title: Potentiality of oxygen-ozonetherapy to improve the health of aging people.
abstract: During the last century the lifespan of human beings has increased from about 49 to almost 80 years owing to the great advances of biomedical sciences. This fact has strongly stimulated the idea that it may be possible to prolong productive life for another twenty years but paradoxically the problem of both hyper- and hyponutrition severely jeopardizes this objective all over the world. Many causes of premature aging have been discussed in order to prevent it or find suitable medical treatment. So far only a moderate restriction of caloric intake that does not alter essential nutrients has proved capable of keeping animals and humans healthier for a prolonged time. This modality appears to activate critical longevity genes that can prolong survival: although this is a valuable line of research it will take considerable time to produce valid drugs to selectively activate these relevant genes. Meantime we propose to evaluate an easy and well accepted treatment based on a weekly quasi-total body exposure to oxygen-ozone inside a thermostatically controlled cabinet. The rational exposure to a minimal amount of ozone acting as a mild stressor induces a striking improvement of crucial metabolic activities capable of preserving a good health for several years.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, University of Siena, Via Aldo Moro 2, 53100 Siena, Italy. bocci@unisi.it
authors.forename: Velio
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Bocci
authors.forename: Iacopo
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Zanardi
authors.forename: Valter
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Travagli
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008136:Longevity / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D018384:Oxidative Stress / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D010100:Oxygen / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D010126:Ozone / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D017382:Reactive Oxygen Species / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D017382:Reactive Oxygen Species; D010126:Ozone; D010100:Oxygen