The Jundishapur Journal of Natural Pharmaceutical Products doesn’t exactly scream “credible source” to me. My honest inclination is to ignore this paper and wait to see if the theory pops up somewhere more reputable. I somewhat doubt it, since this paper gives off pretty strong crank vibes.
Even if we ignore the credibility signals, the paper doesn’t show any effect of DDW on lifespan. The fact that they make claims about geroprotective effects without looking at lifespan is a big red flag. The paper is also just pretty bad and unconvincing in general (e.g. it appears to contain absolutely no statistics).
Even if DDW did increase lifespan, there are lots of other things that increase lifespan in mice. There’s no particular reason to just ignore all that and attribute everything to deuterium.
Even if DDW was as effective in mice as all other ageing treatments combined (which would be a huge finding), it still wouldn’t tell you why mice live so much shorter than naked mole rats (or humans).
So unless there’s solid evidence that DDW makes mice immortal, as opposed to making their coats (maybe, subjectively) a bit glossier, saying that “aging could be simply caused by deuterium and evolutionary explanations would then be a red herring” is flagrant hyperbole, verging on making stuff up.
I don’t believe it.
The Jundishapur Journal of Natural Pharmaceutical Products doesn’t exactly scream “credible source” to me. My honest inclination is to ignore this paper and wait to see if the theory pops up somewhere more reputable. I somewhat doubt it, since this paper gives off pretty strong crank vibes.
Even if we ignore the credibility signals, the paper doesn’t show any effect of DDW on lifespan. The fact that they make claims about geroprotective effects without looking at lifespan is a big red flag. The paper is also just pretty bad and unconvincing in general (e.g. it appears to contain absolutely no statistics).
Even if DDW did increase lifespan, there are lots of other things that increase lifespan in mice. There’s no particular reason to just ignore all that and attribute everything to deuterium.
Even if DDW was as effective in mice as all other ageing treatments combined (which would be a huge finding), it still wouldn’t tell you why mice live so much shorter than naked mole rats (or humans).
So unless there’s solid evidence that DDW makes mice immortal, as opposed to making their coats (maybe, subjectively) a bit glossier, saying that “aging could be simply caused by deuterium and evolutionary explanations would then be a red herring” is flagrant hyperbole, verging on making stuff up.