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Does alkaline-reduced hexagonal water delay the aging process in

Drosophila?

Article  in  Geriatrics & Gerontology International · January 2012

DOI: 10.1111/j.1447-0594.2011.00713.x · Source: PubMed

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 Letters to the Editor

physician and declined intervention, other than comfort References

measures. It is unknown if the essential thrombocytosis,
which appeared on a routine lab test for this patient
18 months prior, is actually associated with the MALT
condition. Thrombocytosis, which is most often symp-
tomless, can occur alone (e.g. as part of a myeloprolif-
erative disorder) or as a secondary reaction to an
inflammatory process, surgery or other instigators.12 We
found no association between the two in medical pub-
lished work.
Nationwide, higher numbers of reported MALT cases
may indicate an increasing incidence.5 However, it is
possible that the medical field is merely diagnosing
cases that previously would have gone undetected. This
may be due to more aggressive investigation of all types
of lung lesions, improvement in imaging technology,
and a growing cohort of subjects in the peak incidence
age category of people in their seventh and eighth
decade of life.
Primary pulmonary lymphomas and MALT in par-
ticular are illnesses of older adults. Because we expect
a population increase in the older adult age cohort –
and because the number of reported cases of PPL
reported in the USA is increasing – clinicians should
keep this differential diagnosis in mind when CT
results show a lung mass with or without pleural
effusion.
Acknowledgments
The authors declare that they have no conflict of
interests.
1 Miller DL, Allen MS. Rare pulmonary neoplasms. Mayo
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3 Freeman C, Berg JW, Cutler SJ. Occurrence and prognosis
of extranodal lymphomas. Cancer 1972; 29: 252–260.
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mas of the lung morphological, immunohistochemical and
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Primary pulmonary lymphoma. Ann Thorac Surg 2005; 80
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marginal zone lymphoma of mucosa-associated lymphoid
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zone B-cell lymphoma of MALT type. Am J Surg Pathol
2001; 25 (8): 997–1008.
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Pathol 1995; 12 (2): 158–171.
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12 Schafer AI. Thrombocytosis. N Engl J Med 2004; 350 (12):
1211–1219.

Does alkaline-reduced hexagonal

water delay the aging process
in Drosophila?
Kyung-Eun Rheem,1* Yi-Rang Lim,1* Byung-Sub Lee,1 Su-Kyung Lee,1
Ki Moon Seong,2 Dong-Hoon Hyun3 and Kyung-Jin Min1
1
Department of Biological Sciences, Inha University, Incheon, 2Division of Radiation Effect Research,
Radiation Health Research Institute, Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power, and 3Department of Life Sciences,
Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Korea

Dear Editor, netic, ultrasound and vortex implosion – has been

Water is the most common substance on earth and
many people want to drink clean water. Owing to
demands, altered water – water exposed to external
energy fields such as electrical, magnetic, electromag-
*These authors contributed equally to this work.
developed. There is a common belief that altered water
makes a positive impact on health. Recent studies found
that consumption of water containing hydrogen at a
saturated level (hydrogen water) reduced oxidative stress
and prevented stress-induced decline in learning and
memory caused by chronic physical restraint.1 Recent
studies also have shown that alkaline-reduced water

© 2011 Japan Geriatrics Society doi: 10.1111/j.1447-0594.2011.00713.x 兩 151

 K-E Rheem et al.

(ARW) – water produced either by electrolysis or by
chemical reaction with alkaline metals – has anticancer
and antidiabetic effects. Mice fed with ARW showed
delays in tumor growth and lengthened survival.2,3 In
addition, there is evidence that long-term ARW con-
sumption reduced glucose, triglyceride and cholesterol
levels in mice.4 Although the molecular mechanisms
behind those effects are not yet clearly understood, the
capacity to reduce reactive oxygen species (ROS) by
ARW is believed to be a reason behind these positive
effects.5,6 Because ROS is a cause of aging7 and reduc-
tion of ROS led to extended lifespan in many organ-
isms,8 it is hypothesized that ARW has anti-aging
effects.
Hexagonal or structured water is another type of
altered water. Water is able to form different structures,
depending on how individual molecules bond together.
Advocates of structured water claim that biological
organisms prefer the six-sided (hexagonal) ring-
structure of water.9 Recent clinical studies showed that a
hexagonal water product was more effective at hydration
than distilled water and there was a trend toward lower
blood sugar levels in just 4 weeks in diabetic patients
with hexagonal water drinking.10 Hexagonal water also
appears to enhance immune function. When mice were
given a hexagonal water product while a control group
was given de-ionized water, 60% increase in lymphocyte
production was measured in the hexagonal water group,
indicating a significant improvement in immune func-
tion.11 It has been also claimed that hexagonal water
could delay the aging process. The amount of hexagonal
water decreases with age and aging is caused by a loss
of hexagonal water from organs, tissues and cells,
and an overall decrease in total body water.9 However,
there are also claims that the health benefits of altered
water are fraudulent, because claims by altered water

Figure 1 The effects of altered water (a,b) and water transport gene (c,d) on the lifespan of Drosophila. Male (a) and female (b)
survivorship when maintained on media containing distilled water (DW) or alkaline-reduced hexagonal water (ARW). Male (c)
and female (d) survivorship when water transport gene, DRIP, is overexpressed (+RU) or not (-RU). Survivorship is plotted with
the data of three replicate cages for each treatment combined. See Table 1 for statistical analysis.

