Man 'de-ages 20 years' after spending record 100 days under water

A professor who has managed to reside underwater for a record 100 days claimed he has de-aged 20 years as a result of the experiment.

Last year, Professor Joseph Dituri (nicknamed "Dr Deep Sea") from the University of South Florida shared how he sought to examine how the human body handles the long-term effects of staying submerged in extreme pressure.

To find this out, he resided in a 100-square-foot habitat 30 feet below the surface at Jules’ Undersea Lodge in Key Largo.

The former saturation diving officer was given various psychosocial, psychological and medical tests such as blood panels, ultrasounds, electrocardiograms and stem cell tests to research a special type of medicine which delivers oxygen to the human body under high pressure.

While understanding these effects, Dr Dituri also spent his time underwater teaching school children via his laptop.

Following his return to the surface in June, Dr Dituri claimed there was a 50-percent reduction in every inflammatory marker in his body, according to his blood test results.

Incredibly, he added how the experiment improved other aspects of his health too such as longer telomeres (structures made from DNA sequences and proteins found at the ends of chromosomes) which are associated with a long lifespan - though this has been disputed in another study.

While Dr Dituri noted how his telomeres weren't as long as they were when he first came out of the experiment last summer, they are longer than they were before he conducted his study.

He also explained how the experiment positively impacted his extrinsic age - ageing as a result of lifestyle and environmental factors.

"I'm 56 now. My extrinsic [biological] age was 44. When I got out of the water, my extrinsic age was 34," Dr Dituri told Orlando's WKMG News.

"So, my telomeres lengthened. I actually got younger when I was under the water."

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