Cognitive enhancement of healthy older adults using hyperbaric oxygen: a randomized controlled trial

Abstract

More than half of community-dwelling individuals sixty years and older express concern about declining cognitive abilities. The current study’s aim was to evaluate hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) effect on cognitive functions in healthy aging adults. A randomized controlled clinical trial randomized 63 healthy adults (>64) either to HBOT(n=33) or control arms(n=30) for three months. Primary endpoint included the general cognitive function measured post intervention/control. Cerebral blood flow (CBF) was evaluated by perfusion magnetic resonance imaging. There was a significant group-by-time interaction in global cognitive function post-HBOT compared to control (p=0.0017). The most striking improvements were in attention (net effect size=0.745) and information processing speed (net effect size=0.788). Voxel-based analysis showed significant cerebral blood flow increases in the HBOT group compared to the control group in the right superior medial frontal gyrus (BA10), right and left supplementary motor area (BA6), right middle frontal gyrus (BA6), left middle frontal gyrus (BA9), left superior frontal gyrus (BA8) and the right superior parietal gyrus (BA7). In this study, HBOT was shown to induce cognitive enhancements in healthy aging adults via mechanisms involving regional changes in CBF. The main improvements include attention, information processing speed and executive functions, which normally decline with aging.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy alleviates vascular dysfunction and amyloid burden in an Alzheimer’s disease mouse model and in elderly patients

“…Increased CBF and higher oxygen delivery can improve or boost brain function. HBOT induces cognitive enhancement in both young [ 67 ] and elderly healthy subjects through regional changes in CBF [ 68 ]. HBOT has also been shown to increase CBF and improve EEG measurements [ 34 ], global cognitive scores [ 33 , 69 ] and PET scans [ 70 ] of post-stroke and TBI patients.…”

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy increases telomere length and decreases immunosenescence in isolated blood cells : a prospective trial

“…Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is a well-established treatment modality for non-healing wounds, radiation injuries as well as different hypoxic or ischemic events (such as carbon monoxide toxicity, infections, etc). In recent years, a growing evidence from pre-clinical as well as clinical trials demonstrate the efficacy of HBOT for neurological indications including idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss [ 34 ], post stroke and post traumatic brain injury [ 35 – 41 ], central sensitization syndrome such as fibromyalgia syndrome [ 42 , 43 ] and age related cognitive decline [ 17 ] and animal models of Alzheimer’s disease [ 44 ]. For the first time, the current study aimed to evaluate the physiological effect on the cellular level in aging humans without any functional limiting disease.…”

“…The study cohort included only patients treated by HBOT, which is part of a larger cohort of normal ageing population studied at the Shamir medical center, Israel (NCT02790541 [ 17 ]).…”

“…Repeated intermittent hyperoxic exposures, using certain HBOT protocols, can induce physiological effects which normally occur during hypoxia in a hyperoxic environment, the so called hyperoxic-hypoxic paradox [ 13 – 16 ]. In addition, it was recently demonstrated that HBOT can induce cognitive enhancements in healthy aging adults via mechanisms involving regional changes in cerebral blood flow [ 17 ]. On the cellular level, it was demonstrated that HBOT can induce the expression of hypoxia induced factor (HIF), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and sirtuin (SIRT), stem cell proliferation, mitochondrial biogenesis, angiogenesis and neurogenesis [ 18 ].…”

A General Overview on the Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy: Applications, Mechanisms and Translational Opportunities

“…Hachmo et al [ 195 ] reported the effect of hyperbaric oxygen in the prevention of telomere shortening and immunosenescence by the clearance of senescent immune cells. In this line, other studies have reported the same results in the aging skin, through the acceleration of epidermal basal cells proliferation [ 196 ], in the endothelial cells, where it induces antioxidants expression [ 197 ] and also in the brain, where HBOT appears to improve the cerebral blood flow [ 198 ], restoring cognitive parameters, hippocampal functions and even improved insulin resistance in both normal-weigh and obese aging rats [ 199 ].…”