Abstract
The effects of deuterium depletion on the human organism have been, except for the antitumor action, seldom investigated by now and the available data are scarce. In oncological patients who also suffered from diabetes and were treated with deuterium-depleted water (DDW), an improvement of glucose metabolism was observed, and rat studies also proved the efficacy of DDW to reduce blood sugar level. In the present work, 30 volunteers with pre- or manifest diabetes were enrolled to a clinical study. The patients received 1.5 L of water with reduced deuterium content (104 ppm instead of 145 ppm, equivalent 12 mmol/L in human) daily for 90 days. The effects on fasting glucose and insulin level, on peripheral glucose disposal, and other metabolic parameters were investigated. Fasting insulin and glucose decreased, and insulin reaction on glucose load improved, in 15 subjects, while in the other 15 the changes were opposite. Peripheral glucose disposal was improved in 11 of the subjects. In the majority of the subjects, substantial increase of serum high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and significant decrease of serum Na+ concentration were also seen—the latter possibly due to activation of a Na+/H+ antiporter by the decreased intracellular deuterium level. The results support the possible beneficial role of DDW in disorders of glucose metabolism but leave questions open, requiring further studies.
Highlights
The first research results on the potential role of naturally occurring deuterium (D) in living organisms were published in 1993 [1] and suggested an anticancer effect of D depletion
Type 2 diabetes is characterized by insulin resistance—a phenomenon included in the definition of metabolic syndrome [15]
The aim of the study was to test if application of depleted water (DDW) in patients with decreased glucose tolerance had an influence on glucose metabolism and if DDW increased the cells’ glucose disposal capacity
Summary
The first research results on the potential role of naturally occurring deuterium (D) in living organisms were published in 1993 [1] and suggested an anticancer effect of D depletion. Beyond the studies further confirming the role of D in cancer development [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10] which is not independent of its fundamental regulatory role at cellular level [1,9], its effect on certain other biological endpoints, such as depression in humans [11], long-term memory in rats [12], anti-aging [13], and more importantly, glucose metabolism [14] in experimental animals, have been published. The prevalence of diabetes has been increasing worldwide, with the overwhelming majority of cases belonging to type 2 of the disease. This increase is primarily due to increasing presence of Molecules 2020, 25, 1376; doi:10.3390/molecules25061376 www.mdpi.com/journal/molecules. Metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes apparently belong to, or represent two stages of the same complex metabolic derangement, with further serious cardiovascular and other consequences [16]
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