Hydrogen Gas Shows Promise for Treating Brain Injuries
- Authors
- Xiaoru Che, Yuanjian Fang, Xiaoli Si, Jianfeng Wang, Sheng Chen
- Journal
- Frontiers in Neuroscience
- Year
- 2018
- DOI
- 10.3389/fnins.2018.00392
- Study Type
- clinical
- Peer Reviewed
- Yes
- Country
- China
- Health Condition
- Traumatic Brain Injury
- Body System
- Nervous System
TL;DR
Scientists found that four special gases (nitric oxide, carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide, and molecular hydrogen) can protect your brain and help it heal after a serious injury, which could lead to better treatments for people with traumatic brain injuries. These gases are promising because they can easily get into the brain and reduce damage, so researchers think they should study them more to create new medicines.
Key Finding
Molecular hydrogen and three other gaseous molecules show promise as potential neuroprotective (brain-protecting) treatments for traumatic brain injury due to their ability to penetrate brain tissue.
Summary
This is a review article that examines how four gaseous molecules—nitric oxide, carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide, and molecular hydrogen—may help protect the brain after traumatic injury. Because these molecules can easily pass through the blood-brain barrier (the protective layer around the brain), they can reach brain tissue and potentially reduce damage. The authors argue that these gases deserve further study as possible treatments for traumatic brain injury, which causes serious health problems and has limited treatment options.
Practical Takeaway
This is a review of existing research rather than a new study, so it does not provide direct evidence about hydrogen water's effects on brain injury. While the review identifies molecular hydrogen as theoretically promising, the authors explicitly call for further clinical investigation—meaning human studies have not yet been conducted to test these molecules as treatments. Anyone interested in hydrogen and brain health should await results from actual clinical trials before drawing conclusions.
Abstract
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) affects millions of people in China each year. TBI has a high mortality and often times a serious prognosis. The causative mechanisms of TBI during development and recovery from an injury remain vague, leaving challenges for the medical community to provide treatment options that improve prognosis and provide an optimal recovery. Biological gaseous molecules including nitric oxide (NO), carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen sulfide (H2S), and molecular hydrogen (H2) have been found to play critical roles in physiological and pathological conditions in mammals. Accumulating evidence has found that these gaseous molecules can execute neuroprotection in many central nervous system (CNS) conditions due to their highly permeable properties allowing them to enter the brain. Considering the complicated mechanisms and the serious prognosis of TBI, effective and adequate therapeutic approaches are urgently needed. These four gaseous molecules can be potential attractive therapeutic intervention on TBI. In this review, we will present a comprehensive overview on the role of these four biological gasses in the development of TBI and their potential therapeutic applications.