituri makes some miraculous claims about hyperbaric therapy, he approaches it with cautious optimism.
‘The science isn’t done, but we’re working on it,’ he said. ‘There’s a whole bunch of things that it can’t cure, but there’s some good uses for it.
