Hydrogen Water Shows Limited Benefits for Reducing Oxidative Stress
- Authors
- Atsushi Hiraoka, Satoshi Sasaki, Tomoko Yamada, Atsuko Shinohara, Momoko Chiba
- Journal
- Journal of Health Science
- Year
- 2006
- DOI
- 10.1248/jhs.52.817
- Study Type
- Human
- Outcome
- Positive
- Peer Reviewed
- Yes
- Country
- Japan
- Health Condition
- Oxidative Stress
- Body System
- Whole Body
TL;DR
Drinking water with antioxidant properties in the lab doesn't seem to reduce oxidative stress in the body when consumed.
Key Finding
Hydrogen-enriched water and vanadium ions that showed antioxidant properties in laboratory tests failed to significantly reduce oxidative stress markers in human blood after being consumed and absorbed.
Summary
Researchers tested whether a commercial water product containing hydrogen gas and vanadium ions—which showed antioxidant (damage-fighting) properties in laboratory tests—could reduce oxidative stress (cellular damage from unstable molecules) in people's blood. Two groups of people drank either this special water or regular tap water, and researchers measured markers of oxidative stress in their blood. The water product did not significantly reduce these stress markers, even though it worked in the lab. Drinking more water in general showed a slight reduction in oxidative stress, but the specific active ingredients did not produce meaningful improvements.
Practical Takeaway
This small human study suggests that hydrogen water's antioxidant effects in the laboratory may not translate to measurable benefits in the body. While the study is limited by unreported sample size and duration, it indicates that simply drinking more water—rather than the specific active ingredients—may account for any modest stress reduction observed. More rigorous research is needed before drawing conclusions about hydrogen water's real-world health effects.
Abstract
The in vivo effects of drinking a water product, which had been confirmed to have antioxidant activi- ties in vitro, were preliminarily studied by monitoring the blood concentrations of oxidative stress marker substances in the two group subjects who ingested the same quantity of the water product and a tap water solution during the same time. The results indicated that hydrogen gas and reductive vanadium ions as the components responsible for the antioxidant activities in vitro cannot enhance the scavenging ability for re- active oxygen species in vivo after being drunk and absorbed into the human body, although it was sug- gested that an ingestion of a greater quantity of water than usual gives a slight reduction, overall, in the oxi- dative stress.