Hydrogen Gas Shows Promise for Parkinson's Disease Treatment
- Authors
- Masaaki Hirayama, Mikako Ito, Tomomi Minato, Asako Yoritaka, Tyler W. LeBaron, Kinji Ohno
- Journal
- Medical Gas Research
- Year
- 2019
- DOI
- 10.4103/2045-9912.248264
- Study Type
- Human
- Outcome
- Positive
- Peer Reviewed
- Yes
- Country
- Japan
- Health Condition
- Parkinson's Disease
- Body System
- Nervous System
TL;DR
Inhaling hydrogen gas did not improve symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD) in a short trial, but it did increase markers of oxidative stress, which might suggest a potential for protective effects on cells.
Key Finding
Inhaling hydrogen gas for 4 weeks did not significantly improve Parkinson's disease symptoms, but it did increase urinary oxidative stress markers by 16%, suggesting activation of cellular stress-response pathways.
Summary
Researchers tested whether inhaling hydrogen gas could help 20 people with Parkinson's disease over 4 weeks. The treatment did not improve symptoms like smell, movement, or daily functioning. However, it did increase a marker of oxidative stress (8-OHdG) in urine by 16%—a modest increase similar to what happens after intense exercise. The researchers suggest this stress response might trigger the body's natural protective mechanisms, though they found no clinical benefits in this short study.
Practical Takeaway
This small, short-term human study found no clinical benefit from hydrogen gas inhalation for Parkinson's symptoms. While the researchers propose that hydrogen may work through cellular adaptation mechanisms, the lack of observed symptom improvement and the brief 4-week duration mean much longer studies would be needed to determine if hydrogen has any real therapeutic value for this condition.
Abstract
Hyposmia is one of the earliest and the most common symptoms in Parkinson's disease (PD). The benefits of hydrogen water on motor deficits have been reported in animal PD models and PD patients, but the effects of hydrogen gas on PD patients have not been studied. We evaluated the effect of inhalation of hydrogen gas on olfactory function, non-motor symptoms, activities of daily living, and urinary 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanine (8-OHdG) levels by a randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled, crossover trial with an 8-week washout period in 20 patients with PD. Patients inhaled either ~1.2-1.4% hydrogen-air mixture or placebo for 10 minutes twice a day for 4 weeks. Inhalation of low dose hydrogen did not significantly influence the PD clinical parameters, but it did increase urinary 8-OHdG levels by 16%. This increase in 8-OHdG is markedly less than the over 300% increase in diabetes, and is more comparable to the increase after a bout of strenuous exercise. Although increased reactive oxygen species is often associated with toxicity and disease, they also play essential roles in mediating cytoprotective cellular adaptations in a process known as hormesis. Increases of oxidative stress by hydrogen have been previously reported, along with its ability to activate the Nrf2, NF-κB pathways, and heat shock responses. Although we did not observe any beneficial effect of hydrogen in our short trial, we propose that the increased 8-OHdG and other reported stress responses from hydrogen may indicate that its beneficial effects are partly or largely mediated by hormetic mechanisms. The study was approved by the ethics review committee of Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine (approval number 2015-0295). The clinical trial was registered at the University Hospital Medical Information Network (identifier UMIN000019082).