The latest health panacea and longevity aid is a very unlikely one — “heavy” water.

Heavy water (HW) occurs when the hydrogen atom — the “H” in H2O — is an isotope of normal hydrogen called deuterium. Deuterium weighs twice as much, hence the “heavy” tag.

Apart from the odd chemistry lesson at school, most people will know about heavy water from the film Heroes of Telemark, a wartime adventure in which Richard Widmark leads a British raid on Telemark in Denmark. The aim is to destroy a heavy water plant which threatens London with an atom bomb attack.

According to scientists the consumption of HW adds 10 percent to the lifespan of earthworms and 30 percent to other species. Humans are thought to be in for an extra 10 years of life if fed HW products, which can include bread, cakes or even pork from pigs fed with the water.

However, a close reading of the reports indicates that HW works by strengthening cells against free radical damage. Regular readers of Sideways Health will know that we are already well armed with a great many antioxidants in highly coloured fruit and vegetables that perform the same task.

It’s not clear whether heavy water adds to that effect or, to use a pun, will be swallowed up in it. In other words, will HW be wasted on folk who already consume 6000 ORAC of antioxidants a day?

We will keep an eye on this story to see how it develops.