Hydrogen Shows Promise as Emergency Medicine Treatment

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.

Hydrogen shows promise as a protective agent that may reduce inflammation and cellular damage across multiple organ systems in emergency and critical care settings.

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.

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.

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…

Read the full abstract on PubMed