Dear Subscriber,
I have a Holiday treat for you today and an idea for a Holiday gift of terrific health value to you and your family.
You have probably seen ads for tablets that you drop in a glass of water and hydrogen gas is liberated for you to drink (have to do so quickly). It has been heavily promoted for health benefits by many, and, I have to agree, the medical literature on your use of any form of hydrogen administration is quite compelling.
I summarize well studied benefits for your consideration and provide a few key references. I want to emphasize that exact mechanisms of these benefits have not been fully worked out, but the biochemical benefits have been proven out.
H2 is actually naturally produced in your body and generally in large amounts by intestinal microflora. Hence, a healthy gut microbiome is essential. Eating lots of fiber will encourage your gut friends to release more.
H2 has properties including anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-apoptotic (cell death), protects against radiation damage. It is the tiniest molecule and can easily penetrate cell membranes and enter the nucleus of the cell where it can scavenge the most destructive of the free radicals- hydroxyl and also the neuro damaging peroxynitrate radical (ONOO-) preventing DNA damage. H2 also reduces production of inflammatory cytokines such as IL-1B, IL-6, TNFa, and others. It upregulates production of factors preventing cell suicide.
H2 modulates and reduces markers of excess oxidative stress. In particular, the hydroxyl and peroxynitrate radicals are among the most destructive to DNA. H2 selectively quenches these highly dangerous free radicals without suppressing the normal free radicals our bodies produce for good immune function.
In rats H2 administration appears to up regulate gene expression of anti-oxidant pathways. (Note- that is one of the beneficial effects of ozone therapy).
H2 also appears to act as a signaling molecule, one means cells use to communicate with each other. This can positively influence multiple biochemical pathways.
I am particularly interested in H2 effect on the central nervous system. The preliminary research has been extremely positive and I would rather simply paste here some of the findings from one of my references. Please know that the abbreviation I/R injury means ischemia reperfusion injury. That is where an organ is deprived of blood flow for a period and then when blood flow is restored there is an explosion of free radical damage resulting in injury. Cannot withhold the blood forever to avoid this for the organ will die. But it may suffer significant injury with restoration of circulation. H2 appears to ameliorate this kind of damage, which can occur in stroke and heart attacks.
“Effects of hydrogen on central nervous system diseases
Because H2 can penetrate the blood–brain barrier by gaseous diffusion [1, 95], the therapeutic effects of H2on central nervous system diseases have been studied extensively. Ohsawa and colleagues reported in 2007 that inhaled H2 reduced infarct size in a focal cerebral I/R injury rat model [1]. Parkinson's disease researchers found that oral HW, even at concentrations as low as 5%, alleviated symptoms in murine models by reducing oxidative stress [61, 96]. Further study indicated that drinking HW and intermittent H2exposure were more effective than continuous H2 exposure [97]. Yoritaka, et al. recently demonstrated that drinking HW reduced oxidative stress and improved patient symptoms in a Parkinson's disease clinical trial [98]. Moreover, endogenous H2 maybe closely related to the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease. Brenner, et al. found that environmental toxins deteriorated intrinsic melanin, and that melanin could split the water molecule into hydrogen and oxygen, suggesting that a lack of endogenous H2 could accelerate Parkinson's disease processes [99]. H2 has also been studied as a potential treatment for Alzheimer's disease, another neurodegenerative condition. Li, et al. reported that HS injection improved cognitive and memory functions in an Alzheimer’s-like rat model by preventing neuroinflammation and oxidative stress [100], likely due in part to H2-mediated suppression of abnormal IL-1β, JNK, and NF-κB activation [47].
In addition to neurodegenerative diseases, H2 administration also appears to alleviate other brain diseases and injuries, such as hypoxia-ischemia (HI) brain injury [101], stress or age-related cognitive impairment [95, 102], traumatic brain injury [103], cerebral I/R injury [104–106], and SAH-induced early brain injury [25, 107] in rodent models. However, conflicting observations have been made regarding the effects of H2on rat brain damage. Some researchers reported beneficial effects of H2 therapy in the neonatal HI rat model [66], while others considered H2 ineffective [108]. These opposing findings might be due to differing experimental conditions, such as different degrees of HI insult, age of pups, H2 concentration, and length of H2 exposure. A recent study showed that H2 administration without surgery did not exert neuroprotective effects or improve functional outcomes in rats after intracerebral hemorrhage [109]. For spinal cord injury, H2 treatment improved locomotor behavior recovery in rats [110] and neurological recovery in mice with experimentally-induced autoimmune encephalomyelitis [111].”
