Hydrogen Therapy in Cardiovascular and Metabolic Diseases: from Bench to Bedside
- Authors
- Yaxing Zhang, Sihua Tan, Jingting Xu, Tinghuai Wang
- Journal
- Cellular Physiology and Biochemistry
- Year
- 2018
- DOI
- 10.1159/000489737
- Study Type
- clinical
- Peer Reviewed
- Yes
- Country
- China
- Health Condition
- Atherosclerosis
- Body System
- Cardiovascular system
TL;DR
Scientists found that breathing in hydrogen gas might help treat heart and metabolic diseases like obesity and diabetes, and it seems to work by helping your body keep everything in balance.
Key Finding
Hydrogen gas shows promise as a therapeutic approach for multiple cardiometabolic diseases including atherosclerosis, heart remodeling, obesity, and diabetes, based on evidence from animal models and clinical trials.
Summary
This review article examines hydrogen gas as a potential treatment for heart and metabolic diseases. Researchers looked at studies from the past decade showing that hydrogen gas may help regulate how the cardiovascular system and metabolism work, and that delivering hydrogen through various methods improved conditions like heart disease, obesity, and diabetes in animal studies and some human trials.
Practical Takeaway
While this review summarizes encouraging findings about hydrogen therapy for heart and metabolic health, it is a summary of existing research rather than a new study with specific results. Most evidence comes from animal studies; more rigorous human clinical trials would be needed before hydrogen therapy could be recommended as a standard treatment. Early evidence suggests hydrogen may be worth further investigation, but individual results may vary.
Abstract
Hydrogen (H2) is colorless, odorless, and the lightest of gas molecules. Studies in the past ten years have indicated that H2 is extremely important in regulating the homeostasis of the cardiovascular system and metabolic activity. Delivery of H2 by various strategies improves cardiometabolic diseases, including atherosclerosis, vascular injury, ischemic or hypertrophic ventricular remodeling, intermittent hypoxia- or heart transplantation-induced heart injury, obesity and diabetes in animal models or in clinical trials. The purpose of this review is to summarize the physical and chemical properties of H2, and then, the functions of H2 with an emphasis on the therapeutic potential and molecular mechanisms involved in the diseases above. We hope this review will provide the future outlook of H2-based therapies for cardiometabolic disease.