Hydrogen Therapy Shows Promise for Brain and Nerve Protection
- Authors
- Wei Chen, Han-Ting Zhang, Shu-Cun Qin
- Journal
- Neuroscience Bulletin
- Year
- 2020
- DOI
- 10.1007/s12264-020-00597-1
- Study Type
- clinical
- Peer Reviewed
- Yes
- Country
- China
- Health Condition
- Ischemia-Reperfusion Brain Injury
- Body System
- Nervous System
TL;DR
Scientists found that a simple gas called molecular hydrogen can protect your brain and nerve cells from damage caused by diseases like Parkinson's and stroke, and it works by reducing harmful inflammation and stress in your cells. The cool part is that it's easy to use and doesn't seem to have bad side effects, so it could become a real medicine doctors use to treat brain diseases.
Key Finding
Molecular hydrogen demonstrates neuroprotective effects across multiple nervous system disorders through anti-oxidative, anti-inflammatory, and cell-protective mechanisms, with minimal reported side effects.
Summary
This review article summarizes research on molecular hydrogen (H2), a gas that appears to protect nerve cells and brain tissue from damage. Scientists have found that H2 may help with various nervous system conditions including stroke, brain injury, Parkinson's disease, and memory problems. The protective effects seem to work by reducing harmful inflammation, preventing cell death, and maintaining healthy mitochondria (the energy centers of cells). The review concludes that H2 is easy to administer and has shown few side effects in studies so far.
Practical Takeaway
This is a review article summarizing existing research rather than a new study, so it does not provide direct evidence from human trials. While the review suggests H2 therapy is promising for brain and nerve conditions, most supporting evidence comes from laboratory and animal studies. More rigorous human clinical trials are needed before H2 can be recommended as a proven treatment for any specific condition.
Abstract
Molecular hydrogen (H2) is a physiologically inert gas. However, during the last 10 years, increasing evidence has revealed its biological functions under pathological conditions. More specifically, H2 has protective effects against a variety of diseases, particularly nervous system disorders, which include ischemia/reperfusion injury, traumatic injury, subarachnoid hemorrhage, neuropathic pain, neurodegenerative diseases, cognitive dysfunction induced by surgery and anesthesia, anxiety, and depression. In addition, H2 plays protective roles mainly through anti-oxidation, anti-inflammation, anti-apoptosis, the regulation of autophagy, and preservation of mitochondrial function and the blood-brain barrier. Further, H2 is easy to use and has neuroprotective effects with no major side-effects, indicating that H2 administration is a potential therapeutic strategy in clinical settings. Here we summarize the H2 donors and their pharmacokinetics. Meanwhile, we review the effectiveness and safety of H2 in the treatment of various nervous system diseases based on preclinical and clinical studies, leading to the conclusion that H2 can be a simple and effective clinical therapy for CNS diseases such as ischemia-reperfusion brain injury, Parkinson's disease, and diseases characterized by cognitive dysfunction. The potential mechanisms involved in the neuroprotective effect of H2 are also analyzed.