“Effects of hydrogen on cardiovascular system diseases
Evidence suggests that H2 treatment protects against myocardial injury and development of atherosclerosis and other vascular diseases. H2 inhalation limited myocardial infarction extent without altering hemodynamic parameters in a rat model of myocardial I/R injury [94], consistent with other reports that HS injection provided cardioprotection against I/R injury [112–115]. Myocardial cold I/R injury following heart transplantation is a major determinant of primary graft dysfunction and chronic rejection [116], and can promote the subsequent development of graft coronary artery disease [117]. Researchers found that H2inhalation ameliorated rat cardiac cold I/R injury [118], and drinking HW daily may protect cardiac and aortic allograft recipients from inflammation-associated deterioration [119]. Noda, et al. recently established a novel method of preserving cardiac grafts using a HW bath [71]. Soluble H2 delivered to excised cardiac grafts during cold preservation ameliorated cold I/R injury in grafts from syngeneic older donors and in allografts subjected to extended cold storage [71].
In addition to treating myocardial I/R injury, HS treatment prevented left ventricular hypertrophy in spontaneously hypertensive rats [120], isoproterenol-induced rat myocardial infarction [113], and doxorubicin-induced rat myocardial injury [121], and improved survival and neurological outcomes after cardiac arrest/resuscitation in rats [122]. Drinking HW alleviated radiation-induced myocardial injury in mice [123]. H2 inhalation also improved survival and functional outcomes in a post-cardiac arrest syndrome rat model [124]. In 2008, Ohsawa, et al. found that oral HW prevented atherosclerosis development in anapolipoprotein E knockout mouse model [125]. HS administration has been shown to prevent neointima formation after carotid balloon injury by suppressing ROS and the TNF-α/NF-κB pathway [126], as well as cerebral vasospasm occurrence after SAH by limiting vascular inflammation and oxidative stress in rats [127].”
Hydrogan administration benefits other body systems. “Many studies have demonstrated protective effects of H2 in other liver diseases, such as radiation-induced damage in liver tumor patients [131], acetaminophen-induced hepatotoxicity [132], obstructive jaundice-induced liver damage [45, 133], nonalcoholic steatohepatitis and hepatocarcinogenesis [134], postoperative liver failure after major hepatectomy [135], liver regeneration after partial hepatectomy [39], and acute hepatic injury in acute necrotizing pancreatitis [136] in murine models. Recent work confirmed that HS improved nonalcoholic fatty liver disease by alleviating oxidative stress and activating peroxisome proliferatoractivated receptor α (PPARα) and PPARγ expression in rat hepatocytes [137].”
Additionally, by the mechanisms described above hydrogen has been found to benefit urinary tract diseases and kidney function. In rats, hydrogen treatment mitigated damage to testicular cell sperm production, a process highly sensitive to radiation. It did so by quenching free radical damage on normal cells. This tells us that hydrogen could be quite beneficial to anyone receiving radiation therapy to protect against “collateral damage”. Protection is not just limited to testicular cells. They just happen to be among the most vulnerable cells to radiation.
Here is another pearl. H2 appears to protect and preserve mitochondrial function from damage to enhanced ATP production. We are facing a huge crisis in the world with mitochondrial dysfunction from the myriad of assaults from chronic infection.
You can treat yourself with hydrogen by several means. There are machines that make hydrogen water. There are tablets of magnesium that you can drop into water which leads to a chemical process of the magnesium releasing hydrogen gas from the water. You drink the water as soon as the tablet is dissolved. You can perhaps find a clinic where tanked H2 gas can be delivered for inhalation. There is also H2 saline infusions. But the most cost-effective delivery for the average person might be a home machine which generates hydrogen from water, and you breathe in a hydrogen/oxygen gas mixture called Brown’s gas. I happen to like this method best. Considering H2 beneficial effect on the nervous system and eyes, I have acquired a device that does just that. Mine is marketed by Promolife and makes a generous 850 cc per minute of the hydrogen/oxygen gas mixture of which 2/3 is hydrogen. I am using it most days for up to an hour while working at my computer or watching a movie at home.
Hydrogen therapy appears to work better with intermittent exposure rather than continuous. That is often the case with most therapies. Promolife offers a nice discount (over $150) using the coupon code REDWOOD on its hydrogen generator, and the code works for discount on all its products. This machine is quite versatile, requiring little maintenance, is reportedly very durable and can also be used with goggles to treat eyes, and it also makes hydrogen water!
So, at the present time, it is my choice for personal therapy. Your only raw material expense is distilled water, and occasional electrolyte for the water.
Hydrogen therapy appears to work better with intermittent exposure rather than continuous. That is often the case with most therapies.
If you decide to treat to a hydrogen holiday gift, please let me know what it does for you.
To Your Excellent Health,
Robert Jay Rowen, MD
Source articles:
https://www.oncotarget.com/article/21130/text/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33078374/
Why? Please educate me.
https://www.promolife.com/h2-hydrogen-inhalation-and-drinking-system