Hydrogen Water, Hydrogen Baths and Skin Aging: What the Studies Show

Hydrogen Studies is funded by Echo Technologies LLC, which sells hydrogen water products. Echo doesn't decide which studies we cover or how we describe them — see our editorial policy.

Evidence at a glance: Very low. Human studies of hydrogen and skin appearance are tiny (4 to 40 people) and mostly have no comparison group. The one randomized controlled trial that measured facial skin found no difference. Most positive findings come from cells and mice exposed to ultraviolet (UV) light.

This page covers skin appearance and aging: wrinkles, spots, skin density and sun-related aging (photoaging). For the broader topic, see hydrogen and skin health.

Drinking hydrogen water

In the only randomized controlled trial we found that measured facial skin, 40 adults aged 70 and older drank 0.5 L a day of hydrogen-rich water (15 ppm) or plain water for six months. Facial skin features didn't differ between groups. The trial's positive findings were elsewhere, such as telomere length and a chair-stand test [1].

Hydrogen baths

Hydrogen baths are widely searched, but the skin evidence is thin:

• Six Japanese adults bathed daily in warm hydrogen-rich water (0.2 to 0.4 ppm) for three months. Wrinkles on the back of the neck improved in four of them. There was no comparison group, and most of the paper was cell experiments [2].
• Four adults aged 41 to 48 took a 10-minute hydrogen bath (about 0.3 ppm) daily for one to six months. Their skin spots looked smaller and fainter. Again, there was no comparison group [3].
• A 2022 hydrogen-bath study that often comes up in searches mainly measured blood antioxidant capacity and an inflammation marker. Its skin remarks came from a few patients with inflammatory diseases, not from a skin-aging test [6].

All three bath papers share a senior author from one Japanese research group.

Topical hydrogen: water, masks and devices

• Fifteen adults aged 21 to 72 had four weekly facial treatments with hydrogen-rich water (about 2 ppm, strongly alkaline) from an electrolysis device. Visible pores and some pigmentation measures improved, but wrinkle severity didn't change significantly. All participants got the treatment; there was no control group [5].
• Twenty people used a hydrogen-generating gel mask on one side of the face and a commercial mask on the other for four weeks. Skin density, measured by ultrasound, rose 18% on the hydrogen side and 10% on the other. The report doesn't describe blinding, and one author is affiliated with a company, BoyazEnergy [4].

What cell and animal studies suggest (not human evidence)

• In lab-grown human skin cells, dissolved hydrogen protected against several kinds of oxidative damage [9], and hydrogen-rich warm water roughly doubled type I collagen production in lab-grown fibroblasts, the cells that make collagen [2].
• Mice exposed to UVA light for six weeks while breathing 1.3% hydrogen gas 16 hours a day showed fewer signs of photoaging, including less skin thickening, pigment and collagen breakdown [7].
• In lab-grown artificial skin, 1.3% hydrogen gas dampened UVA-triggered gene activity linked to skin aging. One author works for Panasonic [8].

These suggest hydrogen may reduce oxidative stress from UV light. They don't show that drinking, bathing in or applying hydrogen changes how human skin ages.

Skin disease research

Hydrogen has also been tested in skin diseases, including a hydrogen-water bathing study in 75 people with psoriasis [10] and a 21-person pilot trial in people awaiting keloid scar surgery [11]. These are early studies of diseases, separate from cosmetic aging, and don't establish hydrogen as a treatment. If you have a skin condition, talk to a dermatologist.

Doses and delivery studied

• Drinking: 0.5 L a day at 15 ppm for six months [1].
• Bathing: 0.2 to 0.4 ppm, daily, for one to six months [2][3].
• Topical: about 2 ppm water in four weekly sessions [5]; a hydrogen-generating mask for four weeks [4].
• Cells and animals: 1.3% hydrogen gas [7][8].

What we don't know

• Whether hydrogen changes wrinkles, elasticity or sun damage in people. We found no placebo-controlled trial showing it.
• Whether the route matters. We found no study comparing drinking, bathing and applying hydrogen.
• What else explains the results. The topical study's water was also strongly alkaline (about pH 10.4) [5].
• Long-term effects. The longest human study lasted six months [1].
• Independence. Several studies here come from one research group [2][3][6] or have company-affiliated authors [4][8].