See what Nobel Prize Nominee Dr. Garth Nicholson and his colleagues have to say about the safety and health benefits of hydrogen. Dr. Nicholson is President and Chairman of the Institute for Molecular Medicine in California, USA. In the article you will find his impressive interview as well as the official medical reports from where the information was borrowed.
Professional athletes and active sports people
When it comes to exercise and fitness, we are all different, but we all want the same thing. RESULTS! This is true whether you are 20 or 80 years old, jogging, exercising for health or a professional athlete. Whether you weight train or enjoy cross-fit, yoga or aerobics. Despite our different approaches, we all want an easy, safe and natural way to get more enjoyment and benefit from the time and effort we invest in exercise and fitness. What if there was a convenient and natural way to have more energy while reducing fatigue, lactic acid buildup and oxidative stress? A way to recover faster, boost your performance and thus enjoy your workout more?
There is a growing body of clinical research that shows that molecular hydrogen - or H2 - offers tremendous benefits to the body. The easiest and most convenient way to get H2 is by drinking hydrogen water. H2 caught the attention of scientists in 2007 when the prestigious journal Nature Medicine described it in a study as an extremely potent antioxidant with selective ability. Since then, over 1,000 official papers have been published showing that hydrogen has a therapeutic effect in over 170 disease models and has a healing effect on virtually every organ in the body. The growing collection of these studies shows that H2 has significant benefits for athletic performance and during routine exercise and training.
What makes training and exercise difficult?
Whether you're going to the gym or training for the Olympics, the answer is the same. Logically, any activity or exercise outside of the resting state will immediately increase the body's energy and oxygen demands. Any activity that is more intense than what your body is used to causes a cascade of effects.
Increased oxygen intake produces more cell-damaging oxygen (free) radicals that cause oxidative stress. It attacks and damages your cells, leading to loss of cell viability and cell death, causing muscle damage, weakness, fatigue and inflammation.
If your workout is intense, you will use the available ATP for energy and your body will start burning glycogen. When this happens, lactic acid will start to build up, leading to fatigue and sore muscles. All of this leads to decreased endurance, decreased performance, and weaker results.
Hydrogen water increases energy
ATP and H2 water
ATP (adenosine triphosphate) is the energy source for all your body's activities. The food we eat and the oxygen we breathe create ATP in the mitochondria, powering each of our cells and our activity. H2 water stimulates the mitochondria and enhances ATP production. At the same time, free radicals are produced every minute from the oxygen we breathe. This is the result of aerobic metabolism. Free radicals - especially oxygen radicals - damage your mitochondria. When damaged mitochondria can't produce the necessary levels of ATP, the body turns to metabolizing stored glycogen. Glycogen stores are found mostly in the liver. H2 neutralizes free radicals and protects mitochondria and cells. This gives the body more energy.
Hydrogen water increases endurance
A recent study /5/ showed that drinking hydrogen-enriched water in a group of athletes increased time to exhaustion and overall performance compared to a placebo group given plain water. The study noted no side effects or contraindications.
Hydrogen water reduces lactic acid build-up
Whenever your body starts burning stored glycogen, you start producing lactic acid. Increased lactic acid buildup in turn leads to more fatigue, muscle soreness, and slower recovery. Exercise-induced metabolic acidosis is common among some active sports people and professional athletes. Acidosis is only noticeable by poorer performance and achievement.
H2 water reduces muscle pain and the release of lactic acid on exertion.
A recent study found that hydrogen water positively affects athletic performance in elite athletes. Both muscle fatigue and lactate (lactic acid levels in the blood) were reduced in a control group of professional athletes drinking hydrogen water before undergoing intense exercise. The data are described in official monitoring protocols./6/
A similar study found that H2 water assisted in faster recovery from exertion and reduced lactic acid accumulation at maximal exertion during exercise. Although the exact mechanism has not been identified, the study concluded that hydrogen-rich water reduces physical exhaustion during maximal exercise./7/
A quote from one of the many research papers on this topic states, "Adequate hydration with hydrogen water before exercise reduces blood lactate levels and improves exercise-induced decline in muscle function."~ Kosuke Aoki, et al Medical Research Research, 2012.
Hydrogen water protects against oxidative stress
Any increase in physical activity leads to an increased level of oxidative stress. Abnormal or intense exercise for a short period of time causes higher levels of oxidative stress and lactic acid accumulation (exercise-induced metabolic acidosis). This causes symptoms of overload, such as increased fatigue, residual muscle soreness, micro tearing of muscle fibres and inflammation. Oxidative stress, in whatever form and whatever caused, is very harmful to the body.
Scientists have found that H2 readily neutralizes free radicals, specifically the most dangerous to health hydroxyl radical (*OH-) and the oxide radical ion (0+). /The fact that H2 selectively targets hydroxyl radicals is particularly important. Other free radicals (e.g., nitric oxide radical) are actually important for cell physiology and homeostasis./8,9/ Unlike other non-selective antioxidants, H2 leaves these beneficial free radicals unchanged, making it the most potent and effective antioxidant.
