Hydrogen rich water is an kind of innovative functional drink, which has many benefits to human health, including good gastrointestinal function and the regulation of intestinal microbiota. There are many ways to use hydrogen, such as inhaling hydrogen and drinking hydrogen water. As a way for providing hydrogen to people, hydrogen rich water is a convenient carrier, which transports hydrogen, a biologically active gas, to the gastrointestinal tract and may regulate the activity of hydrogen producing and hydrogen consuming bacteria, which are the most abundant members of the intestinal microbial community. The origin of microorganisms and hydrogen metabolism is too far-reaching. Some scholars believe that more than 90% of bacteria have hydrogen metabolism and potential metabolic capacity, and the impact of hydrogen on intestinal flora has an evolutionary basis.
Recently, Sergej M. ostojic, a Serbian hydrogen medicine scholar, summarized the previous research on the response of intestinal microorganisms to drinking hydrogen rich water, and discussed the possible mechanism and medical consequences of this interaction in detail, which is very worth learning and understanding.
There are still few research papers on the relationship between gut microbiota and hydrogen water. Since 2018, only some animal experiments and a human randomized controlled trial have investigated the effect of drinking hydrogen water on gut microbiota. In most studies, hydrogen water can induce intestinal barrier integrity and upregulation of butyrate bacteria. Hydrogen water can improve the clinical characteristics of intestinal microbial disorders, including diarrhea rate, body weight and fluid loss. To date, there is no strong multicenter trial to evaluate the efficacy of hydrogen water on common intestinal microbiota diseases, including inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, gastroenteritis and infectious colitis. The lack of high-quality research evidence is also an obvious deficiency in the whole field of hydrogen medicine.
Hydrogen may be a promising tool that may affect endogenous hydrogen homeostasis and regulate the gut microbiota. The authors believe that the role of this beverage is still uncertain, and it still needs to be cautious to recommend it to the public (such as infants). After Japanese scholars published the biological effects of hydrogen in 2007, a large number of studies on the medical effects of low-dose hydrogen were published. Last year's debate on hydrogen dose was unnecessary. The low-dose hydrogen effect is the cornerstone of hydrogen medicine research. Denying the low-dose hydrogen effect means giving up and denying hydrogen medicine.
Hydrogen is a kind of bioactive molecule with selective antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti apoptotic and signaling effects. So far, there have been more than 150 studies on hydrogen water, but there are relatively few human trials. Later, there have been reports on the effects of hydrogen water on nonalcoholic fatty liver, metabolic syndrome, athletes' mental fatigue and sports performance, and reducing the inflammatory reaction and cell apoptosis of healthy adults.
Although there are still controversies about the clinical role of hydrogen, drinking hydrogen water as a feasible hydrogen delivery route is a very ideal way. However, the targets of hydrogen biological activity at the cellular and molecular levels are still unknown. Some scholars suggest that hydrogen may be a fine regulator of homeostasis. Perhaps hydrogen is similar to other bioactive gases, such as hydrogen sulfide and carbon monoxide, which have a clear molecular basis in biological systems. Drinking through hydrogen water may also affect the gut microbiota. This is a complex system with 100 trillion microbial cells, which has a great impact on human physiology, metabolism, nutrition and immune function. It is important that the intestinal microorganisms can generate and utilize hydrogen. It is said that the scale of hydrogen exchange by the intestinal flora can reach 12 liters. Hydrogen from hydrogen water may also affect the composition and metabolic characteristics of the intestinal flora. Of course, this impact may be very complex and diverse, and it is still difficult to understand its rules of change. This review summarizes the results of previous studies, evaluates the effect of drinking hydrogen water on intestinal flora, and discusses the possible mechanism and medical significance of this interaction.
