Thinking Nutrition

Is hydrogen water healthy or a hoax?

• Dr Tim Crowe • Episode 127

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Heard about hydrogen water? It is regular water that has extra hydrogen infused in it and it’s one of the latest health trends with proponents claiming it will fight off disease, reduce inflammation, boost energy, improve mental health and enhance athletic performance. That’s quite a list of impressive claims. But what does the research have to say? That’s what I explore in this podcast to see if hydrogen water can live up to the hype or if it should be labelled the latest health hoax.

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Heard about hydrogen water? It is regular water that has extra hydrogen infused in it and it’s one of the latest health trends with proponents claiming it will fight off disease, reduce inflammation, boost energy, improve mental health and enhance athletic performance. That’s quite a list of impressive claims. But what does the research have to say? That’s what I’ll be exploring in this podcast to see if hydrogen water can live up to the hype or if it should be labelled the latest health hoax.

Hydrogen water, also called hydrogenated water or hydrogen-rich water, is just plain regular water that has extra hydrogen added to it. Why would you want to do this? Well, it all comes down to the claims made about hydrogen water and these include decreasing inflammation, improving athletic performance and maybe even slowing down the ageing process. More on that shortly. But first, how do you make hydrogen water?

The main method uses a machine that fires an electric current through water to produce hydrogen and this can be done either at home with a special electrolysis machine or by a commercial manufacturer who may also use high-pressure techniques to infuse molecular hydrogen gas directly into water. The water is then sealed in special bottles or cans to prevent the hydrogen from escaping before consumption. Another method to make hydrogen water is through the use of magnesium tablets that react with water to produce hydrogen gas.

While drinking hydrogen water is the most common way to dose up on hydrogen, it can also be given by inhaling hydrogen gas or even bathing in hydrogen-rich water. It has even been given by injection of hydrogen-rich saline but this is under medical supervision. That’s why drinking hydrogen water is the most palatable option for most people. 

Because of its small size, molecular hydrogen can diffuse rapidly through the body and pass easily through cell membranes and into organelles such as the mitochondria. But it also means it is eliminated from the body quickly. It is why hydrogen water products have very short shelf lives as it is hard to contain.

So why would you want to drink it? It all comes down to the ability of hydrogen to function as an antioxidant which helps to quench free radical damage inside the body. Free radicals are highly reactive molecules with unpaired electrons generated within the body in response to things like poor diet, air pollution, environmental toxins and the body’s own metabolic byproducts. We need free radicals as part of our immune defence and to keep us healthy, but too many can be a problem. So molecular hydrogen could augment the body’s own antioxidant mechanisms. And there is some evidence that it can also inhibit inflammatory pathways. On top of that, it could also have some role in influencing gene expression and cellular turnover.

That’s enough of the theory; what do human clinical trials tell us? Well before I looked into this topic, the idea of hydrogenated water did have the smell of yet another health scam. But surprisingly there are at least some limited trials that indicate that there could be a small amount of truth to some of the story. Let’s unpack this.

First off, let’s look at exercise and recovery as proponents of hydrogen water claim that hydrogen water can increase energy, reduce inflammation, and reduce recovery times after exercise. There are in fact quite a few clinical trials in this area to explore and they were put together in a recently published systematic review. All up, 27 randomised-controlled trials that involved just on 600 healthy adults were looked at. The participants were a range of elite athletes, recreationally active and untrained people. Molecular hydrogen was given as water, water bathing, a gas or as a powder though there was a lot of variation in the hydrogen concentration administered. The hydrogen was usually given within 24 hours before exercise or by repeated dosing up to 2 weeks before exercise. And I’ll link to this review in the show notes. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/nutrition/articles/10.3389/fnut.2024.1387657/full 

A whole range of exercise outcomes were looked at including aerobic endurance and performance, VO2max, anaerobic performance, power output, lower body explosive power, muscle strength, heart rate, blood lactate levels and perceived exertion during exercise. And what did they find? Of the main outcomes, it was only lower body explosive power that improved and even then just to a small extent. Blood lactate and rate of perceived exertion were reduced but again, just to a small degree. And it seems that any benefit on fatigue and rate of perceived exertion may mostly apply to untrained people. However, with so much variation in how the molecular hydrogen was given and the dose used, it makes it hard to come up with any clear recommendations. But at present, a benefit of molecular hydrogen can’t be fully discounted, but the evidence is still pretty weak.

