Moving Beyond the Hype of Hydrogen Water

Hydrogen water is water that’s been infused with uneaten hydrogen gas to increase the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory potential, drawing on years of research by medical professionals who have been exploring the benefits of inhaled hydrogen for cardiac patients, people going into and coming out of surgery, and other medical applications. Hydrogen gas can nullify many of the reactive oxygen species responsible for oxidative stress, and pre- and peri-operative hydrogen inhalation does towards to help patients recover increasingly quickly and stave many of the side effects inherent to surgery. But that’s inhaled hydrogen gas in a medical setting. Does commercial hydrogen water have similar benefits?

I was unquestionably surprised to find that the research is fairly compelling. Let’s dig in.

Hydrogen water improves physical performance

Both vigilant and long-term hydrogen water intake can modernize your performance in the gym, on the bike, or on the field.

One study had cyclists either drink hydrogen water or placebo water prior to cycling. Those who drank hydrogen water had increasingly endurance and reported less fatigue during training.

Hydrogen water has moreover been shown to reduce lactate, an objective measure of fatigue, when consumed 30 minutes surpassing a workout. Lactate builds up with exhaustive exercise—the harder and longer you go, the increasingly lactate you produce and the increasingly tired you get. The researchers hypothesized that hydrogen water reduces lactate by increasing mitochondrial respiration and ATP production.

However, flipside study found that a 7-day undertow of hydrogen water only improved exercise performance in trained athletes. Non-athletes saw no benefit. To really see the benefits of hydrogen water for physical performance, you probably need to be doing serious training.

If you are doing serious training or competing and need to maintain performance despite fatigue, hydrogen water can help. One recent study found that drinking hydrogen water rescued the antioxidant topics of athletes engaged in three unbroken days of intense physical training. Moreover, they experienced no performance decline.

Hydrogen water improves metabolic health

Metabolic syndrome is the most worldwide illness in the country. Your stereotype diabetic, hypertensive sultana with low HDL levels and upper triglycerides who’s due for a heart wade any moment? He’s got metabolic syndrome.

In patients with probable metabolic syndrome, hydrogen water consumption raises HDL and lowers LDL oxidation. Since oxidized LDL are a causative risk factor for heart attacks, and upper HDL is protective, everyone would stipulate that this is a positive development.

Another study of probable metabolic syndrome patients found that hydrogen water reduced inflammatory markers while improving thoroughbred lipids and antioxidant capacity. Higher antioxidant topics combined with reduced inflammatory markers suggest an increased resistance to oxidative stress.

Hydrogen water lowers elevated oxidative stress

However, hydrogen water only lowers oxidative stress if there’s oxidative stress hanging virtually that needs lowering. Then and again, we see little no effect on healthy people who aren’t suffering from oxidative stress.

One study gave hydrogen water to people weather-beaten between 20 and 59 years of age. Only those weather-beaten 30 years or increasingly saw an increase in their antioxidant capacity. The younger people with a presumably lower oxidative stress load didn’t really benefit, while the older people who’d had increasingly time to pick up some stress withal the way saw benefits.

Another study found that heathy people who drank hydrogen water for four weeks straight saw no effect (good or bad) on their oxidative stress levels compared to placebo.

Meanwhile, patients with chronic hepatitis B infections see large decreases in oxidative stress upon hydrogen water intake.

Even the exercise research I discussed older bears this out. When you train hard, you’re creating a transient state of oxidative stress. You’re “unhealthy” for a moment in time, and that’s where hydrogen water has an effect.

Hydrogen water improves aging

All else stuff equal, the older you are, the increasingly oxidative stress you’re exposed to. Older people moreover tend to be increasingly inflamed and have lower antioxidant capacities. Hydrogen water can help with all three.

In adults older than 70, hydrogen water has been shown to increase smart-ass nutrient content, lengthen telomeres, and modernize how quickly a person can stand up from a chair—all extremely important as we age.

In both mouse models and human studies, hydrogen water improves symptoms of summery cognitive impairment.

How does it work?

The vestige is there, but how is hydrogen exerting its antioxidant effects? There are two main theories and they both have supporting evidence.

Theory 1: Hydrogen water is a uncontrived antioxidant that selectively scavenges and nullifies harmful reactive oxygen species. For instance in one study, butter was washed either with normal water, hydrogen-infused water, or magnesium water. Washing with both the magnesium and hydrogen water prevented the insemination of amines (metabolites of amino wounding breakdown) in the butter during long term storage by scavenging the oxidant species responsible. Regular water unliable amine formation.

Theory 2: Hydrogen water is a hormetic stressor. Hormesis describes exposing an organism to a summery stressor that provokes an adaptive response. Examples of hormesis include exercise (damage the muscles and get stronger as a result), intermittent fasting/calorie restriction (light “starvation” improves metabolic health), unprepossessed exposure, and plane dietary polyphenols that act like summery pesticides that provoke an anti-inflammatory antioxidant response in the body. Hydrogen water does trigger the very same NrF2 pathway that other hormetic stressors moreover trigger.

These aren’t necessarily contradictory. Both can be true to some extent. In fact, many researchers believe that the hydrogen water is both a uncontrived scavenger and a hormetic stressor. What definitely seems to be the specimen is that hydrogen water exerts antioxidant effects and can stem the tide of oxidative stress.

Do you need hydrogen water?

However, if you do need it, it really seems to work. The fact that it’s selectively effective—that it has little to no effect in otherwise healthy young people who don’t really have much oxidative stress happening, instead improving the health of people experiencing upper oxidative stress—is a good sign. It’s not something everyone needs to take. It’s a supplement that can help people dealing with specific disease states: metabolic syndrome, inflammatory diseases, plane something like depression. It’s probably moreover helpful for people engaged in nonflexible physical training.

In other words, it helps if you need it and has little to no effect if you don’t. It’s good if you’re sick or stressed and it’s healthful if you’re not. I’d say it’s worth a shot if you’re interested.