Hydrogen Supplements Show Mixed Effects on Exercise Performance
- Authors
- Ahad Abdulkarim D. Alharbi, Naoyuki Ebine, Satoshi Nakae, Tatsuya Hojo, Yoshiyuki Fukuoka
- Journal
- Nutrients
- Year
- 2021
- DOI
- 10.3390/nu13020459
- Study Type
- Human
- Outcome
- Neutral
- Peer Reviewed
- Yes
- Country
- Japan
- Health Condition
- Exercise Performance
- Body System
- Respiratory
TL;DR
Supplementing with hydrogen-rich calcium powder appears to affect breathing patterns and the balance of oxygen delivery and use in muscles during intense exercise.
Key Finding
Hydrogen supplementation increased resting antioxidant potential but paradoxically reduced breathing during exercise, leading to lower blood pH and altered oxygen delivery to muscles without improving exercise performance.
Summary
Researchers gave 18 trained cyclists either hydrogen-enriched powder or placebo for three days, then had them exercise on stationary bikes at increasing intensity levels. While the hydrogen supplement increased antioxidant protection at rest, it unexpectedly caused participants to breathe less during exercise, which lowered blood pH (acidity) and altered how oxygen was delivered to and used by leg muscles. The hydrogen did not improve exercise performance or oxygen uptake.
Practical Takeaway
This small human study suggests that despite hydrogen's antioxidant properties, supplementation may not benefit exercise performance in trained individuals and could actually interfere with normal breathing responses during intense activity. The findings are limited to one study in trained cyclists and do not support hydrogen as an ergogenic (performance-enhancing) aid.
Abstract
We investigated effects of molecular hydrogen (H2) supplementation on acid-base status, pulmonary gas exchange responses, and local muscle oxygenation during incremental exercise. Eighteen healthy, trained subjects in a randomized, double-blind, crossover design received H2-rich calcium powder (HCP) (1500 mg/day, containing 2.544 µg/day of H2) or H2-depleted placebo (1500 mg/day) for three consecutive days. They performed cycling incremental exercise starting at 20-watt work rate, increasing by 20 watts/2 min until exhaustion. Breath-by-breath pulmonary ventilation (V˙E) and CO2 output (V˙CO2) were measured and muscle deoxygenation (deoxy[Hb + Mb]) was determined via time-resolved near-infrared spectroscopy in the vastus lateralis (VL) and rectus femoris (RF). Blood gases' pH, lactate, and bicarbonate (HCO3-) concentrations were measured at rest and 120-, 200-, and 240-watt work rates. At rest, the HCP group had significantly lower V˙E, V˙CO2, and higher HCO3-, partial pressures of CO2 (PCO2) versus placebo. During exercise, a significant pH decrease and greater HCO3- continued until 240-watt workload in HCP. The V˙E was significantly lower in HCP versus placebo, but HCP did not affect the gas exchange status of V˙CO2 or oxygen uptake (V˙O2). HCP increased absolute values of deoxy[Hb + Mb] at the RF but not VL. Thus, HCP-induced hypoventilation would lead to lower pH and secondarily impaired balance between O2 delivery and utilization in the local RF during exercise, suggesting that HCP supplementation, which increases the at-rest antioxidant potential, affects the lower ventilation and pH status during incremental exercise. HPC induced a significantly lower O2 delivery/utilization ratio in the RF but not the VL, which may be because these regions possess inherently different vascular/metabolic control properties, perhaps related to fiber-type composition.