152 兩 © 2011 Japan Geriatrics Society

 Letters to the Editor

manufactures contradict the basic laws of physics and
chemistry.12 Thus far, there has been no attempt to assess
the effects of altered water on the aging process in any
organisms. We therefore elect to investigate the effects of
altered water on the lifespan in Drosophila.
Alkaline-reduced hexagonal water was produced with
an instrument using electromagnetic implosion, and it
was provided to adult flies in the form of a sucrose–yeast
diet. The pH of the distilled water was reduced from
7.16 1 0.4 to 9.84 1 0.2 with the instrument, confirming
the production of ARW. Adult sucrose–yeast diets were
prepared with 10 g sucrose, 10 g yeast, 2.5 mg kanamy-
cin, 10 mg tetracycline, 1.1 mL of a 20% tegosept and
0.79 g agar per 100 mL of distilled water, or alkaline-
reduced hexagonal water. Newly eclosed Canton-S
adult flies were collected over 48 h and were randomly
assigned to 500 mL demography cages to the final
density of 100 females and 100 males per cage. Food
vials were affixed to separate cages and changed every 2
or 3 days, at which time dead flies were removed and
recorded.13 Our results show that alkaline-reduced hex-
agonal water had no effect on the lifespan of either
female or male flies (Fig. 1a,b). Measurements of flies’
mean and median lifespan fed with alkaline-reduced
hexagonal water containing media indicate that their
lifespan had not been significantly extended, when com-
pared to flies maintained on distilled water containing
media (Table 1).
Advocates of hexagonal water claim that the aging
process is accompanied by reduction of water content in
the body; drinking hexagonal water can delay the aging
process because hexagonal water is easily transported
into cells. We tested this hypothesis by genetic manipu-
lation of the water transport gene. Water is transported
through highly water-permeable membranes via water-
selective pores: the water channels. Aquaporins accel-
erate the movement of water and other solutes across
the biological membranes. Drosophila have aquaporin-
like water channel genes, DRIP (Drosophila integral pro-
tein).14 We increased the expression of DRIP using the
UAS-GAL4 system15 which renders temporal and
spatial expressions of genes possible. Male EP (Drip)
flies were crossed with females with daughterless-gene
switch gal4 driver or actin-gene switch gal4 driver, and
the survival of F1 offspring was monitored with or
without RU486 supplementation. In the gene-switch
gal4 system, gal4 is expressed only when RU486 is
present in the media. Our results show that survival of
flies with overexpressed DRIP gene (+RU) was not sig-
nificantly different from that of flies with normal DRIP
gene expression (-RU) either with daughterless-gene
switch driver (Fig. 1c,d; Table 1) or actin-gene switch
driver (data not shown). As a positive control, the valid-
ity of the gene switch driver was tested by overexpress-
ing the hsp26 gene which is known to extend lifespan
when overexpressed.16 As expected, survival of flies
with overexpressed hsp26 gene was significantly
extended compared to that with normal hsp26 gene
expression (Table 1). Although both hexagonal water
and overexpression of DRIP have no effect on the
lifespan of Drosophila in this study, it is still possible that
water transport is associated with the aging process
because the lifespan of Drosophila on a restricted diet is
regulated by water content in the media.17

Table 1 Mean and median lifespan of Drosophila fed with distilled water
(DW) or alkaline-reduced hexagonal water (ARW), F1 progeny of
daughterless-gene switch gal4 > EP (DRIP) flies and F1 progeny of
actin-gene switch gal4 > EP (hsp26) flies fed with or without RU 486

Treatment Sex n Mean Median P-value

lifespan lifespan
DW F 232 20.17 22 –
ARW F 254 21.66 22 0.1
DW M 318 29.72 33 –
ARW M 276 29.61 30 0.058
DRIP (RU-) F 281 37.34 39 –
DRIP (RU+) F 265 36.99 39 0.912
DRIP (RU-) M 242 50.09 52 –
DRIP (RU+) M 281 49.78 52 0.145
Hsp26 (RU-) F 270 31.25 33
Hsp26 (RU-) F 291 34.45* 35* <0.0001
Hsp26 (RU+) M 213 48.61 50
Hsp26 (RU+) M 273 56.83* 59* <0.0001
2
P-values are from c -test comparison of survival by log–rank test. *Significant
difference compared to control.

© 2011 Japan Geriatrics Society 兩 153

 Y Singh et al.
The size of the water market is estimated to be $US
318 billion globally and is rapidly increasing due to
pollution and economic growth. Many people follow
the “well-being” trend and seek “healthy” water.
Demands have driven many vendors to develop altered
water, which is being advertised as providing health
benefits. However, the impact on health by altered water
has not been validated scientifically. Most altered water
is produced by electrical devices that utilize electrolysis
to generate ionized and alkalinized water. Many water
ionizers originate from Japan and Korea, countries in
which many people believe altered water has health
benefits. This is in contrast to the views held by many
scientists in Western countries that altered water is yet
another scam.
We do not yet have adequate information on which to
judge the impact of altered water on health. It is the
scientists’ responsibility to study altered water further.
Our results indicate that ARW and hexagonal water has
no impact on the aging process, as far as Drosophila is
concerned.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by a research grant from the
Inha University (INHA-38335).
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output from the major and minor glands is called “sali-
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dry mouth is termed “xerostomia”. When salivary hypo-
function occurs, it leads to a plethora of sequelae,
© 2011 Japan Geriatrics Society