Hydrogen Therapy Protects Against Life-Threatening Sepsis Organ Damage
- Authors
- Yijun Zheng, Duming Zhu
- Journal
- Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity
- Year
- 2016
- DOI
- 10.1155/2016/5806057
- Study Type
- clinical
- Peer Reviewed
- Yes
- Country
- China
- Health Condition
- Sepsis
- Body System
- Cardiovascular
TL;DR
Scientists found that a special type of hydrogen gas can help protect people's organs when they have a serious blood infection called sepsis—it does this by calming down the body's harmful inflammatory reactions and reducing cellular damage, which helps patients survive better.
Key Finding
Molecular hydrogen therapy reduced inflammatory factors and oxidative stress injury across multiple organ systems affected by sepsis, potentially improving organ function and survival rates.
Summary
This review examined how molecular hydrogen therapy might protect organs damaged by sepsis (a life-threatening infection response). Researchers found that hydrogen therapy reduced inflammatory chemicals and oxidative stress (cellular damage from unstable molecules) in multiple organs including the brain, lungs, liver, and kidneys, and appeared to improve survival rates in sepsis patients.
Practical Takeaway
While this review suggests hydrogen therapy may have protective effects against sepsis-related organ damage, the evidence comes primarily from animal studies rather than human trials. More research in human patients is needed before hydrogen therapy can be considered an established treatment for sepsis.
Abstract
Since it was proposed in 2007, molecular hydrogen therapy has been widely concerned and researched. Many animal experiments were carried out in a variety of disease fields, such as cerebral infarction, ischemia reperfusion injury, Parkinson syndrome, type 2 diabetes mellitus, metabolic syndrome, chronic kidney disease, radiation injury, chronic hepatitis, rheumatoid arthritis, stress ulcer, acute sports injuries, mitochondrial and inflammatory disease, and acute erythema skin disease and other pathological processes or diseases. Molecular hydrogen therapy is pointed out as there is protective effect for sepsis patients, too. The impact of molecular hydrogen therapy against sepsis is shown from the aspects of basic vital signs, organ functions (brain, lung, liver, kidney, small intestine, etc.), survival rate, and so forth. Molecular hydrogen therapy is able to significantly reduce the release of inflammatory factors and oxidative stress injury. Thereby it can reduce damage of various organ functions from sepsis and improve survival rate. Molecular hydrogen therapy is a prospective method against sepsis.