Dr. Deep Sea is trying to extend the human lifespan

A professor known as “Dr. Deep Sea” just resurfaced after spending a world-record 100 consecutive days underwater to try and help humans live longer, capping off a novel experiment that almost sounds more like the beginning of a Marvel movie than scientific research.

🤿🌊 Here’s what happened: In early March, Joseph Dituri, aka Dr. Deep Sea, began living inside a 100-square-foot facility located 30 feet below the surface of a lagoon in South Florida.

His goal? To test whether exposure to extreme pressure over a long period of time can lengthen the human lifespan (unlike a submarine, which uses technology to keep its inside pressure about the same as at the surface, the facility’s interior was set to match the higher pressure found underwater).

While living below the surface, Dituri – who continued to teach classes remotely at the University of South Florida during the experiment – conducted daily tests to monitor his body under the increased pressure.

And once Dituri returned above-ground last Friday, scientists discovered his body had gone through several notable changes:

• He shrunk by half-an-inch
• His telomeres, which typically shorten with age and increase the risk of death, were 20% longer than before the experiment
• Between 60% and 66% of his sleep underwater was REM, compared to 40% prior
• His overall inflammation (which causes disease) decreased by 30%
• His body contained 10x more stem cells than at the beginning of the study
• He lost 72 points of cholesterol while keeping his diet consistent (for reference: 100-130 is considered near-optimal, while 190+ is very high)

👀 Looking ahead… Dituri is scheduled to present his findings at the (perfectly-named) World Extreme Medicine Conference in Scotland this November.