Deuterium — The Elephant in the Space Capsule
The year is 2031 and Elon Musk and his NASA crew have moments before touchdown on Mars. Everything they need to create a permanent human colony on our neighbor planet they have brought with them. This monumental achievement for humanity cannot be overstated. Here is Astronaut Musk now, live from Mars to answer the questions of randomly selected first graders on this historic day. Let’s go to Timmy from Temecula.

Timmy: Congratulations Mr. Musk on getting to Mars.

Elon: Thanks Timmy! I was only a boy your age when I dreamed of coming to Mars and here I am. If you work hard you too can achieve your dreams!

Moderator: Go ahead Timmy, ask your question.

Timmy: Did you remember to bring the deuterium water filter?

Elon: The what?

Is colonizing Mars on your to-do list? You have it all planned out you say? Unlimited cash. Rockets. Fuel. Ground Control and Major Tom. Check. Ability to remove deuterium from your drinking water? Not checked. Wait — what?

The new science of Deutenomics

The new possible in the 21st century is exciting. We are living in unprecedented times. While we are in the midst of an ecosystem crisis we are in the throes of a technological renaissance, living through the 4th industrial revolution that will transform our society like never before.

We are closer than ever to sending a colony of humans to settle the Red Planet. There are lots of challenges to overcome to get there, so in the big picture it is best to consider even the smallest obstacle. In this case we are looking at deuterium — the big elephant in the room. Deuterium is left over from the Big Bang. It’s everywhere, we can’t clean it up, and we are late to the party.

What does it do to us? It damages mitochondria. You know, the powerhouse of the cell.

The new science of Deutenomics shows us that when our ability to manage deuterium breaks down disease starts to creep in. This “new science”, 60 years in the making, is barely known about at present in mainstream medicine, but will grow as its implications in unraveling the mechanisms behind the aging process are fully understood.

What is deuterium?

Deuterium, also known as heavy hydrogen or 2H, is together with protium (1H) one of the two stable hydrogen isotopes. In the Big Bang, the first element created was protium, which makes up the bulk of hydrogen, and deuterium came second and made it possible for the creation of all other elements.

In contrast to protium, which only contains a proton, deuterium is composed of a proton and a neutron. Therefore, the mass of deuterium is twice the mass of protium, and is, thus, also called heavy hydrogen.1 Two hydrogens and an oxygen make a water molecule. But when it comes to water, what we think of as H2O is actually one molecule of HDO for every 3300 H2O, (one hydrogen in 6,600 is deuterium).

Consider that there are two stable hydrogen isotopes, they both can make water, yet one is twice the weight of the other. This is a pretty big deal.

They say the best way to poison someone over time is with heavy water. It looks, smells and tastes like water, but it is not. This is the problem with hydrogen: it can have a bad neutron. Hydrogen is used in just about every biological reaction, and most of the time everything functions smoothly because it is the protium version of hydrogen, but deuterium gets in and goes where it doesn’t belong. Imagine being forced to squeeze an elephant through a glass revolving door. The elephant doesn’t think it’s a good idea, and neither does the door. There’s going to be significant damage. Lawsuits and insurance payouts will ensue. Premiums will go up significantly.

For as evil as deuterium is to our energy production, it is naturally found in the earth’s waters, roughly to the tune of one HDO molecule for every 3,300 H2O molecules, making the deuterium content of the ocean 155 ppm. That is about 3 drops of HDO in every glass of water.

In pristine nature or out of your tap in Torrance, drinking water typically contains 140–150 ppm of deuterium. Antarctica has the lowest deuterium on the planet (89 ppm), a throwback to an ancient earth of giant dinosaurs and forty-foot ferns. Glacial water tends to be 10–20% lower than the ocean (155ppm).

Deuterium concentration below 120 ppm, typically made through fractional distillation, is considered deuterium depleted water (DDW).2 — (Full disclosure: My company sells super deuterium depleted water).

In any glass of water ladled up from anywhere on earth, ocean, lake, river, pond, the summit of Everest, or the depth the Marianas trench or any cup of tea from London to Lihue, the hydrogen-to-deuterium ratio will never be higher than 6,660-to-1. On Mars it’s closer to 1,100-to-1. On Earth deuterium makes up 0.0156% of the hydrogen in water by atoms. On Mars, the lowest is 0.078%. That’s five times more. Only.

