Breathe less oxygen to live longer, study suggests

Want to live longer? Just breathe less oxygen.

Scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital have discovered that living in a state of hypoxia — having low oxygen in your body tissue — may actually prolong lifespans.

In the study, published in PLOS Biology, researchers studied the theory on fast-aging mice, finding rodents living in “chronic hypoxia” — breathing air with 11% oxygen, where we usually breathe air that’s 21% oxygen — had a 50% longer lifespan and a delayed neurologic decline, in comparison to mice living at normal oxygen levels.

It’s the first study of its kind to look into oxygen restriction as a way to extend lifespan in mammals. Previous research has found oxygen restriction extended the lifespan of yeast, worms and fruit flies.

“While caloric restriction is the most widely effective and well-studied intervention to increase lifespan and health span, this is the first time that oxygen restriction has been demonstrated as beneficial in a mammalian aging model,” co-author of the paper Robert Rogers said.

Researchers split the mice — who have been bred specifically to age rapidly — into two groups at 4 weeks of age; one group was given 11% oxygen to induce hypoxia while the other was given 21%.

They found the mice living with reduced oxygen lived to 23.6 weeks, versus the lifespan of 15.7 weeks in the group breathing average oxygen.

Scientists say that although the study showed favorable results for rodents, it doesn’t mean humans would fare the same, with one hypothesis being oxygen-restriction therapy would have to start at a young age to be effective.

The researchers acknowledged more research will be needed before the potential benefits of oxygen restriction are known.

“Our initial findings establish oxygen restriction as a potential aging intervention, motivating the search for underlying mechanisms and generalizability to other mammalian models,” they stated.

They noted it would also be important to determine if a more practical approach to inducing hypoxia, such as intermittent hypoxia or a more moderate degree of hypoxia with 17% oxygen, could be effective.

The paper pointed out that past epidemiologic evidence supports the theory, suggesting lifelong oxygen restriction might slow the aging process in humans.

“Though there are many potential confounders to this finding, recent cross-sectional studies in Bolivia have demonstrated significant enrichment for nonagenarians and centenarians at very high altitudes,” it read.

A study published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health in 2011 found that in states with a higher altitude, such as Utah and Colorado, on average, men lived 1.2 to 3.6 years longer than those living within 100 meters of sea level, while women gained 0.5 to 2.5 years on their lower-down counterparts.