Joseph Dituri is back on land after spending 100 days in an underwater pod in Key Largo, Florida.
Dituri was greeted by friends, family and medical professionals once he rose to the surface on June 9.
“The human body has never been underwater that long,” Dituri said, noting he broke the world record by 27 days.
The researcher embarked on the project in an effort to learn about the effects of hyperbaric pressure on the human body. He hypothesizes that increased pressure has the potential to help humans live longer and prevent diseases associated with aging.
Preliminary findings show that the time underwater improved cholesterol levels and inflammation in his body.
In addition, the pressure caused his body to shrink half an inch in 100 days.
Dituri and his medical team plan to analyze his medical data over the next several months to figure out what can be extrapolated.
He plans to present the results at the World Extreme Medicine Conference in Scotland in November.
The University of South Florida associate professor hopes his mission inspires other scientists. While he was underwater for 14 weeks, he taught a biomedical engineering course.
“It became my favorite part of the mission,” Dituri said. “Who knows, maybe one day, one of them will come back and break the record we just set.”
