Hydrogen IV Therapy Clears Up Severe Skin Rashes and Reduces Pain

Authors
Journal
Medical Gas Research
Year
DOI
10.1186/2045-9912-2-14
Study Type
Human
Outcome
Positive
Peer Reviewed
Yes
Country
Japan
Health Condition
Acute Erythematous Skin Disease
Body System
Integumentary System

TL;DR

Hydrogen-enriched IV fluids improved skin redness and symptoms in patients with acute skin diseases without causing side effects, and a study on volunteers showed that hydrogen can be delivered directly and slowly to the skin.

Key Finding

Four patients with acute erythematous skin diseases showed significant improvement in symptoms after receiving hydrogen-enriched intravenous fluid, with no adverse effects on physiological parameters or blood chemistry.

Summary

Researchers treated 4 patients with acute red, inflamed skin conditions (along with fever and/or pain) using hydrogen-enriched intravenous fluid. They also measured hydrogen levels in blood and air samples from 2 volunteers to understand how hydrogen reaches the skin. All 4 patients showed significant improvement in redness and symptoms after treatment, with no safety concerns or harmful changes to blood chemistry. The study suggests hydrogen reaches affected skin through both direct delivery via blood vessels and through a slower, prolonged release from skin tissue itself.

Practical Takeaway

This is a very small, uncontrolled study (only 4 patients) that suggests hydrogen-enriched intravenous fluid may be safe and potentially helpful for acute inflammatory skin conditions. However, the lack of a control group and small sample size mean these results are preliminary. Much larger, well-designed studies would be needed before drawing firm conclusions about effectiveness for skin disease treatment.

Abstract (excerpt)

We have treated 4 patients of acute erythematous skin diseases with fever and/or pain by H2 enriched intravenous fluid. We also added data from two volunteers for assessing the mode of H2 delivery to the skin for evaluation of feasibility of H2 treatment for this type of skin diseases. All…

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