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Man who lived underwater for 100 days saw crazy unexpected effects on his body

Man who lived underwater for 100 days saw crazy unexpected effects on his body

The findings could potentially help astronauts heading to space.

People love nothing more than trying to one-up world records, and a professor from Florida has done just that in spectacular style - by living in an underwater pod for 100 whole days.

To put that wild number into perspective: the previous record stood at just over a measly 73 days.

Joseph Dituri - who also goes by the nickname Dr Deep Sea - wanted to set a new world record for time spent living underwater without depressurization - and that's exactly what he did.

Dituri lived in a pod 30 feet under the water - it didn't simulate normal air pressure, which would have made for a pretty weird place to live in.

Interestingly, checking in on his health after he finally surfaced having set the new record (which eclipsed the last one by two whole weeks), Dituri appeared to be in great shape.

In fact, Dituri told DailyMail.com his metabolism increased, his body became leaner and produced more stem cells, and there was one particularly interesting change - which could suggest that living in this strange environment almost 'de-aged' Dituri. He told DailyMail.com tests afterwards suggested his telomeres - DNA sequences at the end of chromosomes which shorten with age - actually became 20% longer.

Still, we're not sure that most people would be cut out for 100 days living in basically total isolation, only able to communicate with people through very thick glass when those visitors took a dive under the surface to wave hello.

That said, Dituri was able to do many normal things, since he had a decent amount of space and multiple small rooms to move through, including a bedroom and a bathroom - videos also show him reading and stretching.

When asked what he'd missed the most in his 100-day underwater stint, Dituri's answer wasn't a huge surprise - he was most grateful to see the sun again.

Even just working in an office that doesn't have much natural light can be a bit of a drain, so we imagine living for 100 days with only artificial lighting would get pretty trying.

Dituri's own verdict on his health and the impact of his experiment is pretty positive - he said that he felt like he now sleeps better and feels healthier than before he spent the time underwater.

Plus, his experiment could be hugely useful to space agencies - as he tested out technology that could help astronauts make the journey to Mars, and potentially showed how to prevent muscle mass loss when in space.

Featured Image Credit: WPLG Local 10 / Instagram/@drdeepsea