ok theoretacally you can make anything that has hydrogen deuterated with heavy hydrogen. now the question is that for example alkaloids would they behave differenly in the body or would they be the same old thing just heavyer? or would they just last longer?
2007-05-18 17:43:34 · 2 answers · asked by Goldfish 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
maybe youll just end up with a bunch of heavy medicine!
2007-05-18 17:46:10 · update #1
so lets say that you completely deuterate capsiacin, would it last longer with the spicy effect, or illicit substances like methamphetamine, would they last longer? maybe this is a medical question!
2007-05-18 18:10:44 · update #2
dont get me wrong im nt a drugie just curious! imagine if it lasted longer, you could have medicines that would last no like the ones presenlt available! :( (im barely 18 and i have severe back pain)(weigthlifting)
2007-05-18 18:13:29 · update #3
The mass of an atom does have an effect on the rate at which chemical reactions take place. So "heavy water" for instance, might be chemically identical to regular water, but the chemical processes that it performs in your body would be slowed down, and that's bound to have an effect on your biological functions.
Besides the increase in weight, and the slowing of chemical functions, there's really no difference between stable isotopes of a single element.
The only exception that I can think of is that at temperatures near absolute zero, atoms of a given element have slightly different physical properties depending on whether there is an even or odd number of particles in the nucleus.
This is because at low temperatures, quantum mechanics begins to have an effect, and it imposes different statistical properties on particles depending on whether their intrinsic spin is integral or half-integral. This, obviously, would have no relevance to something in your body, which is not anywhere near absolute zero.
2007-05-18 18:05:49 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Generally it won't make much of a difference unless you take huge quantities. I've heard if you replace a significant portion of the water in your body with deuterated water (something like 20-30 percent) your electrolytes will become unbalanced and you die.
2007-05-23 16:37:55 · answer #2 · answered by Dr. R 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