What is Hydrogen Supplementation?
Hydrogen therapy uses molecular hydrogen (H2), which is a naturally occurring molecule formed when two hydrogen atoms combine. Molecular hydrogen is the smallest element in the universe, and its tiny size allows it to quickly spread through and penetrate all the body’s tissues, and cells.
Approximately 62% of all the atoms in most animal species are Hydrogen atoms with 24% Oxygen and another 12% Carbon. It makes sense that hydrogen and its electrons are essential in nearly every molecule and function throughout the body, and if there is not enough of them to go around, then it will affect the way the body works in a great many ways
As body ages, its ability to harvest and produce enough hydrogen to control the effects of Oxidative Stress diminishes which may result in the onset of degenerative diseases and ailments.
Molecular Hydrogen Supplementation is simply providing the living organism access to the very atoms that allow it to exist in the first place. Hydrogen has been referred to as the key to all living things and in its atomic form, it is the purest, most natural supplement known to science.
Anti-Aging
Molecular hydrogen is a powerful antioxidant, that helps to defend cells and genes from damage and death caused by harmful free radicals. These properties, in combination with its anti-inflammatory properties help enhance longevity because aging is caused by tissue degeneration, oxidative stress and inflammation.
Disease Prevention
There are currently 150 different diseases in which molecular hydrogen therapy appears to exert a beneficial effect. Some of the most common include cardiovascular disease, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, diabetes, allergies, osteoporosis, atherosclerosis, heart disease, and cancer.
Is H2 safe?
H2 is completely non-toxic and naturally produced in the body when intestinal bacteria break down dietary fibres. There are no adverse effects associated with H2, and when H2 is broken down, the by-product is simply water (H20).
Molecular Hydrogen Therapy may benefit in the following ways:
- Improve skin quality.
- Reduce inflammation.
- Lower joint pain.
- Reduce muscle fatigue.
- Promote good microbes in the gut.
- Relieve pain.
- Slow the overall age process.
- Lower muscle degeneration.
- Enhance mitochondrial function.
- Provide benefits for over 150 diseases.
Ageing goes hand in hand with increased oxidative damage to cells leading toward cellular decline and organ dysfunction. Indeed, Schreiner et al. (2005) have shown that an increase in antioxidant defence in the mitochondria, the main producer of reactive oxygen species, extend life. Most importantly ageing is associated with specific diseases that we attempt to address only after their onset. However, as for everything, prevention is often the best course of action. Yamamoto et al (2021) highlight this and advocate for the preventative use of molecular hydrogen against pre-symptomatic diseases.
One core example is immunosenescence brought about by chronic inflammation and a chronic pro-inflammatory state. Most, if not all, degenerative and age-related diseases can be linked to mitochondrial dysfunction and associated elevated oxidative stress. Molecular hydrogen promotes mitochondrial function by increasing ATP production and influencing metabolic pathways away from glycolysis and toward oxidative phosphorylation.
Molecular hydrogen’s antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and immuno-restorative action is documented and lacks deleterious side effects, making it a prime candidate for the preventive treatment of pre-symptomatic diseases. Because H2 diffuse rapidly in the organism reaching every mitochondrion in the body molecular hydrogen can act as a protectant to all pre-symptomatic diseases at the same time and indiscriminately before the onset of symptoms.
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More Information
Further Reading
For more information, visit the following websites:
From Hydrogen Biology Research Centre
Medical
Hydrogen supplementation in medicine, both at a pre-clinical and clinical trials level have shown a lot of promise in treatment or preventive effects in the last two decades or so, for a wide variety of ailments ranging from cancer to rheumatoid arthritis, dermatitis and recovery from ischemia with so far, no negative side effects being reported. The data suggests that at least one of the biological targets of hydrogen must have a very high affinity for it.
H2 has unique advantages in clinical applications. It effectively penetrates bio membranes to reach cell nuclei and mitochondria1. Hydrogen supplementation can be delivered safely to patient by multiple means, 1-4% inhalation, Hydrogen rich water (up to 10ppm) or hydrogen rich saline. The mode of action of H2 on the body identified so far is that H2 act as direct and indirect antioxidant especially by scavenging the infamous Hydroxyl radical2 and increasing the activity of both superoxide dismutase and catalase. Furthermore, H2 supplementation is shown to increase ATP production by the mitochondria by more than 50%3 while suppressing the production of superoxide by the first complex of the respiratory chain4.
References
- Ohta, S. Molecular hydrogen is a novel antioxidant to efficiently reduce oxidative stress with potential for the improvement of mitochondrial diseases. Biochim Biophys Acta 1820, 586-594 (2012); PMID:21621588; http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bbagen.2011.05.006
- Ohsawa, I. et al. Hydrogen acts as a therapeutic antioxidant by selectively reducing cytotoxic oxygen radicals. Nat Med 13, 688-694 (2007); PMID:17486089; http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nm1577
- Gvozdjáková, A. et al. A new insight into the molecular hydrogen effect on coenzyme Q and mitochondrial function of rats. Canadian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology 98, 29-34 (2020); http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjpp-2019-0281
- Ishihara, G., Kawamoto, K., Komori, N. & Ishibashi, T. Molecular hydrogen suppresses superoxide generation in the mitochondrial complex I and reduced mitochondrial membrane potential. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 522, 965-970 (2020); PMID:31810604; http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bbrc.2019.11.135