In 1961, Russian scientists in Siberia were the first in Western Civilization to report on the positive biological effects of DDW.3,4 They observed people who live in areas with 20% lower deuterium in their water have 40 times more centenarians. By now it has been sufficiently demonstrated that it will be a real Debbie Downer if you find yourself 42 million miles from home scratching your butt on Olympus Mons, having failed to have brought a deuterium depleted water filter.

What determines the levels of deuterium in the body?

The 2H:1H isotope ratio in living organisms is affected by various factors, including diet, metabolic activity, and most importantly, the amount of deuterium in your daily drinking water. Cells have a system to eliminate deuterium from the mitochondria.15 However, this adaptive evolutionary system is limited and error prone. It is believed we can barely pass 100 years of age on this planet primarily because of this.6

— Therefore consumption of DDW is the easiest and most efficient way of keeping the deuterium levels in our body low by significantly decrease the 2H:1H ratio in human fluids.5

Life on earth has reluctantly adapted to live with the deuterium we have. Research shows that those that live in areas where there is less deuterium statistically enjoy better health and longer lifespan. In nature, it has been theorized that animal migration cycles have to do with deuterium regulation. Isotopes of elements can behave very differently from each other in biological process, on this the science is clear.

Effects of deuterium on human health

Chemically, deuterium slows down biological systems.23 According to the Kinetic Isotope Effect the dissociation of a carbon-deuterium bond is 6–8 times slower than a carbon-hydrogen bond.

Increasing evidence over the last sixty years shows that high levels of deuterium pose severe threats to human health. Perhaps the most well demonstrated effects of deuterium on biological systems are its ability to interfere with energy production, metabolism, and cell development and division.

Deuterium has been shown to cause mitochondrial dysfunction and subsequent alterations in metabolic homeostasis which is linked directly to aging and dysbiosis.12 Notably, is has been shown that deuterium inhibits metabolic energy production process within the mitochondria — the energy factories of cells. In 2007 Abdullah Olgun showed that deuterium inhibits ATP synthase and compromises the electron transport chain in the mitochondria, impairing the ability of mitochondria to produce energy (ATP), and thereby enhancing ROS production and accelerating the downward spiral towards mitochondrial oblivion.10,11

Deuterium depletion has also been studied for its rejuvenating effects, for maintaining genomic stability and regulating cell growth, optimizing gene expression, and cellular energetics.5,13,14

Recently, the effects of DDW on metabolism and metabolic conditions have gained increasing attention. László Boros, a leader in the field of Deutenomics, at UCLA, pinpointed that DDW may represent a critical link in disease prevention and treatment using natural ketogenic diets and low deuterium drinking water.15

Boros and colleagues have also shown that deuterium depletion protects cells from the genotoxic effects of radiation, in this case identifying the precise mechanism of how it works!

By minimizing the deuteration of sugar-phosphates in the DNA and modulating water exchange reactions in the tricarboxylic acid substrate cycle, a net energy benefit is attained.15 In mice, 30 ppm DDW exerted a significant radioprotective effect against X-ray radiation in terms of animal survival, as well as blood and immunological parameters.17,18

More evidence published in Pharmaceutical Biology indicated the potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects of deuterium depletion, showing a decrease in expression and activity of COX-2, a key regulator of inflammation and carcinogenesis.14 Many subsequent in vitro studies have confirmed the anti-cancer effects of DDW when used as an adjuvant to treatment in various malignancies, the most responsive being lung breast and prostate cancer.13,19 Recent pre-clinical and clinical studies have confirmed the strong anticancer effects of a body that is deuterium depleted and the ability of DDW supplementation to assist to restore redox balance.20,21

Earlier research on athletes in Russia and Hungary showed a stark increase in oxygen utilization, and improved tissue oxygen. The studies showed that a deuterium depleted body can utilize oxygen much more efficiently.26,27 With half the oxygen a body deuterium depleted below 120 ppm, (25% below the average) needs half the oxygen to perform the same amount of work as someone whose body is 150 ppm deuterium. That’s a big breakthrough. I’m hopeful deuterium depletion will allow someone to break the three minute mile.

Sherpas that drink Himalayan glacial water (15% lower in deuterium than the average), are able to ascend Mt. Everest without oxygen much to the shock and admiration of western technical climbers. This is because they are naturally deuterium depleted.

