The molecule that can change your aging rate and athletic performance

Molecular hydrogen H2. What is it good for you?

Molecular hydrogen refers to hydrogen gas or 2 hydrogen atoms working together to neutralize free radicals. Sounds more familiar now?

We hear all the time about how important antioxidants are for our body because of their action against free radicals.

The formation of free radicals is a normal process in the body, but it begins to have a negative connotation when their levels rise, as they cause damage at cellular levels, membranes, proteins and even DNA. The reason is that free radicals are missing an electron and they travel through the body looking for healthy cells with which to combine to remove the missing electron. This process becomes chronic and ends up damaging healthy cells and weakening the immune system. But there is more.

We all suffer from oxidative stress, it is part of human nature. Factors that cause oxidative stress include lack of sleep, crash diets, pollution, stress, overtraining (in athletes) or abrupt exercise in untrained people. This eventually leads to chronic inflammation of organs and joints, mental problems such as depression, chronic fatigue; and premature aging both internally and externally. As it turns out, the vitamin and supplement industry offers a wide range of antioxidants in all kinds of presentations.

The following information comes from a publication in the Canadian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology by Tyler LeBaron, Ismail Laher, Branislav Kura and Jan Slezak. Although it uses many scientific terms I have tried to translate it into a more accessible language so that you can learn and take advantage of molecular hydrogen or H2.

In clinical trials, H2 has been shown to provide strong antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects, making it a desirable product for exercise medicine, but also for untrained individuals and older adults. We know that exercise provides us with a number of benefits, including a lower risk of contracting any disease; but it also has harmful effects.

For high-performance athletes, “overtraining,” or for people who are untrained, doing heavy training sporadically produces great oxidative stress that triggers chronic inflammation , oxidation and cellular damage , as mentioned above.

Paradoxically, pro-inflammatory cytokines and exercise-induced reactive oxygen species (ROS) are present when the benefits of exercise emerge. On the other hand, the consumption of conventional antioxidants and anti-inflammatories, in fact, inhibits the adaptations to exercise achieved through training.

What has been proven now, with many experiments, is that the administration of H2 mitigates chronic inflammation and the deregulation of the redox state , which is the damage caused by oxidative stress that can be reversible or irreversible depending on the duration of the stress, the effectiveness of antioxidant defenses, the age of the organism, nutritional status, and even genetic factors that would encode the antioxidant system.

Exercise in its beneficial form, along with H2 administration, promotes cytoprotective hormesis (adaptive responses of the organism by increasing the production of restorative proteins such as growth factors, antioxidant enzymes and chaperone proteins). Mitochondrial biogenesis, ATP production, heat shock proteins, sirtuins and more.

Because of these potential benefits, plus other studies conducted on the use of H2 in exercise, hydrogen is believed to be a unique molecule endowed with therapeutic and ergogenic (resulting in an increase in work capacity or physical output) qualities for sports performance and in sports medicine.

Let's look at each aspect where H2 can act (you can also jump directly to the title “the effects of molecular hydrogen” if it seems too long).

 

Benefits of exercise

Exercise provides countless benefits, most notably a decreased risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and even premature mortality (Levinger et al. 2015). At the molecular level, physical activity provides benefits by modulating signal transduction and by altering DNA acetylation and methylation patterns, which influence gene expression. That is, you may have been born with a genetic predisposition, but, thanks to exercise, your genes can change for the better.

Oxidative stress

Oxidative stress occurs when a number of oxidants and reactive molecules overwhelm endogenous enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidant defense systems (Bentley et al. 2105). Reactive molecules include reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species.

ROS are a category that includes radical and non-radical chemical species. Free radicals are chemical species that are missing an electron. Most ROS are produced along the electron transport chain in mitochondria and other systems. Increased metabolism and exercise activate the production of ROS. But it should be noted that there are both positive and negative cases of ROS, so we need to understand what redox regulation and deregulation is all about.

Regulation of EROs

These molecules can have both harmful and beneficial effects, depending on their identity, concentration, location and duration.

Let's give an example to better understand this. Under normal metabolic circumstances, superoxide radicals are constantly formed by single electron reduction of molecular oxygen in the mitochondrial electron transport chain.

Superoxide production increases during immune responses (such as when a virus or bacteria comes into contact) which is essential for eliminating pathogens, increasing levels of inflammatory cytokines, and more.

Similarly, superoxide formation increases during intense periods of exercise due to increased oxygen uptake.

Superoxide can be dismutated (oxidoreduced) by the body's antioxidant enzyme SOD (superoxide dismutase) to form H2O2 (Hydrogen Peroxide). H2O2 is another important signaling molecule that, when operated in a controlled manner, can regulate gene expression and make cellular changes favorable to the organism before being converted to water and O2.

Now, if the concentration of superoxide or H2O2 exceeds the regulatory systems, oxidative stress occurs. So the regulation of superoxide molecules hydrogen peroxide is essential to reduce the production of hydroxyl radicals (OH) that are extremely toxic.

