The path to long life lies in drinking "heavy" water or eating
"heavy" food, according Russian scientists.

MOSCOW, RUSSIA (DECEMBER 11, 2008) REUTERS -
Drinking lots of water and eating a balanced diet have long been
advocated as the key to a long life, but now a Russian scientist says the
possible fountain of youth lies in consuming "heavy" water or foods.

So-called "heavy" foods are ones enriched with a rare form of
hydrogen. When this is added to water or food they become denser than normal.

Mikhail Shchepeinov, who runs the Russian biotech firm Retrotope, says
this could extend human life by possibly ten years and help protect against
conditions like cancer and Alzheimers disease.

The former Oxford University scientist said it is "too early to
promise eternal life to people," but that he has high hopes for the
research being conducted in Moscow.

Shchepeinov explained that heavier atoms are better than lighter ones
as they can maintain stronger bonds within the human body which means they are
better able to fight off disease.

"Imagine a football ball - one you can fill up with water and one
with air - so you have these two football balls. So, to kick the heavier one
the same distance you'll need to apply a large force - you'll need to kick it
stronger."

"So in the same way it will be more difficult to cleave the bone
which is made up of atoms of the heavier variety - and that's exactly what the
isotope effect is," he said.

The Moscow team has already conducted research showing that
"heavy" atoms allow fruit flies to live 30 percent longer and worms
10 percent longer.

Holding up a jar of tiny fruit flies, Nikolai Pestov, one of the senior
scientists on the project, said they are ideal guinea-pigs to test the theory.

"Thanks to the fact that they live relatively short lives, only
about 50 days, we can do a lot of different experiments with them - how
different factors can affect a lifespan", he said.

The thinking is that heavy atoms could be given to humans by adding
them to the feed of animals which are ultimately consumed by humans.

The team says there are no shortages of people keen to test their
elixir of long life, but that they are nowhere near ready to experiment on
human beings yet.

"There are always some volunteers that are ready to form a line to
take the risk and test something on themselves, but for ethical reasons we
cannot promise people because there is a serious risk of unexpected
side-effects," said Pestov.

Others in this field are interested in Shchepinov's work but caution
his theory is far from proven.

Dr Tom Kirkwood, Director of the Insitute of Ageing and Health at
Newcastle University in the UK, told Reuters that the field of anti-ageing
research is a cluttered and complicated one.

"Ageing is a very complex process during which our cells and
tissues accumulate various kinds of molecular damage," he said.

"It remains to be seen whether the processes being studied by Dr
Shchepinov and his team makes any contribution at all to the normal ageing
process. However, I think already we know enough to be confident that any
contribution would be at most a small one."