“Where oxygen is at a premium, the less deuterium, the less tedium”

- William Shakespeare

He didn’t say that, deuterium was first discovered in 1931, but at the 4th International Congress on Deuterium Depletion in Budapest, 2019, I asked Dr. Olgun what made him interested in studying deuterium. He related that he was originally alerted to the potential biological implications of HDO when he calculated how much of it we have is in our blood, (~17mM). What upon first glance seemed benign became of interest when he calculated there is about 4–8 times more deuterium in blood plasma than calcium, ~4 times more than potassium,~20 times more than magnesium ~3 times more than glucose. That’s a big red flag.

This revelation drove him for more than two years of mathematical modeling the complex biochemistry of ATP production and ultimately led to the discovery of the exact mechanism by which deuterium damages the ATP Synthase nanomotors in the mitochondria.

I believe this may one day gain him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Whereas Olgun discovered how deuterium does its damage, Boros discovered the mechanism by which the body tries to keep it out of the inner nano mitochondrial energy factories inside the cells. He verified to me that he coined the term ‘Deutenomics’ for the new branch of biochemistry, as the handful of researchers studying deuterium’s role in biology did not have a name for this new science.

In the U.S. institutional medical research world Boros is the loudest voice on this subject. Gabor Somylai, the Hungarian doctor who first alerted Boros to deuterium interference and the author of ‘Defeating Cancer, the Biological Effects of Deuterium Depletion’ published twenty years ago, has now over 3000 case studies on the long term effects of deuterium depletion.

It’s as simple as realizing the water inside the mitochondria does not come from the water we drink, called ‘bulk’ water. Water inside the mitochondria is not store bought, its made from scratch like God did it, combined two gases, hydrogen and oxygen in a ratio of 2:1, and kaboom — pure metabolic water. This is the dance party happening inside the smallest nano confinements of the mitochondria. Deuterium is not invited to this bash, but it’s a relentless bully and inevitably crashes the party nonetheless.

This structured metabolic water is your body’s most prized asset, your sacred precious. It has very little in common with any liquids you consume. Metabolic water, constantly produced and recycled by the thousands of liters per day is the lubrication of life, and when this ‘matrix’ water was first analyzed for deuterium content, it was confirmed to have 60–70% less deuterium than the bulk water in the blood or extracellular fluids.

I think it’s easy to agree that if our deuterium management system is off balance it will cause mitochondrial dysfunction and subsequent alterations in metabolic homeostasis, i.e., aging and dysbiosis.12 Deuterium misshapes DNA every moment of every day. You cannot reverse the actions of error reactions.

Deuterium and space exploration

If you do survive on Mars long enough to procreate, your children may likely be sterile. Experiments in mice and other animals have shown that high levels of deuteration may cause sterility due to impairments in the development of gametes. In rats, heavy water consumption for a week can also lead to death.12

Even at low concentrations (20–30%), D2O significantly decreases fertility or even caused sterility, especially in male mice.22 Because it would take a very large amount of heavy water to replace 25% to 50% of a human being’s body water (which in turn is 65–70% of body weight) with heavy water, accidental or intentional poisoning with heavy water is unlikely to the point of practical disregard, however the effects on energy production and cellular health in the long run is detrimental.

With the Red Planet on the menu we really have to solve the deuterium problem or our life spans there will be exceedingly short. Research by Villanueva of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center employed powerful telescopes to map water (H2O) and its deuterated form (HDO) across the surface of Mars. They found that the Martian globe contained a significantly high D:H ratio.7 These findings corroborated the results obtained by NASA’s Curiosity/Mars Science Laboratory in 2013, which indicated that the hydrogen-to-deuterium ratio on Mars is five to seven times lower than that on Earth.8

This is a burning dumpster fire of bad news for any biological organisms hoping to build a homestead and white picket fence on the Red Planet. As we clamor and plot to blast ourselves off terra firma to exploit new worlds, we better send those brave voyagers out there with a DDW filter.

“We will not colonize Mars until we solve the deuterium problem!”

