Hydrogen Shows Promise as Emergency Medicine Treatment
- Authors
- Mei-Hua Shen, Hongying Zhang, Xue-Jun Sun
- Journal
- Medical Gas Research
- Year
- 2014
- DOI
- 10.1186/2045-9912-4-17
- Study Type
- clinical
- Peer Reviewed
- Yes
- Country
- China
- Health Condition
- Emergency Medical Conditions
- Body System
- Cardiovascular
TL;DR
Scientists found that hydrogen gas might be a powerful medicine that could help sick people in hospitals by reducing inflammation and protecting cells from damage. The cool part is that hydrogen can be given to patients in different ways—like drinking it in water or getting it as an injection—which makes it practical to actually use in real emergency situations.
Key Finding
Hydrogen shows promise as a protective agent that may reduce inflammation and cellular damage across multiple organ systems in emergency and critical care settings.
Summary
This review examined research on hydrogen as a potential medical treatment for emergency and critical care patients. Studies suggest hydrogen may help reduce cellular damage, inflammation, and cell death in various organs and tissues. Researchers tested different ways to deliver hydrogen, including breathing it as a gas, drinking hydrogen-enriched water, and injecting hydrogen-rich saline.
Practical Takeaway
This is a review of animal and laboratory studies, not human trials, so it's too early to know if hydrogen would actually help patients. While drinking hydrogen-enriched water is mentioned as a practical approach, the evidence summarized here does not yet support using it as a medical treatment for any condition.
Abstract
Hydrogen is the most abundant chemical element in the Universe, but is seldom regarded as a therapeutic agent. Recent evidence has shown that hydrogen is a potent antioxidative, antiapoptotic and anti-inflammatory agent and so may have potential medical applications in cells, tissues and organs. There are several methods to administer hydrogen, such as inhalation of hydrogen gas, aerosol inhalation of a hydrogen-rich solution, drinking hydrogen dissolved in water, injecting hydrogen-rich saline (HRS) and taking a hydrogen bath. Drinking hydrogen solution (saline/pure water/other solutions saturated with hydrogen) may be more practical in daily life and more suitable for daily consumption. This review summarizes the findings of recent studies on the use of hydrogen in emergency and critical care medicine using different disease models.