Hydrogen Water Improves Sleep and Digestive Health in Healthy Adults
- Authors
- Yoshinori Tanaka, Yasuhiro Saihara, Kyoko Izumotani, Hajime Nakamura
- Journal
- Medical Gas Research
- Year
- 2019
- DOI
- 10.4103/2045-9912.248267
- Study Type
- Human
- Outcome
- Positive
- Peer Reviewed
- Yes
- Country
- Japan
- Health Condition
- General Wellness
- Body System
- Gastrointestinal
TL;DR
Drinking alkaline electrolyzed water (AEW) daily may improve stool regularity and sleep quality, even in people without stomach complaints.
Key Finding
Healthy people without baseline gastrointestinal complaints who drank alkaline electrolyzed water containing hydrogen reported improved stool normalization and better sleep quality compared to those drinking regular water, though overall health effects were modest.
Summary
Researchers gave healthy people without stomach problems either alkaline electrolyzed water (water treated with electricity to add hydrogen) or regular purified water for 4 weeks in a double-blind study (where neither the participants nor researchers knew who got which water). People drinking the hydrogen-containing water reported more normal stools, better sleep quality, and felt better when waking up, possibly because hydrogen may reduce harmful molecules in the body called oxidative stress. However, the overall health improvements were modest and not as clear-cut as in studies of people who already had stomach problems.
Practical Takeaway
This small study suggests hydrogen water may support normal digestion and sleep in healthy people, but the evidence is preliminary and the study did not report sample size or exact duration. Larger, longer studies are needed before drawing firm conclusions about benefits for people without existing health complaints.
Abstract
In Japan, alkaline electrolyzed water (AEW) apparatus have been approved as a medical device. And for the patients with gastrointestinal symptoms, drinking AEW has been found to be effective in relieving gastrointestinal symptoms. But some users of AEW apparatus do not have abdominal indefinite complaint. Little attention has been given to the benefit for the users which have no abdominal indefinite complaint. The object of this study is to evaluate the effect on health, including gastrointestinal symptoms, when a person without abdominal indefinite complaint, etc., drinks AEW on a daily basis. A double-blind, randomized controlled trial has been designed. Four-week period of everyday water drinking, PW drinking group: drink purified tap water as a placebo, AEW drinking group: drink alkaline electrolyzed water which made by electrolysis of purified tap water. Before the experiment and after the 4-week period of water drinking, Blood tests, physical fitness evaluations, and questionnaire evaluations is conducted. In this study, we did not specifically select patients with gastrointestinal symptoms. Sufficiently clear effect could not be confirmed. But the stools were more normal, and, as shown in the previous report, that drinking AEW is considered to contribute to intestinal normalization. In addition, when drinking AEW, a high proportion of the respondents said that they felt they were able to sleep soundly, and the proportion of subjects who answered that they felt good when awakening increased. The effect of reducing oxidative stress, thus allowing for improved sleep, was exhibited by drinking AEW containing hydrogen, which is considered to be an antioxidant substance. This research were approved by the Ethics Committee of the Osaka City University Graduate School of Medicine (No. 837) and were registered in the University Hospital Medical Information Network (UMIN) Clinical Trials Registry (UMIN ID: UMIN000031800) on March 22, 2018.