- Abraham Lincoln

Not many people know this quote from the 16th president. I’m joking of course. But what is serious is going to Mars without developing a strategy for reducing deuterium levels in astronauts. If this revelation is new to Elon Musk or NASA it is not new to our Russian roommates on the International Space Station. A 2003 study by Russian aerospace scientists pinpointed that Mars exploration and other interplanetary missions may have severe effects on the health of crew members due to exposure to high levels of deuterium, in addition to significant radiation exposure.9

Studies to identify methods of reducing the risk of radiation-induced cancer in humans are at the forefront of preparation efforts for the mission to Mars, and so one of the most promising approaches is designing life support systems that generate DDW for consumption by crewmembers.16 We are only as strong as our weakest link. And we should not let deuterium become our Achille’s Heal.

Excessive deuterium changes three-dimensional structures in the body, creating misshapen proteins and lipids that don’t function properly and this creates an environment favorable to all kinds of neoplastic conditions. Preliminary investigations by Russian space researchers have demonstrated that decreasing deuterium in water by 65% endows water with radioprotective anticancer properties, key to long term space missions.9

Space can be a lonely place, here again DDW comes to the rescue. Another Russian study explored the link between depression susceptibility and deuterium depletion with positive results.25

From the fringes of investigative reporting, extraterrestrials have been kind enough to warn us about the deuterium problem as evidenced by the encounters of famous UFO contactees Billy Meier, reported in 1973, and “Warp-Drive” creator Wesley Bateman, published in 1993. These two contactees, unrelated, queried their respective Pleiadian and Arcturian informants as to why our lifespans on earth are so inadequately short compared to those lucky bastards. Apparently, not only can these humanoid ETs travel at superluminal speeds in their fancy space ships but they also live for thousands of years while maintaining their girlish figures.

The ET’s response to the contactees in both instances was the same, paraphrased in this way, “you poor bastards can barely crack a century before you drool and drop and become fertilizer, the reason is simple, you have too much deuterium on your planet.” It seems logical, light body vehicle maintenance for humans does not come with a manual. But they really shouldn’t have traveled so far to give us the bad news. The ETs offered no solution by the way. It took the Russians to figure it out. It can be argued we are ETs ourselves.

In addition to ET’s, ultraterrestrial “ascended masters” of earthly origin such as Kryon, Hilarion, Melchizedek and Sunanda have also weighed in on the deuterium problem, usually channeling their condolences to humanity through white robed middle aged Caucasians primarily in Marin county. Documented channelings on deuterium by ascended masters have so far offered no mitigation strategies. I don’t blame them, it’s not in their best interest to extend the lifespan of the plebeian masses in the least.

Tesla claimed aliens gave him the secrets to electricity in his dreams, but it is the simple observation of nature, deductive reasoning and Aristotelian logic that has revealed to us the deuterium problem. We are in the infant stage of solving it.

Whomever you believe or what data you analyze, it is clear we are standing on the shoulders of giants. So, if you are a space cadet and you don’t want to become Mars dust, regular DDW consumption is a must. I’ll put it this way; if you’re going to drink your own recycled piss, having it be deuterium depleted is not to be missed!

Solution: Make DDW on Space Missions

Drinking high latitude glacial melt water that is 20% reduced in deuterium is the inadvertent strategy of the Siberians that have an average of forty times more centenarians than the rest of the world.

Given the bleak and limited resources on Mars, efficient metabolism and cellular energy production is key for survival. Protect your head, protect your jewels, when it comes down to health it’s all about the fuel, and in this case the number one contaminant that needs to be removed.

NASA, Musk, Bezos and all those empowered to meet the call of our collective and never ending thirst to explore new worlds need to heed the call to the importance of DDW. To survive the cold dark vacuum of space requires an outside the box life support strategy, and it should, especially since you will be living full-time inside a box.

“If protium is the fuel of life, then deuterium depletion is the greatest discovery in biology of our time.”

- Kurt Cobain

“Sell the kids for food, weather changes moods, spring is here again, reproductive glands…”

- Victor Sagalovsky

Okay, my bad. I got those credits mixed up. But I would gladly swap.

Given the potentially detrimental effects of deuterium on human health, it is not surprising that DDW is emerging as the tasty beverage of choice at the geroprotection lu`au. If youth is wasted on the young and wisdom on the old, then this new science may allow us to find the happy middle.

The problem is it’s not easy to filter deuterium from water. Removing deuterium from water commercially itself is relatively new, and something that took decades to engineer and achieve. The first super deuterium depleted water (below 20 ppm) was not available in the US market until 2019.