Deregulation of the redox state

Reactive molecules have both detrimental effects that cause disease, and therapeutic effects that prevent disease (Levinger et al. 2015). This paradoxical nature of antioxidant signaling can be thought of as a form of hormesis or homeopathy, where small doses of a potentially damaging stress confer cytoprotective cellular adaptations.

Redox homeostasis (balance) is required for normal body and cellular function. The key is not the presence or absence of oxidants and antioxidants with harmful consequences, but the dangerous alteration of homeostasis between oxidation and reduction (Gomez et al. 2012).

Adults who begin to show signs of aging may have both a lot and a little oxidation in their cells. For example, aging is associated with excessive oxidation in the cytosol (fluid located inside cells). But at the same time, with the loss of oxidative potential in the endoplasmic reticulum that is essential for protein folding (Feleciano & Kirstein 2016).

Rather than focusing exclusively on free radicals as the cause of aging and disease, it would be more accurate to address it from the perspective of redox deregulation.

EROs as mediators of the positive effects of exercise or how can we put EROs to work for our benefit?

Exercise naturally causes the hormesis effect due to brief peaks of ROS (reactive oxygen species) production, which improves the optimal balance of the redox state and mitigates, precisely, the deregulation of the redox state in the body (Ristow & Zarse 2010).

The parabolic nature of the exercise

Similar to the remedy for disease, the healing of a wound, and the recovery from an injury, the relationship between beneficial ROS induced by exercise and harmful ROS induced by intense and chronic exercise forms a parabolic function.

Many elite athletes often exercise at high intensities chronically, which consequently increases excessive production of ROS and leads to cytotoxic injury and decreased endogenous antioxidant activity (Fisher-Wellman & Bloomer 2009).

Excessive production of ROS and subsequent cellular damage also occurs in older adults, but due to the loss of endogenous antioxidant levels (Evans 2000) and in “weekend athletes” who, having spent the entire week in a sedentary state, have not made the corresponding adaptations to cope with the physical stress imposed by playing a soccer game, a bike ride, a tennis match or another sport that they decide to practice on Saturday or Sunday morning.

Supplementation with antioxidants

Advertising has stressed the importance of taking antioxidant supplements for anti-aging, while for many athletes who are aware of the harmful effects of overproduction of ROS, it makes sense to take antioxidant supplements to counteract them. In fact, several medical experiments conducted with antioxidant supplements report that their use is ineffective and even harmful.

This applies primarily to aerobic exercises rather than anaerobic exercises. ( study )

The effects of molecular hydrogen

In contrast to conventional antioxidants and anti-inflammatories, the physicochemical properties and biomedical studies of molecular hydrogen H2 suggest that it may be useful in mitigating the effects of excessive ROS and inflammation without abolishing the desired training benefits and adaptations (Ohta 2015; Slezák et al. 2016; Nogueira et al. 2018).

This is because H2 is a stable molecule unable to react with reactive signaling molecules under biological conditions without a catalyst. It has been suggested that although H2 cannot neutralize important ROS, it can selectively "hunt" cytotoxic hydroxyl radicals and to a lesser extent peroxynitrites (unstable nitrate isomers) (Oshawa et al. 2007) which would be what a high performance athlete needs most.

Molecular hydrogen has emerged as an attractive agent in the biomedical field by functioning as a gaseous signaling modulator that effectively decreases oxidative stress and inflammation (Dixon et al. 2013). Molecular hydrogen has been shown to have therapeutic potential in over 170 disease models in both humans and animals and in virtually every organ in the human body.

Several animal studies have shown that H2 is effective in increasing resistance and mitigating the negative effects of acute and chronic stress such as inflammation, elevated levels of ROS, anxiety and depressive-like behaviors (Nagata et al. 2009; Slezak et al. 2015; Zhang et al. 2016; Gao et al. 2017).

Therefore, H2 should be beneficial for both elite and non-athletes because (1) H2 administration provides many of the same benefits elicited by exercise, acting as an “exercise mimic” and (2) just as H2 restores redox homeostasis, prevents pathological changes, and mitigates excessive inflammation caused by disease, it similarly has these protective and therapeutic effects against harmful forms of exercise (Ostojic 2014; Nogueira et al. 2018).

It is not normal for high-performance athletes to push themselves to extreme levels of intense, chronic and prolonged training, or even for untrained people to run a marathon or participate in physically demanding activities such as footballers, cyclists and other weekend athletes. These erroneously or chronically intense activities directly damage muscle tissue resulting in cell death and decreased mitochondrial function and number, plus other pathological changes.

However, regular and optimal exercise provides positive changes in antioxidant levels, vascular function, brain effects, mitochondrial function, response to inflammation, oxidative stress, muscle damage and others; compared to the levels for a sedentary person by providing protection against pathological changes (Gleeson et al. 2004).