H2 shortens recovery and healing time
Recovery from sport or exercise is multifaceted and involves many more processes than simple muscle recovery. Recovery (as athletes call it) involves chemical and hormonal balancing, nervous system restoration, mental state and more. Sometimes we strain muscle or connective tissue. Therefore, proper recovery requires addressing many things.
Studies have found that hydrogen water is useful in treating injuries and conditions caused by oxidative stress and inflammation, as well as in treating sports-related soft tissue injuries./10/ H2 has been shown to help maintain homeostasis of enzymes including glutathione, superoxide dismutase, catalase, and others. H2 has also demonstrated an ability for cell signaling that is very beneficial for brain and neurological function.
Hydrogen water improves hydration
The end product of the neutralization and binding of molecular hydrogen (H2) to hydroxyl and oxygen radicals is pure water (H2O) and pure water alone. This has led researchers to conclude that H2 improves cellular hydration, which is one of the facts explaining why no negative side effects have been found from hydrogen water consumption. H2 is a safe and 100% natural element in nature and within ourselves. Studies of famous healing springs around the world for centuries have found that they are high in dissolved water molecular hydrogen (H2).
Hundreds of studies have already been done on patients in various hospitals around the world. Hydrogen has been found to have therapeutic effects in socially significant diseases such as Diabetes, Cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Rheumatoid Arthritis and many others. The H2MEDICAL team truly strives to educate the public, as well as contribute to a better quality of life for everyone. Our devices have medical certification and are distinguished by maximum therapeutic effect as well as the highest safety class. /see the devices/
Sources used /numbers in the article show from where the data was borrowed/:
1. Djordjevic D, Cubrilo D, Macura M, Barudzic N, Djuric D, Jakovljevic V. The influence of training status on oxidative stress in young male handball players. Mol Cell Biochem. 2011;351(1–2):251–259.
2. Tanskanen M, Atalay M, Uusitalo A. Altered oxidative stress in overtrained athletes. J Sports Sci.2010;28(3):309–317. doi: 10.1080/02640410903473844.
3. Jackson MJ. Muscle damage during exercise: possible role of free radicals and protective effect of vitamin E. Proc Nutr Soc. 1987;46(1):77–80. doi: 10.1079/PNS19870010.
4. T. Lebarron The Actions of Molecular Hydrogen in the Body, MHI, March 4, 2013.
5. Sergej M. OSTOJIC, Darinka KOROVLJEV, et al, 28-Days Hydrogen-Rich Water Supplementation Affects Exercise Capacity, Applied Bioenergetics Lab, Faculty of Sport and PE, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
6. Pilot study: Effects of drinking hydrogen-rich water on muscle fatigue caused by acute exercise in elite athletes. Med Gas Res. 2012 Jul 12;2:12. doi: 10.1186/2045-9912-2-12.
7. Ostojic SM, Stojanovic MD. Hydrogen-rich water affected blood alkalinity in physically active men. Res Sports Med 2014; 22: 49–60.
8. Ohsawa I, Ishikawa M, Takahashi K, Watanabe M, Nishimaki K, Yamagata K, Katsura K, Katayama Y, Asoh S, Ohta S. Hydrogen acts as a therapeutic antioxidant by selectively reducing cytotoxic oxygen radicals. Nat Med. 2007;13(6):688– 694. doi: 10.1038/nm1577.
9. Kosuke Aoki, Atsunori Nakao, Takako Adachi, Yasushi Matsui, and Shumpei Miyakawa Hong Y, Chen S, Zhang JM. Hydrogen as a selective antioxidant: a review of clinical and experimental studies. J Int Med Res 2010; 38: 1893–1903.
10. Hong Y, Chen S, Zhang JM. Hydrogen as a selective antioxidant: a review of clinical and experimental studies. J Int Med Res 2010; 38: 1893–1903.
11. Ostojic SM, Stojanovic MD, Hoffman JR. Effectiveness of molecular hydrogen in the management of musculotendinous injuries. Med Sci Sport Exerc 2014; 46: S156–S157.
12. Huang CS, Kawamura T, Toyoda Y, Nakao A. Recent advances in hydrogen research as a therapeutic medical gas. Free Radical Res 2010;44(9):971–982.
13. Ohta S, Nakao A, Ohno K. The 2011 Medical Molecular Hydrogen Symposium: An inaugural symposium of the journal Medical Gas Research. Med Gas Res 2011;1(1):10.
14. Kenji Dohi, Brian C. Kraemer, Michelle A. Erickson, Pamela J. McMillan, Andrej Kovac, Zuzana Flachbartova, Kim M. Hansen, Gul N. Shah, Nader Sheibani, Therese Salameh, and William A. Banks. Molecular Hydrogen in Drinking Water Protects against Neurodegenerative Changes Induced by Traumatic Brain Injury, Injury PLoS One. 2014 Sep 24;9(9):e108034.