Hyperbaric oxygen therapy expert Shai Efrati to give keynote at Global Wellness Summit

Dr Shai Efrati, MD, a leading expert in hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT), will deliver a keynote speech at this year’s Global Wellness Summit (GWS). 

Efrati is the director of the Sagol Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Research at Shamir Medical Center, the world’s largest hyperbaric centre treating more than 350 patients a day. He also serves as a professor at the Sackler School of Medicine and the Sagol School of Neuroscience at Tel Aviv University. 

Efrati’s lab has pioneered a unique approach to HBOT, by immersing people in a high-pressure, high-oxygen environment and then carefully regulating oxygen and pressure levels. Called the Hyperoxix-Hypoxic Paradox (HHP), this technique essentially tricks the body into entering a regenerative state, which leads to biological changes, including a rapid increase in stem cells, the generation of new blood cells and the reparation of brain cells and tissues.

Eye-opening evidence

Over the past ten years, Efrati’s research team has authored dozens of clinical studies, showing the ‘eye-opening’ effects of HBOT on several medical conditions, with results including boosted brain function in stroke and traumatic brain injury patients, reduced symptoms in cases of PTSD, improved sexual function, a rolling back of skin ageing and most recently, boosted brain healing and improved symptoms in cases of long Covid. 

HBOT also has a myriad of wellness applications, with the therapy being shown to significantly improve cognitive function in healthy, older adults by generating new neurons and blood vessels in the brain. Another recent study found that the treatment reversed two major processes associated with ageing and age-related illnesses: the shortening of telomeres – the protective caps on the ends of the chromosomes – and the accumulation of old and malfunctioning cells in the body. Results showed that participants experienced a 38% increase in the length of their telomeres, while senescent cells decreased by 37%.

The Holy Grail of wellness 

“Our new studies demonstrate something for the first time and it’s the ‘holy grail’ of wellness,” said Efrati. 

“We can actually reverse the biology of ageing and take cellular and brain function back in time. It’s analogous to the first time that man landed on the moon. After that first landing, everyone wanted to travel there but even faster and more effectively. So, we’ll see young scientists rush to study ageing and huge investment in this area.

“Ageing isn’t a bad thing; it’s the functional decline that is. As the wellness world knows well, many more people seek solutions that make them fully potent and active every single year of their life. The future is high-performance ageing and I’m excited to share my vision of that future  – and the rising place of hyperbaric oxygen therapy in the medical-wellness world – with the leaders that will gather at the Summit.”

Future of ageing

Commenting on the announcement, GWS chair and CEO Susie Ellis said: “Every year we aim to bring the brightest stars in health and wellness to the stage and Dr Efrati is exactly the kind of innovator we seek – a dynamic thinker whose work will really shake up our future, whose solutions are grounded in evidence, and who understands that new connections between medicine and wellness lie ahead. 

“It’s an incredible opportunity for delegates to be immersed in his research on the future of ageing and such an early, pivotal moment. What he’s doing is game-changing.”

GWS 2022

The 2022 edition of the GWS will take place at the Hilton Tel Aviv in Tel Aviv, Israel, between October 31 and November 3. 

The event will explore the theme of ‘Open Minds, Open Hearts, Open for Business’, with a roster of expert speakers sharing the latest thinking set to positively shape the future of the $4.4 trillion wellness industry. 

Announced speakers include Levi Shapiro, founder of mHealth, Israel’s largest community of health-tech innovators, and Aradhana Khowala, chairwoman of the Advisory Board for Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea Project, one of the world’s most regenerative tourism projects to date. 

The line-up will also include talks from Michelle Williams, dean of the faculty at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Rick Stollmeyer, founder of Mindbody, a wellness experience platform worth nearly $2 billion, with more speakers to be announced in due course.

Long-time media partner European Spa will be providing coverage of the event, so be sure to check back to the latest updates.