Hydrogen Therapy Speeds Recovery from COVID-19 Omicron Variant
- Authors
- Meng-Meng Shi, Yun-Tian Chen, Xiao-Dan Wang, Yun-Feng Zhang, Ting Cheng, Hui Chen, Feng Sun, Hong Bao, Rong Chen, Wei-Ning Xiong, Song Yuan-Lin, Qing-Yun Li, Jie-Ming Qu
- Journal
- Journal of Clinical Biochemistry and Nutrition
- Year
- 2023
- DOI
- 10.3164/jcbn.23-32
- Study Type
- Human
- Outcome
- Positive
- Peer Reviewed
- Yes
- Country
- China
- Health Condition
- COVID-19
- Body System
- Respiratory
TL;DR
Breathing a mix of hydrogen and oxygen helped COVID-19 patients recover faster than just breathing oxygen.
Key Finding
Patients with Omicron COVID-19 who inhaled hydrogen/oxygen gas cleared the virus faster and showed greater improvements in inflammation markers and lung healing compared to those receiving oxygen alone.
Summary
Researchers compared hydrogen/oxygen gas inhalation to regular oxygen inhalation in 64 COVID-19 patients infected with the Omicron variant. Patients who received the hydrogen/oxygen mixture cleared the virus faster, showed lower levels of an inflammation marker called IL-6, recovered more immune cells, and had better lung healing compared to those who received oxygen alone.
Practical Takeaway
This small human trial suggests hydrogen/oxygen inhalation may help support recovery from Omicron infection as an add-on treatment, but the study is limited by its modest size and lack of reported duration details. More research is needed before this approach could be recommended for routine use.
Abstract
Clinical studies had found that hydrogen/oxygen mixed inhalation was beneficial to ameliorate the respiratory symptoms in the adjuvant treatment of patients with COVID-19. We aimed to explore the efficacy of hydrogen/oxygen therapy in favoring the recovery of Omicron SARS-CoV-2 variant infection. There were 64 patients who randomly assigned to receive hydrogen/oxygen inhalation (32 patients) and oxygen inhalation (32 patients). The average shedding duration of Omicron in hydrogen/oxygen group was shorter than oxygen group. The trend of cumulative negative conversion rate of Omicron increased gradually after the third day. The IL-6 levels in hydrogen/oxygen group decreased by 22.8% compared with the baseline. After hydrogen/oxygen mixed gas inhalation, the lymphocyte count increased to 61.1% of the baseline on the 3rd day in the hydrogen/oxygen group. More patients in the hydrogen/oxygen group had resolution of pulmonary lesions. Our study showed the beneficial trends of molecular hydrogen in treating patients with COVID-19, which may offer a prospective solution to adjuvant therapy for COVID-19 Patients.