The current method, fractional vacuum distillation rectification, requires lots of energy and a big footprint. Columns from thirty feet to six stories run continuously to separate out the molecules of HDO and the less prevalent D2O.

Miniaturizing this complex beast and taming its energy needs is the challenge. Or one better, creating an entirely new technology using novel sources of energy. This is your call. Who will be chosen to take up the challenge to push the needle forward? I once asked a Silicon Valley venture capital billionaire what he was looking for. He remarked, a couple of guys in a garage with a dog.

“If you’re looking to the stars and ready to settle on Mars, avoid delirium by depleting deuterium.

If your water is not atomically pure, then you have a problem for which there is no cure.

Get your portable DDW filter today, on sale for a limited time, only ten million Federal Reserve Notes, easy credit financing available.”

- Implanted brain chip TV ad jingle from the year 2045

I have confidence in the adage that necessity is the mother of invention. Given substantial financial and intellectual capital, elbow grease, some blood and a little luck, a DDW maker can scaled to the size and specs necessary for takeoff and become indispensable kit for all extraterrestrial environments. It costs $80,000 per gallon to send water to outer space. Elon Musk wants to carry 100 people per flight. Two liters is how much water an astronaut consumes per day. It’s not hard to do the math and see water is already a major problem to solve for long term space travel, and removing the deuterium on top of that.

Edison gave us the lightbulb, Tesla gave us AC current and wireless technology. Salk gave us penicillin. These inventions changed the course of history. Whoever creates a countertop DDW filter to meet this new standard of water purification will make no less a paradigm shifting contribution to human history and genomic evolution.

If the 20th century was all about deuterium heavy water, which was needed to create nuclear power, then the 21st century will be about light water, which is needed to boost our health to propel us to the stars.

Protium was the first element to be created; it is the alpha. It comprises 75% of the universe and is the foundation of everything else. It is the fabric of the material universe, and two thirds of the trinity of the “first water”, 1H2O (without any HDO or D2O). It is closest to meeting the definition of the proverbial fountain of youth.

Only time will tell how the revelation of Deutenomics impacts life on this planet and beyond. As the seasons turn we will know if the promise of radical life extension is achieved by deuterium depletion. The odds are good and there is nothing to lose.

About the author: Victor Sagalovsky is the cofounder and CEO of Litewater Scientific, purveyors of the most deuterium depleted water on the planet, and probably the solar system. Read his Brief History of Deuterium Depleted Water. He is working on a DDW filter for space travel but has no interest in going to Mars, although terraforming Venus is on his bucket list.

References

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19. Yavari, K. & Kooshesh, L. Deuterium Depleted Water Inhibits the Proliferation of Human MCF7 Breast Cancer Cell Lines by Inducing Cell Cycle Arrest. Nutr. Cancer 71, 1019–1029 (2019).

20. Somlyai, G., Gyöngyi, Z., Somlyai, I. & Boros, L. G. Pre-clinical and clinical data confirm the anticancer effect of Deuterium depletion. Eur. J. Integr. Med. 8, 28 (2016).

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22. Hughes, B. Y. A. N. N. M., Bennett, E. L. & Calvin, M. PRODUCTION OF STERILITY IN MICE BY DEUTERIUM OXIDE. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S. 45, 581–586 (1959).

23. Journal of Medicine, Physiology and Biophysics www.iiste.org ISSN 2422–8427 (Online) Vol 10, 2015

24. Bateman, Wes; Knowledge from the Stars, Light Technology Publishing 1993 ISBN 10: 092938539X ISBN 13: 9780929385396

25. Strekalova T., Evans M., Chernopiatko A., Couch Y., Costa-Nunes J., Cespuglio R., Chesson L., Deuterium Content of Water Increases Depression Susceptibility: The Potential Role of Serotonin Related Mechanism. Behavioural Brain Research. Volume 277, 15 January 2025, Pages 237–244

26. Györe I., Somlyai G. et al. “The effect of deuterium depleted drinking water on the performance of sportsmen” Hungarian Review of Sports Medicine 46/1:27–38

27. T.N. Burdeynaya et al. “Physiological effects of drinking water enriched with 1H2O”. P.K. Anokhin Institute of Normal Physiology of Russian Academy of Medical Science, Moscow.
['Vic Love']
['Space Exploration', 'Mars Mission', 'Deuterium Depleted Water', 'Space Technology']