H2 acts as a hormetic agent (dose-response phenomenon) to improve the redox state

Interestingly, hydrogen does not always reduce oxidative markers, it seems to only reduce excessive levels . The fact that H2 does not attack ROS and only decreases excessive levels of them makes it an effective and safe medical gas for clinical use that also preserves the benefits and decreases the damage caused by intense exercise, whether sporadic or chronic.

H2 not only reduces excessive ROS production, but also has slight pro-oxidative properties by exerting hormetic benefits similar to those obtained with exercise.

Human studies conducted with H2 administration

There are currently around 60 studies conducted on humans that consolidate the potential of hydrogen as a therapeutic agent.

These clinical studies have demonstrated beneficial effects on a wide range of diseases including metabolic syndrome (Nakao et al. 2010), diabetes (Kajiyama et al. 2008), hyperlipidemia (Song et al. 2013), cognitive imbalances (Nishimaki et al. 2018), rheumatoid arthritis (Ishibashi et al. 2012), chronic hepatitis B (Xia et al. 2013), vascular function (Sakai et al. 2014), sports performance (Ostojic' et al. 2011) and more (Ichihara et al. 2015).

In one study, for example, 18 athletes who consumed one liter of hydrogen-rich water per day showed decreases in maximal indices of perceived exertion and a reduction in lactate production at critical running speeds (13 km/h) during maximal effort without increases in serum antioxidant capacity (Ostojic' et at. 2011; Ostojic' 2014).

Another study involving 9 people who bathed in hydrogen-rich water for 20 minutes indicated a decrease in delayed muscle soreness after a downhill run without significantly reducing oxidative markers (Kawamura et al. 2016).

It should be noted that these studies were done with trained athletes, whose bodies and cells have adapted to cope with exercise-induced ROS production. Several studies done in untrained people show that H2 supplementation increases antioxidant enzymes while decreasing oxidative markers.

In another study with 26 healthy subjects (13 women, 13 men) ingestion of hydrogen-rich water for 4 weeks improved mood, reduced anxiety, and decreased sympathetic nerve activation, but did not significantly reduce oxidative stress. However, levels were within the normal health range for all participants (Mizuno et al. 2017).

H2 may be useful in improving the recovery rate of soft tissue injuries. In a study of 36 professional athletes, hydrogen treatment was effective in the recovery of soft tissue sports injuries by increasing the rate of return to normal range of motion of the injured limb (Ostojic' et al. 2014).

Is H2 consumption safe?

An important advantage of hydrogen is that it is nontoxic when administered at safe, high levels. Hydrogen has been used since the 1940s to prevent decompression sickness in deep diving (Case & Haldane 1941; Dougherty 1976).

Furthermore, hydrogen gas is found naturally in our blood and breath due to the normal fermentation of indigestible carbohydrates from gut bacteria (Strocchi & Levitt 1992).

The hydrogen gas produced by this bacteria has also been shown to be therapeutic (Kajiya et al. 2009) although the amount is often more than that ingested by drinking hydrogen-rich water, ingestion of hydrogen-rich water is in any case effective and in certain cases, even more so (Ito et al. 2012).

Perhaps hydrogen may be mildly toxic as suggested by its hormetic activity. Thus, the toxic effects are toxic enough to induce hormesis and mild enough to be overcome and converted into beneficial effects. This hypothesis would explain why constant exposure to molecular hydrogen does not provide biological effects (Ito et al. 2012).

Conclusions

Exercise is associated with many effects, some of which are considered beneficial and others harmful to health, depending on the intensity, duration and frequency of exercise. In any case, these effects are partly mediated by increases in ROS molecules and exercise-induced inflammation that activate several transcription factors leading to their phenotypic expression.

Similar to prolonged high-intensity exercise, several diseases are associated with ROS and inflammation. Molecular hydrogen attenuates many of these pathological conditions in both human and animal studies, indicating that it may similarly mitigate the toxic effects of chronic high-intensity training in elite athletes, or sporadic, brief high-intensity exercise in untrained individuals.

Hydrogen has an important role to play as an exercise mimic and redox adaptogen to regulate exercise-induced inflammation and protect the body from damaging cellular stress.

Hydrogenated Water vs Alkaline Water.

Hydrogenated water is not the same as “alkaline water” . Alkaline water has high mineral content and a pH higher than 8.5 and although it could help neutralize acids in our body, it does not combat the main cause of them, which is oxidation, with the disadvantage that the minerals present in the water are inorganic and an excess of these is not recommended in the long term.

OXIDATION is the main cause of ACIDIFICATION. Hydrogenated water prevents acidification by avoiding oxidation, with the advantage of having a pH of 7 to 7.5, very similar to that of blood and a weak mineralization, which allows to add to the benefits of “alkalizing” water the benefits of light water.

How to obtain hydrogenated water?

There are currently hydrogen water generators on the market of different capacities, styles and prices. It depends on your needs above all.

You can find a list of products on both Amazon and Mercado Libre. In the United States, they sell hydrogenated water mixes for athletes from different brands. If that is your choice, make sure you get one that is of good quality.

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