COVID-19 May Reduce Body's Natural Hydrogen Gas Production
- Authors
- Sergej M. Ostojic
- Journal
- Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology
- Year
- 2022
- DOI
- 10.3389/fcimb.2022.924832
- Study Type
- clinical
- Peer Reviewed
- Yes
- Country
- Serbia
- Health Condition
- COVID-19
- Body System
- Gastrointestinal
TL;DR
COVID-19 might mess with helpful bacteria in your gut that make hydrogen gas, which your body needs to fight inflammation and protect cells—so giving patients extra hydrogen could be a new way to help them recover better.
Key Finding
COVID-19 may impair the gut bacteria's ability to produce hydrogen gas, potentially reducing the body's access to this molecule's protective and anti-inflammatory effects.
Summary
This article proposes that COVID-19 may reduce the amount of hydrogen gas naturally produced in the human gut by bacteria. Hydrogen gas has protective and anti-inflammatory properties in the body, so a shortage of it could worsen COVID-19 symptoms. The authors suggest that giving patients extra hydrogen gas as a treatment, combined with testing for low hydrogen levels, could help diagnose and treat COVID-19 more effectively.
Practical Takeaway
This is a theoretical proposal, not a study with actual results or human testing. While it raises an interesting idea about hydrogen gas and COVID-19, there is no evidence yet that hydrogen supplementation helps COVID-19 patients. Much more research, including clinical trials in humans, would be needed before this approach could be considered a viable treatment.
Abstract
The molecular footprints of COVID-19 occur everywhere, even reaching the family of biologically active gases and gasotransmitters. Besides nitric oxide and hydrogen sulfide, COVID-19 might also alter the homeostasis of dihydrogen (H2), another gaseous bioactive molecule produced endogenously by the human gut bacteria. Many studies have shown various alterations of the gut microbiota in patients with coronavirus disease 2019, including the lower abundance of hydrogen-producing bacteria that could instigate the shortage of hydrogen output. Since dihydrogen has many important bioactivities, including cytoprotective, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antiapoptotic, its malproduction in COVID-19 might contribute to the disease progression and severity. On the other hand, replenishing dihydrogen by exogenous administration could be beneficial in COVID-19 for both patient- and clinical-reported outcomes. Assessing low dihydrogen along with H2 supplementation to restore normal levels could be thus combined via theranostic approaches to aid COVID-19 diagnosis and treatment.