Hydrogen Water Boosts Fitness in Adults Over 50 Starting Exercise
- Authors
- Jovan Kuzmanovic, Nikola Todorovic, Marijana Ranisavljev, Dejan Javorac, Darinka Korovljev, Alex Tarnava, Valdemar Stajer, Sergej M. Ostojic
- Journal
- Research in Sports Medicine
- Year
- 2025
- DOI
- 10.1080/15438627.2025.2521474
- Study Type
- Human
- Outcome
- Positive
- Peer Reviewed
- Yes
- Country
- Serbia
- Health Condition
- Exercise-Related Muscle Damage
- Body System
- Musculoskeletal
TL;DR
Drinking hydrogen-rich water (HRW) while starting resistance training may improve muscle performance, increase certain hormone levels, lower bad cholesterol, and reduce muscle damage in people over 50.
Key Finding
In older adults new to resistance training, hydrogen-rich water supplementation reduced biomarkers of muscle damage more effectively than placebo water and improved cholesterol levels over six weeks.
Summary
This small study tested whether drinking hydrogen-rich water (water infused with extra hydrogen gas) could help older adults who were new to exercise. Twenty-seven people over 50 years old drank either hydrogen-rich water or regular water twice daily while doing a 6-week resistance training program. Both groups improved their muscle strength, but the hydrogen-rich water group showed greater reductions in muscle damage markers and improvements in cholesterol levels compared to the placebo group.
Practical Takeaway
This is a small pilot study (27 participants) that suggests hydrogen-rich water may support recovery from resistance exercise in older adults, but the results are preliminary. The study was well-designed with a placebo control, but larger and longer studies are needed before drawing firm conclusions about whether hydrogen water provides meaningful benefits for exercise recovery or health in this population.
Abstract
The primary objective of this pilot study was to assess the impact of consuming hydrogen-rich water (HRW) for a duration of six weeks on exercise-related biomarkers in previously untrained men and women aged over 50 years, subsequent to a resistance training program. Twenty-seven apparently healthy middle-aged adults (age 57.6 ± 6.7 years; 18 females) voluntarily provided written consent to participate in this randomized, placebo-controlled experimental trial. All participants were allocated in a double-blind parallel-group design to receive either HRW (12 mg of dihydrogen per serving) or control water (<0.1 ppm of dihydrogen) administered two times per day during a 6-week intervention interval. Muscle performance indices showed a significant improvement following both HRW and control water interventions compared to the baseline values (p ≤ 0.05). HRW led to a significant increase in serum free testosterone and cortisol levels, along with reductions in total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol levels at the follow-up (p ≤ 0.05). Moreover, HRW significantly outperformed the control water in reducing biomarkers of acute muscular damage caused by resistance exercise (p ≤ 0.05) and tended to outcompete placebo in improving sleep quality (p = 0.119). HRW could be advanced as a risk-free and effective beverage for promoting training-specific adaptations in exercise-naïve men and women over 50 years of age.