Tweet
Sometimes I come up with wacky notions right after waking up from a night's sleep. My latest idea: coffee brewed with heavy water.
As you may know, heavy water (D2O) is much like normal water with similar physical properties except that the two hydrogen atoms with bond with oxygen are replaced by hydrogen isotopes: deuterium.
Heavy water is relatively safe to drink in small quantities - one would have to drink nothing but heavy water for several days before cytotoxic effects would become evident and its cost would make it prohibitive.
The interesting thing about heavy water is it is the only known chemical substance that affects the period and phase of circadian rhythms in all organisms (http://www.springerlink.com/content/r6m7369178600475/) consistently increasing them. The mechanism is unknown but is thought to be related to the action of enzymes tuned to dealing with strength of bond between hydrogen and oxygen atoms found in normal water. When faced with stronger bond between deuterium and oxygen atoms, enzymes takes a longer time to break these down.
Now imagine a small amount of heavy water used to brew coffee. One may have the stimulant effect of caffeine coupled with the possibility of a slight alteration in the circadian rhythm that may push back the circadian low that normally occurs between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. to a later time frame. In effect, it one may have sort of a "turbocharged" coffee that would keep one alert for longer during the day time. It wouldn't be cheap but it would be possible.
As you may know, heavy water (D2O) is much like normal water with similar physical properties except that the two hydrogen atoms with bond with oxygen are replaced by hydrogen isotopes: deuterium.
Heavy water is relatively safe to drink in small quantities - one would have to drink nothing but heavy water for several days before cytotoxic effects would become evident and its cost would make it prohibitive.
The interesting thing about heavy water is it is the only known chemical substance that affects the period and phase of circadian rhythms in all organisms (http://www.springerlink.com/content/r6m7369178600475/) consistently increasing them. The mechanism is unknown but is thought to be related to the action of enzymes tuned to dealing with strength of bond between hydrogen and oxygen atoms found in normal water. When faced with stronger bond between deuterium and oxygen atoms, enzymes takes a longer time to break these down.
Now imagine a small amount of heavy water used to brew coffee. One may have the stimulant effect of caffeine coupled with the possibility of a slight alteration in the circadian rhythm that may push back the circadian low that normally occurs between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. to a later time frame. In effect, it one may have sort of a "turbocharged" coffee that would keep one alert for longer during the day time. It wouldn't be cheap but it would be possible.
Comment