Deuterium is simply a heavier form of hydrogen that’s naturally present in all water and living systems. It isn’t “good” or “bad” - it’s just part of our environment, and life evolved with a small amount of it.
I first became interested in deuterium when I learned that lowering total body levels could potentially support mitochondria and fertility, which is why I did a full deuterium depletion before getting pregnant at 43.
Here’s the simple physiology & why it matters for health:
Your mitochondria make energy by moving hydrogen through tiny molecular “motors” inside the cell to create ATP (your energy currency) and metabolic water.
Deuterium is actually a heavier version of hydrogen, and because it’s heavier, it moves a little more slowly & can make mitochondria less efficient.
So in the research, lower deuterium levels are associated with more efficient mitochondrial function and better metabolic flexibility, and researchers are actively studying how this might relate to things like energy production, aging, and even cancer metabolism.
It’s one of those quiet, “under-the-hood” variables most people never think about (or have even heard about), but it can give you insight into how efficiently your metabolism is actually running.
I just got my results back & my husband's results… and they surprised me.
Keep reading - because what they showed doesn’t exactly match what the internet says should happen.
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Ok - so what the heck are we looking at and why does it matter?
This is my personal deuterium test (click here & select "shop" for more details - code sarahk should give you a discount)
My results (and why they caught me off guard)
My deuterium level came back at 135 - which might not mean much yet, but here’s the part that surprised me
In humans, your body water deuterium levels usually track pretty closely with the water you drink and the environment you live in. Most natural drinking water falls somewhere around 145–155 ppm, and the further south you go, the slightly higher it tends to be.
We live around the 33rd latitude, and we’ve actually tested our home water. It’s right in that normal environmental range between 150-155.
I also have a close friend who lives 2 miles from me & lives a healthy lifestyle *she has also been mainly keto/carnivore (a very "low deuterium diet") for the last 5 years - and her levels came back at a 149.
So theoretically, without doing anything special, my number should land somewhere around there too.
But I’m not doing keto.
I’m not drinking deuterium-depleted water.
I’m not running any depletion protocols currently.
I also drink orange juice with breakfast, and I put collagen in my coffee (both of which are "high in deuterium"). I also eat a reasonable amount of seasonal carbohydrates. I live pretty normally and focus mostly on light, circadian rhythm, minerals, and mitochondrial basics.
So seeing 135 - noticeably lower than our local water supply - genuinely surprised me.
And then my husband’s result shocked me even more.
He came back at 130… while drinking coconut water basically every day, which the internet loves to label as “high deuterium” and something you should avoid 100%. (coconut water = 155-160ppm).
Clearly something doesn’t add up.
Which tells me this is another one of those areas where metabolism, mitochondrial efficiency, and overall health matter way more than rigid food rules or fear-based lists.
Deuterium biology is clearly more nuanced than “eat this, avoid that.”
I’m writing a full deep dive on Substack this week breaking all of this down - what these numbers actually mean, why they surprised me, how body water relates to environmental inputs, and sharing my email conversation with Dr. László Boros (the world's leading scientist in the deuterium research), who was genuinely excited about our results and basically said we both look metabolically solid.
