Hydrogen Water May Reduce Kidney Damage in Rats

Scientists found that adding hydrogen gas to drinking water helped kidney transplants work better and last longer in rats by reducing harmful molecules that damage the transplanted organ. This discovery could eventually help people who receive kidney transplants avoid rejection and live healthier lives.

Hydrogen-enriched drinking water reduced the severity of chronic kidney transplant damage and improved graft survival in rats, potentially by reducing harmful reactive oxygen species.

Researchers tested whether adding hydrogen gas to drinking water could help prevent kidney damage in rats that received kidney transplants. They found that rats drinking hydrogen-enriched water had less severe kidney damage and their transplanted kidneys survived longer, possibly because hydrogen reduced harmful molecules called reactive oxygen species (unstable atoms that damage cells).

This is early-stage research in animals only, so it's too soon to draw conclusions about hydrogen water's effects in humans with kidney transplants. More research, including human studies, would be needed to determine if these findings apply to people.

Cardinal and colleagues describe the use of molecular hydrogen, the most abundant molecule in the universe, as a treatment for chronic allograft nephropathy (CAN) in a rat model of kidney transplantation. They demonstrate that the addition of hydrogen to the drinking water results in a decrease…

Read the full abstract on PubMed