Curious about molecular hydrogen and how it may help you? There are two ways to intake molecular hydrogen – by drinking hydrogen water (or water that has been infused with hydrogen,) or by inhaling hydrogen gas. For more info on drinking hydrogen water, you can check out this post. In this post, we will attempt to answer all of your questions about hydrogen gas including what it is, how much you need, and what the benefits are to using it.
What is hydrogen gas?
Hydrogen gas is essentially a gas that has been infused with hydrogen. It may come in the form of pure hydrogen gas, hydrogen mixed with oxygen, or a hydrogen/air mixture. Pure hydrogen gas and hydrogen/oxygen mixture (also called Brown’s gas) systems are the two most commonly available in the commercial marketplace, whereas hydrogen/air mixture machines are more frequently used in research settings.
What are the advantages of inhaling hydrogen gas?
Breathing hydrogen gas allows you to intake large quantities of molecular hydrogen in a short amount of time. Depending upon the condition you are hoping to target, you may need to consume very high levels of molecular hydrogen in order to receive therapeutic benefits. Inhaling hydrogen gas lets you take in much more molecular hydrogen per day than you could get from drinking hydrogen water alone. It also helps prevent the desensitization to hydrogen that may occur when the body is constantly exposed to low doses of molecular hydrogen via hydrogen water.
From a practical standpoint, hydrogen gas inhalation is a better method of hydrogen delivery for the elderly, people with kidney disorders, or anyone who may have a hard time drinking large quantities of water and/or getting up to use the restroom multiple times per day.
Another benefit to hydrogen gas inhalation is that studies show it does a better job of delivering molecular hydrogen to the circulatory system and yields higher concentrations of molecular hydrogen in organs and tissues than drinking hydrogen water. It also appears to be better suited for acute disorders, injuries, or diseases such as cardiac arrest, stroke, heart attack, or traumatic brain injuries.
What are the disadvantages?
Drinking hydrogen water has been shown in studies to produce more benefits in gene expression than inhaling hydrogen gas. Again, depending upon the condition you are hoping to target, drinking hydrogen water may be more beneficial to you than inhaling hydrogen gas as targeting gene expression is one of the many benefits of molecular hydrogen.
How much do you need?
When drinking hydrogen water, it’s helpful to look at the milligrams per liter to determine how much to ingest per day. Hydrogen gas inhalation works a little differently. To understand dosage you need to know the hydrogen gas flow rate and/or the hydrogen gas concentration percentage.
The flow rate will tell you how many milliliters of hydrogen gas are coming out of the product each minute. The faster the ml/min (milliliters per minute), the the faster the molecular hydrogen will saturate the blood and begin working in the body. A higher flow rate is more efficient at delivering hydrogen to the body and reducing the amount of hydrogen that is lost in the transfer from the system to the body.
The current scientific literature recommends a minimum flow rate of 120-240 ml/min to receive therapeutic benefits from hydrogen gas treatment. At the normal resting breathing rate, studies have shown that hydrogen gas inhalation works best when the hydrogen is 2-4% volume by concentration.
Where to learn more
Hopefully, this post answered your basic questions about hydrogen gas inhalation. For more information, check out this video by Tywon Hubbard on the 4 things you must know about hydrogen gas inhalation:
