Hydrogen Gas Shows Promise as Natural Performance Booster for Athletes
- Authors
- Sergej M. Ostojic
- Journal
- Current Pharmaceutical Design
- Year
- 2020
- DOI
- 10.2174/1381612826666200922155242
- Study Type
- clinical
- Peer Reviewed
- Yes
- Country
- Serbia
- Health Condition
- Exercise Fatigue
- Body System
- Muscular
TL;DR
Scientists found that breathing or drinking hydrogen gas might help athletes perform better and recover faster by reducing tiredness and inflammation, but they need to do more research to figure out the best way to use it and make sure it actually works.
Key Finding
Hydrogen gas appears to reduce exercise-associated fatigue, inflammation, and oxidative stress biomarkers across multiple studies, but no standardized protocol for its use in exercise science currently exists.
Summary
This review examined about two dozen studies on whether hydrogen gas might improve exercise performance. Researchers found that hydrogen—delivered as an inhaled gas, hydrogen-rich water, or saline injection—appeared to reduce fatigue, inflammation, and oxidative stress (cellular damage from exercise) in various studies. However, the studies used different doses and treatment lengths, making it hard to draw firm conclusions. The authors conclude that while hydrogen shows promise, more standardized and carefully controlled research is needed before it can be recommended for athletes.
Practical Takeaway
While this review suggests hydrogen may have performance-enhancing potential, it is based on a small number of studies with inconsistent methods and dosing. Most evidence comes from animal studies or very small human trials. Anyone considering hydrogen water should recognize that the science is still early-stage and that definitive recommendations for athletes cannot yet be made.
Abstract
Background: Hydrogen gas (H2 ) has entered the world of experimental therapeutics approximately four and a half decades ago. Over the years, this simple molecule appears to drive more and more scientific attention perhaps due to a dualism of H2 affirmative features demonstrated in numerous in vitro, animal and human studies on one side, and stillpuzzling mechanism(s) of its biological activity on the other. Up to this point, H2 was scrutinized for more than 170 different disease models and pathologies, and many research groups across the world have lately started to dynamically investigate its conceivable performance-enhancing potential. Methods: We outlined here the studies indexed in leading research databases (PubMed, Web of Science, SCOPUS, JSTORE) that explored the effects of hydrogen on exercise performance, and also addressed important restraints, open questions, and windows of opportunities for forthcoming research and possible H2 enactment in exercise physiology. About two dozen trials have been identified in this domain, with most published during the past 5 years, while drinking hydrogen-rich water recognized as the most convenient method to deliver H2 in both animal and human studies. Results: Either administered as an inhalational gas, enteral hydrogen-rich water, or intravenous hydrogen-rich saline, H2 seems to favorably affect various exercise performance outcomes and biomarkers of exercise-associated fatigue, inflammation, and oxidative stress. Not all studies have shown corroborative effects, and it appears that the gold-standard protocol for applying H2 in the field of exercise science does not exist at the moment, with studies markedly differ in the dose of H2 administered, the duration of a treatment, and the source of hydrogen. Conclusion: H2 is a newfangled and rather effective performance-enhancing agent yet its promising ergogenic potency has to be further validated and characterized in more well-controlled, appropriately sampled and long-term mechanistic trials. Also, appropriate regulation of hydrogen utilization in sport as an exotic medical gas may require distinctive legislative actions of relevant regulatory agencies in the future.