Hydrogen Shows Promise as COVID-19 Treatment Support

Scientists think hydrogen gas might help COVID-19 patients by calming down the body's extreme inflammatory response and protecting the lungs from damage, but they need to do bigger studies to prove it actually works and is safe before doctors can use it.

Molecular hydrogen has theoretical properties that could reduce lung injury and severe immune reactions in COVID-19, but no human clinical trial data exists yet to confirm its effectiveness or safety.

This review examined whether molecular hydrogen—a gas with antioxidant (damage-fighting) and anti-inflammatory (swelling-reducing) properties—could help treat COVID-19 patients. The authors suggest that hydrogen might reduce the severe immune overreaction (called a cytokine storm) and lung damage that occurs in serious COVID-19 cases, particularly early in infection. However, they emphasize that actual clinical trials in humans are needed to prove whether this approach is safe and effective.

This is a theoretical review, not a study with human participants or results. While hydrogen's anti-inflammatory properties are interesting, there is currently no clinical evidence that hydrogen water or hydrogen therapy helps COVID-19 patients. Large human trials would be needed before any therapeutic use could be recommended.

Hydrogen has been shown to have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, hormone-regulating, and apoptosis-resistance properties, among others. Based on a review of the research, the use of hydrogen might reduce the destructive cytokine storm and lung injury caused by SARS-CoV-2 during COVID-19 (Corona…

Read the full abstract on PubMed