Shai Efrati, MD

“Today, people speak a lot about [coronavirus], but the major threat to Western society that is growing from ear-to-ear is age-related functional decline. This is the number one threat.”

In the past several years, the literature showing the possible utility of hyperbaric oxygen therapy in neurologic disease has been growing. Shai Efrati, MD, a pioneer of the treatment, and colleagues published findings just last year showing its potential in patients with post-stroke cognitive issues.1 Now, they’ve taken early-stage steps and begun to assess the therapy as a possible treatment for dementia.

They conducted a randomized, controlled clinical trial of 63 healthy older adults comparing the oxygen therapy to placebo treatment for 3 months. The data suggest that the hyperbaric oxygen treatment induced cognitive enhancements in those aging adults via mechanisms involving regional changes in cerebral blood flow, as evaluated by perfusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

 inquired with Efrati, who is the director of the Sagol Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Research at Yitzhak Shamir Medical Center, and an associate professor in the Sackler Faculty of Medicine and Sagol School of Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University. He detailed the thought process behind the work and offered his takeaways for some of the results.

REFERENCES
1. Efrati S, Fishlev G, Bechor Y, et al. Hyperbaric oxygen induces late neuroplasticity in post-stroke patients--randomized, prospective trial. 

. 2013;8(1):e53716. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0053716.
2. Amir H, Malka DK, Gil S, et al. enhancement of healthy older adults using hyperbaric oxygen: a randomized controlled trial. 

. 2020; 12(13):13740–13761. doi: 10.18632/aging.103571

Videos

The director of the Sagol Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Research at Yitzhak Shamir Medical Center offers takeaways on hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

Shai Efrati, MD: Assessing Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy for Neurodegeneration

“If we cannot take the stem cells out and inject them, let’s stimulate our own body to create them. So how do you do that? Well, the main trigger for stem cell proliferation is hypoxia—a lack of oxygen.”

Shai Efrati, MD, has been working with hyperbaric oxygen therapy for quite some time, conducting studies of the treatment’s potential in a number of neurologic disease states. One such venture recently revealed that the oxygen therapy appeared to induce cognitive enhancements in healthy aging adults via mechanisms involving regional changes in cerebral blood flow, as evaluated by perfusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

The findings showed that there was a significant group-by-time interaction in global cognitive function post-HBOT compared to control (

= .0017), with the most impressive improvements in attention (net effect size = 0.745) and information processing speed (net effect size = 0.788).

Efrati, who is the director of the Sagol Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Research at Yitzhak Shamir Medical Center, and an associate professor in the Sackler Faculty of Medicine and Sagol School of Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University, spoke about this with 

, particularly in the context of the mechanistic workings of hyperbaric oxygen therapy. He detailed how the treatment works to proliferate stem cells, and what brought he and colleagues to this point to developing the treatment.

Amir H, Malka DK, Gil S, et al. enhancement of healthy older adults using hyperbaric oxygen: a randomized controlled trial. 

. 2020; 12(13):13740—13761. doi: 10.18632/aging.103571

The director of the Sagol Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Research at Yitzhak Shamir Medical Center discussed how hyperbaric oxygen therapy is being used to attempt to improve the damage from neurodegeneration.

Shai Efrati, MD: Inducing Stem Cell Proliferation With Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy

“We are working on regenerating brain tissue. The main issue is to refer to the brain as a tissue—treat the injury we have in the brain just like any other injuries that we have in other parts of the body.”

Recently, a randomized controlled clinical trial that included 63 healthy older adults comparing placebo to hyperbaric oxygen therapy for 3 months revealed that the oxygen therapy appeared to induce cognitive enhancements in healthy aging adults via mechanisms involving regional changes in cerebral blood flow, as evaluated by perfusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

There was a significant group-by-time interaction in global cognitive function post-HBOT compared to control (

= .0017), with the most impressive improvements in attention (net effect size = 0.745) and information processing speed (net effect size = 0.788). The work was led by Shai Efrati, MD, director, Sagol Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Research, Yitzhak Shamir Medical Center; and associate professor, Sackler Faculty of Medicine and Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv University.

To find out more about how the clinical study of this method of treatment got to this point, and what the goal of the treatment is, 

 inquired with Efrati. He discussed the history of the research and offered insight into the attempt to regenerate injured tissue in the brain as a way to potentially treat diseases like Alzheimer and dementia.

The director of the Sagol Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Research at Yitzhak Shamir Medical Center discussed the history of the research and offered insight into the attempt to regenerate injured tissue in the brain.

Author | Shai Efrati, MD

Articles

Shai Efrati, MD: Assessing Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy for Neurodegeneration

Shai Efrati, MD: Inducing Stem Cell Proliferation With Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy

Shai Efrati, MD: Progression of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy for Neurodegeneration