Islam Online on heavy water

This is a follow-up to an earlier post, which included some ridiculous-sounding comments from an Iranian official on the medical uses of heavy water. The Islam Online site currently features the following image:


Clicking on it leads to an article which includes the following information:

Aside from the production of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), heavy water has several pharmaceutical uses.

Deuterium oxide's low toxicity towards mammals in general allows it several medicinal uses. Perhaps the most widespread use for heavy water is for measuring water spaces in humans and other animals to determine cases of water retention. Another use is for measuring the metabolic rate of an organism over a period of time. This is done by a method called the doubly-labeled water.

Heavy water is also used with cancer patients. It can be used both in diagnosis and treatment where it can decrease genotoxicity, which is the DNA damage resulting from certain anticancer drugs.

Deuterium is also used in the diagnosis of AIDS, and is used in research to determine the metabolism of drugs and toxic substances inside humans and animal bodies.

There seems, actually, to be something to the notion of medicinal uses for heavy water although I wouldn't recommend traveling to Iran for medical treatment just yet.

Tags: Iran, nukes, heavy water, cancer,