Exercise is by far the largest area of research, but it’s worth giving some mention to a few conditions where at least there have been trials with hydrogen water. One study in 49 people with liver cancer found that drinking hydrogen-rich water for 6 weeks during radiation therapy could improve their quality of life. While those drinking the hydrogen water had lower markers of oxidative stress over their radiation therapy. Sounds good doesn’t it? Except treat these results with a bit of caution as there is already quite a bit of research showing that antioxidant supplements taken during active cancer therapy, especially radiotherapy, may do more harm than good. That’s because the nature of the therapy is to produce reactive oxygen species to damage cancer cells which at the same time damage healthy cells too causing many of the side effects of treatment. Reducing the side-effects of this therapy by mopping up free radicals can have the unintended consequence of less effective radiation therapy and greater rates of cancer recurrence and this isn’t theoretical as it has been observed in several clinical trials. So I wouldn’t be getting too excited yet about any claims you may read about hydrogen water being a cancer treatment.

Some research indicates that hydrogen water may be effective at reducing markers of oxidative stress and improving risk factors related to metabolic syndrome. In a 10-week study of 20 people with metabolic syndrome, participants had lower levels of LDL and total cholesterol and higher levels of the more beneficial HDL cholesterol and reduced blood levels of inflammatory markers. How it could be doing this (assuming the findings of a single small study are actually true of course) is unclear though likely a combination of anti-inflammatory and lipid metabolism actions.

And just recently a study has looked at how hydrogen water can work in the treatment of long COVID. In a 2-week randomised-controlled trial, 32 participants took either 500 mL of hydrogen-rich water or regular water as a placebo each day. And it seems that those taking the hydrogen water experienced less fatigue and had improved physical function and sleep quality with the size of this benefit considered clinically meaningful. Certainly interesting enough to consider doing some follow-up studies. And I’ll link to the study in the show notes. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38794767

Look, I could go on citing the odd interesting study here and there, but at present, it is quite a mixed field outside of the exercise domain. I will say that I wouldn’t be completely dismissing hydrogen water in some conditions at this stage, but we need to see a lot more confirmatory studies in a range of conditions. Probably the best research commentary on this is a systematic review published at the start of this year which looked at 30 studies that explored the potential benefits of hydrogen-rich water on various aspects of health including exercise capacity, physical endurance, liver function, cardiovascular disease, mental health, COVID-19, oxidative stress, and ageing. And the conclusion from all this was that although preliminary results in clinical trials look encouraging, a lot more research with larger sample sizes and better-conducted methods is needed to substantiate the health links studied so far. And more so, what is lacking is a clear explanation of the likely mechanisms behind the potential benefits of hydrogen-rich water. I’ll link to this review in the show notes. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10816294

So, are there any downsides to hydrogen water? Molecular hydrogen is generally considered nontoxic, even at high doses, and side effects when they have been reported in the literature are rare and fairly minor such as bloating, dizziness, and increased bowel movements. This means hydrogen water is generally considered safe to drink for most people.

However, as with any product, it’s important to consider a few potential concerns such as the lack of regulation where the production of hydrogen water, especially in the form of tablets, bottles, or home generators, may not always be to a common standard. This could lead to inconsistencies in product quality in terms of the amount of hydrogen in the product which could be at a much lower dose than that used in the actual research studies.

Then there is the big issue of cost. Hydrogen water is expensive if you want to buy off-the-shelf commercially made hydrogen water so expect to pay upwards of $100 for a 24-can case – ouch. And remember that the hydrogen content will decline over time so you have no assurances just how much hydrogen you are getting by the time you purchase it.

Then there is a whole range of machines to make it yourself that can retail in the thousands of dollars. If you’re on a budget, there are high-tech water bottles that produce hydrogen at the press of a button and will set you back a few hundred dollars. You have no idea though how the quality of each of these methods are in producing an effective ‘dose’ of hydrogen as there are no industry-wide standards on the amount of hydrogen that can be added to water. As a result, concentrations can vary widely. If you are making your own, it would be wise to consider using distilled or filtered water so there are no impurities in the mix.

So, let’s wrap all this up. Even with the research to date on hydrogen water, the results are far from spectacular in most conditions looked at. This means your expensive hydrogen water of unknown quality compared to what is used in research studies, could just be an expensive water-based placebo at this stage.

The main claims made around hydrogen water centre on its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits which could have some basis in fact. But do you know what else can improve the antioxidant status of the body and also help with inflammation? Pretty much any plant food that is close to its natural state and full of fibre – fruits, vegetables, wholegrains, legumes and the list goes on. So if you’re looking for a solution to your health problems in a bottle of hydrogen water and don’t have the foundation of a reasonably healthy diet in place first then it may be worthwhile addressing that first before you start metabolically hacking with infused hydrogen.

So that’s it for today’s show. You can find the show notes either in the app you’re listening to this podcast on, or else head over to my webpage www.thinkingnutrition.com.au and click on the podcast section to find this episode to read the show notes.

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I’m Tim Crowe and you’ve been listening to Thinking Nutrition.

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