Everything You Need to Know About Hydrogen Gas Therapy (What It Is, Benefits, and More)

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April 24, 2024

Everything You Need to Know About Hydrogen Gas Therapy (What It Is, Benefits, and More)

How else can you deliver molecular H₂to your body besides hydrogen water? The 2 methods are:

Hydrogen gas inhalation (i.e., hydrogen gas therapy)
Hydrogen-rich saline injections

Um, OK, let’s be honest.

The word “injections” likely set your heart racing and got your palms all clammy.

And even if you’re unfussed by the thought of piercing your skin daily, there’s also the fact that you can’t just stick the needle anywhere you please.

It must be intraperitoneal (on the right or left side of your abdomen) or intravenous (into or within a vein).

Without medical guidance, getting the needle angle right for optimal molecular H₂delivery can be tricky.

All that to say, for practical reasons, you really only have one appealing alternative to hydrogen water. Hydrogen gas therapy. But which should you choose? H₂water or H₂gas therapy?

A rundown on hydrogen gas therapy

To answer that question, we must first understand what hydrogen gas therapy is.

Hydrogen gas therapy involves inhaling H₂gas through a ventilator circuit, facemask, or nasal cannula. Most clinical trials involving hydrogen gas therapy use hydrogen-oxygen generator devices that produce a gas mixture of 66% H₂and 34% O₂.

For reference, Earth’s atmosphere comprises about 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 0.9% argon, and 0.1% other gases.

“Wait, is it safe to change the percentage of gases we breathe in?”

In the case of hydrogen gas therapy, yes. Many human trials have supported the safety of inhaling H₂gas at different levels (up to 73%). It should also be noted that hydrogen gas therapy isn’t meant to be a 24/7 thing.

Most studies only hook patients to a hydrogen-oxygen generator device for 30 minutes to a few hours daily.

The main difference between hydrogen water and hydrogen gas therapy is obvious at this point.

With hydrogen water, molecular hydrogen crosses into your bloodstream through the gastrointestinal tract. With hydrogen gas therapy, on the other hand, molecular hydrogen diffuses through the alveoli (tiny branches of air tubes in the lungs) into the bloodstream.

What’s the significance of this?

Compared to hydrogen water, hydrogen gas therapy allows molecular hydrogen to enter the bloodstream quicker — in seconds — since it, in some sense, “bypasses” the gastrointestinal tract.

But does the speed at which molecular hydrogen gets delivered into your bloodstream really matter? Research says no and that what you should really be concerned with is concentration instead (more on this later).

Benefits of hydrogen gas inhalation therapy

Since hydrogen gas inhalation therapy gets the same bioactive molecule, H₂gas, into your system as hydrogen water, you’d experience the same health and wellness benefits.

Which are?

Thanks to its therapeutic antioxidant effect, molecular hydrogen could support healthy:

Blood glucose levels
Lipid levels
Weight
Cognitive functions
Skin
Physical endurance
Joints
Guts

Drawbacks of hydrogen gas therapy

Alright. So, does all that mean hydrogen gas therapy is truly as good as hydrogen water as an H₂gas administration method?

Hmm.

It might go “boom”

Well, for starters, here’s something we haven’t mentioned in this article. Just the presence of a tiny spark is enough to trigger an explosive reaction between hydrogen gas (when it’s at concentrations above 10%) and oxygen gas to form water.

Things get even more dangerous when H₂gas concentrations rise.

In the concentration range of 18.3% to 58.9%, hydrogen may cause a detonation, a type of combustion accompanied by:

Shockwaves at a supersonic speed of Mach 5 (5 times the speed of sound) or higher
A subsequent flame propagation (deflagration)

And to add fuel to the fire, the detonating sound may destroy auditory neurons, causing incurable hearing loss.

Did you just scroll up to check the H₂gas concentration output of hydrogen-oxygen generator devices used in clinical trials? Yeah. You didn’t read it wrong the first time. They generate a mixed gas of 66% H₂ and 34% O₂.

Why don’t they go “boom” then?

It’s because those machines are designed with safety in mind. They’re unlikely to overheat. They’re also operated in a controlled environment where sparks — e.g., from static electricity or cigarettes — are minimized.

This begs an important question: how would you know if your home-use hydrogen gas inhaler device is safe?

You can’t.

Unless you choose a device with an H₂ gas concentration output of <10%. But remember what we said about molecular hydrogen concentration being your priority?

Time availability

If you go with a home-use hydrogen gas inhaler device that outputs <10% of H₂ gas, you’d need to spend a longer period hooked up to it before enough molecular H₂ accumulates within your bloodstream and reaches the necessary therapeutic dosage.

Does your schedule allow for that?

Portability

And before you say, “I’ll just strap it on to me so I can carry on with my life,” um, you might want to check out what hydrogen gas inhalers look like.

They’re about as portable as a computer in the 1990s.

Plus, just like hydrogen water machines, they run on electricity. Meaning? No matter where you bring it, you’d need to hunt for electric sockets (good luck with that!)

A final point: it’s unlikely that you’d want to be walking around with a ventilator circuit, facemask, or nasal cannula on your face, anyway.

Cost

The final strike against hydrogen gas therapy? The cost of hydrogen gas inhaler devices.

Get ready for sticker shock: most devices run into thousands of dollars.

Compare all that to hydrogen water tablets

Let’s not talk about hydrogen water machines.

They share many of the shortcomings associated with hydrogen gas inhaler devices. But hydrogen water tablets are another story altogether; they’re:

Safe (it’s a non-explosive reaction of metal with water to produce H₂gas)
Ready to consume in minutes (you don’t need to be “shackled” to a device for hours)
Portable (they could fit into a mint box)
Affordable (most hydrogen water tablets are typically just more than a dollar per pop)

Ah, but what about molecular hydrogen concentration?

Good job — you learn fast.

We can’t speak for all hydrogen water tablets out there, but we know ours — Nutrionic™ H₂Energizer tablets — make use of nanobubble technology to release up to 10 ppm of molecular hydrogen in a single cup of water.

That’s more than enough to help you hit the optimal dose of 1.6 to 7.2 mg of molecular H₂daily. Need more reasons to choose Nutrionic™ H₂Energizer tablets?

We’ve got you: