Drinking hydrogen water, breathing hydrogen gas, taking hydrogen baths... can it really cure all diseases?

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Drinking hydrogen water, inhaling hydrogen gas, taking a hydrogen bath... can be anti-oxidant, lower blood sugar, and fight cancer.

In the field of health and wellness, the concept of "hydrogen" has gradually entered the public's field of vision in recent years. From drinking hydrogen-rich water to inhaling hydrogen, various hydrogen products have emerged one after another, claiming to have multiple health benefits such as anti-oxidation, lowering blood sugar, and anti-cancer.

Rumor Analysis

That is not the case.

The medical application of hydrogen is still in the research stage, and its therapeutic effect and safety need more clinical trials to verify. The publicity on the market about hydrogen health care and recuperation methods is often exaggerated and lacks scientific basis.

In the field of health and wellness, the concept of "hydrogen" has gradually entered the public's field of vision in recent years. From drinking hydrogen-rich water to inhaling hydrogen, various hydrogen products have emerged one after another, claiming to have multiple health benefits such as anti-oxidation, lowering blood sugar, and anti-cancer, making people feel that they can cure all diseases, and many elderly people believe it.

Image from the Internet However, what is the impact of hydrogen on health? Is it really as magical as advertised?

1. Lack of clinical evidence

At present, most of the benefits of hydrogen to the human body come from animal experiments. Although animal experiments have shown that hydrogen may have certain effects in immune regulation, inflammatory response, aging, etc., the clinical effects on humans still need to be further studied and confirmed. Current research is not enough to determine the specific mechanism and effect of hydrogen in the human body. For example, although hydrogen has shown antioxidant effects in animal experiments, the physiological environment of the human body is very different from that of animals, and the antioxidant effect of hydrogen in the human body may not be as significant as in animal experiments. In addition, there are differences between individuals in different human bodies, and the response to hydrogen may vary. Therefore, more clinical research is needed to determine the true benefits of hydrogen to the human body.

2. Exaggerated advertising by merchants

Merchants often exaggerate the efficacy of hydrogen-rich water, claiming that it can treat various diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, etc. This exaggerated propaganda not only misleads consumers, but may also bring unnecessary economic losses and health risks to consumers. In general, hydrogen treatment has certain prospects, but more experiments are needed to prove its effectiveness and give reasonable suggestions and dosage guidance. At this stage, it is unreliable to blindly believe in the merchants' propaganda for treatment.

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Negative effects of hydrogen

1. Taking medicine instead of taking medicine is not worth the cost

Some elderly people are superstitious about hydrogen products, and have listened to merchants' claims that hydrogen can cure all diseases, and even stopped taking medications. If you unfortunately get sick, the right choice is to go to a regular hospital, consult a doctor, and follow the doctor's advice. Do not regard hydrogen as a "panacea" or a health club as a "miracle doctor's hall", otherwise it will only delay treatment opportunities and bring greater pain to yourself and your family.

2. Increase safety risks

There are reports of hydrogen balloon explosions in the news every year, because hydrogen itself is a flammable and explosive gas, which can cause explosions if you are not careful. If you buy a hydrogen manufacturing machine and there is a hydrogen leak, it may cause a disaster.

Image source: Weibo

In addition, our metabolism mostly requires the participation of oxygen. If we inhale hydrogen, the proportion of oxygen inhalation will decrease, which may cause tissue and organ hypoxia and lead to disease, and even suffocation and death in severe cases.

Hydrogen product status and regulation

There are various hydrogen products on the market, of which hydrogen-rich water, hydrogen generators and hydrogen baths are the three main types of products.

1. Hydrogen-rich water

At present, there are some standards for hydrogen-rich water formulated by some companies themselves and group standards formulated by some organizations, such as T/BBYY 001-2023 "Hydrogen-Rich Nutritional Drinking Water" formulated last year. However, the industry's standard system is not yet perfect and unified, and lacks mandatory standards at the national level. This also leads to uneven quality of hydrogen-rich water products on the market, and it is difficult for consumers to judge the quality of the products. For example, the concentration of hydrogen in hydrogen-rich water, the time that hydrogen can be dissolved in water, etc., have not been regulated accordingly because there are no relevant regulations.

2. Hydrogen generator

There are two main types of hydrogen generators on the market, one for breathing and the other for making hydrogen water. The prices also vary greatly. The price of hydrogen breathing machines ranges from several thousand to tens of thousands, while the price of hydrogen water making machines is cheaper, ranging from more than 200 to more than 900. Most hydrogen generators are not medical devices. The hydrogen generator with the highest sales volume on a certain e-commerce platform clearly states in its product description that it is a "non-medical device."

Image source: E-commerce platform products

Product details page Search for hydrogen on the official website of the State Food and Drug Administration and you will see all hydrogen-related products. Among them, there is only one hydrogen generator on record.

Source: State Drug Administration

Moreover, this product is not suitable for anti-oxidation, hypoglycemic, anti-cancer and other aspects. In its scope of application, it only has one use: "assistive for improving symptoms of adult patients in the acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease."

Source: State Drug Administration

Therefore, most hydrogen generators cannot guarantee a certain medical effect. They are not able to cure all diseases as advertised by merchants.

3. Take a Hydrogen Bath

Compared with the first two, hydrogen baths are more expensive and require special equipment to produce hydrogen-rich water, such as hydrogen-rich water machines or hydrogen-rich water bathtubs. These devices can convert ordinary water into hydrogen-rich water, and then use this water for bathing. Last year, there was news that an old man died while taking a hydrogen bath, and he often went to the Life Museum in recent months.

Image source: NetEase

Therefore, without high-quality evidence to prove that hydrogen can cure diseases, it is impossible to formulate relevant disease guidelines or expert consensus. In addition, there is currently a lack of national mandatory standards, so there is no basis for supervision. If businesses exaggerate their publicity, it is inevitable that the elderly will be deceived. If you see this article, quickly forward it to your parents to avoid increasing financial losses and possibly affecting their health.

Looking in the mirror of rumors

If you find that many exaggerated words are used in the promotion of health care products, you need to be vigilant, as these words generally lack scientific basis. Consumers should be vigilant and should not easily believe in unproven medical effects.

References

[1]Ohsawa, I., Ishikawa, M., Takahashi, K. et al. Hydrogen acts as a therapeutic antioxidant by selectively reducing cytotoxic oxygen radicals. Nat Med 13, 688–694 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm1577

[2] Guangming Daily.

[3] Sun Xuejun. Selective antioxidant effect of hydrogen[C]//Abstracts of the 11th China Biophysics Academic Conference and the 9th National Members' Congress. 2009.

[4] Wang Ximing, Li Xiang, Xue Xiaofeng, Liang Qiuhua, Sun Longlong, Lü Zhanyun. [Review] Protective effect of hydrogen in diabetes. Chinese Journal of Diabetes, 2024, 16(5): 595-598.

[5] National Medical Products Administration. National Medical Device Registration Approval 20203080066. https://www.nmpa.gov.cn/datasearch/search-info.html?nmpa=aWQ9MzkyODY2Mzc3MzU3NzE1MzkxNWFkZjNmODFmNDc0ZGYmaXRlbUlkPWZmODA4MDgxODNjYWQ3NTAwMTgzY2I2NmZlNjkwMjg1

[6] Medical community. An old man died while taking a hydrogen bath. Can hydrogen really cure diseases? https://www.163.com/dy/article/ICMG2MO10514AD1K.html

Author: Li Chun, registered nutritionist

Review｜Ruan Guangfeng, Deputy Director of Kexin Food and Health Information Exchange Center