Noble Gases and Hydrogen Show Promise for Heart and Brain Diseases
- Authors
- Jiongshan Zhang, Wei Liu, Mingmin Bi, Jinwen Xu, Hongzhi Yang, Yaxing Zhang
- Journal
- Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine
- Year
- 2022
- DOI
- 10.3389/fcvm.2022.802783
- Study Type
- clinical
- Peer Reviewed
- Yes
- Country
- China
- Health Condition
- Cardiovascular Disease
- Body System
- Cardiovascular
TL;DR
Scientists found that special gases like helium and xenon might be able to help treat heart and brain diseases, which kill more people than anything else in the world. These gases work by reducing harmful inflammation and stress in your cells, so doctors could potentially use them as new medicines.
Key Finding
Hydrogen and noble gases show potential cytoprotective effects for heart and brain diseases through multiple mechanisms including oxidative stress reduction and immune signal regulation, though most evidence comes from laboratory and animal studies rather than human trials.
Summary
This article reviews research on how certain gases—including hydrogen, noble gases like helium and xenon, and other molecules—may help protect the heart and brain. The authors explain that these gases appear to work by reducing harmful oxidative stress (cellular damage from unstable molecules), controlling how cells die, and calming immune system responses. However, this is a review article summarizing existing research rather than a new study with its own results.
Practical Takeaway
While this review suggests hydrogen may have therapeutic potential for cardiocerebrovascular diseases, it is a summary of existing research rather than new clinical evidence. Most studies cited appear to be laboratory or animal-based, and the authors explicitly call for further investigation before these gases can be established as proven treatments. Anyone interested in hydrogen water should await results from rigorous human clinical trials.
Abstract
Cardiocerebrovascular diseases (CCVDs) are the leading cause of death worldwide; therefore, to deeply explore the pathogenesis of CCVDs and to find the cheap and efficient strategies to prevent and treat CCVDs, these are of great clinical and social significance. The discovery of nitric oxide (NO), as one of the endothelium-derived relaxing factors and its successful utilization in clinical practice for CCVDs, provides new ideas for us to develop drugs for CCVDs: "gas medicine" or "medical gases." The endogenous gas molecules such as carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen sulfide (H2S), sulfur dioxide (SO2), methane (CH4), and hydrogen (H2) have essential biological effects on modulating cardiocerebrovascular homeostasis and CCVDs. Moreover, it has been shown that noble gas atoms such as helium (He), neon (Ne), argon (Ar), krypton (Kr), and xenon (Xe) display strong cytoprotective effects and therefore, act as the exogenous pharmacologic preventive and therapeutic agents for CCVDs. Mechanistically, besides the competitive inhibition of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor in nervous system by xenon, the key and common mechanisms of noble gases are involved in modulation of cell death and inflammatory or immune signals. Moreover, gases interaction and reduction in oxidative stress are emerging as the novel biological mechanisms of noble gases. Therefore, to investigate the precise actions of noble gases on redox signals, gases interaction, different cell death forms, and the emerging field of gasoimmunology, which focus on the effects of gas atoms/molecules on innate immune signaling or immune cells under both the homeostatic and perturbed conditions, these will help us to uncover the mystery of noble gases in modulating CCVDs.