Unpacking the hype behind hydrogen water

I keep seeing advertisements for hydrogen-infused water. Can these products do anything for my health?

One woman on TikTok said it cured her sore throat and fever. Another wrote that it can help you lose weight, increase your energy and strengthen your immune system.

Drink hydrogen water, some advertisements go on to say, and you will enjoy reduced pain and inflammation, improved gut health, superior hydration, increased endurance, a better mood and even slowed signs of ageing.

Hydrogen water is made by simply adding more Hs into your H2O. But when it comes to its purported health advantages, researchers are sceptical.

“For almost every study that has shown a benefit, there’s another study that questions the benefit,” said Dr Mitchell Rosner, who specialises in fluid and electrolyte disorders at UVA Health in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Here is what people know.

What is hydrogen water?

Hydrogen water is often packaged in sleek drink pouches or aluminium cans. Some brands sell dissolvable hydrogen tablets that you can plop into your water, or high-tech bottles that you fill with regular water and then infuse with hydrogen by pressing a button.

Some of these drinks, also called hydrogen-rich and hydrogen-infused water, have added flavours or electrolytes, but the basic product involves regular water plus hydrogen gas molecules, or H2, mixed in.

Because hydrogen molecules are extremely small, they easily dissolve in water, said Dr Gagandeep Dhillon, an assistant medical director at the University of Maryland Baltimore Washington Medical Center. They also do not create the same fizzy sensation as seltzer or soda. Those contain carbon dioxide, a larger molecule.

Hydrogen is so small and light that it also easily escapes water, Dr Dhillon said. To ensure the molecules stay put, some brands package their product in special aluminium containers or recommend drinking the product within 30 minutes of opening it.

Doesn’t water already contain hydrogen?

All water molecules have two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom, as shown in its chemical name, H2O. But once those atoms combine into one water molecule, Dr Dhillon said, the body cannot make use of the hydrogen and oxygen separately.

The idea behind hydrogen water is that the accessible hydrogen molecules – the ones not bound to oxygen – can enter the body’s cells and generate an antioxidant effect, Dr Rosner said.

Most of the touted health benefits, which also include enhanced exercise performance, speedier injury recovery, clearer skin and fewer allergy symptoms, come from the idea that hydrogen has antioxidant effects.

What does the science suggest?

The science backing the health claims of hydrogen-infused water is shaky at best, said emeritus professor of gerontology Henry Jay Forman at the University of Southern California.

Scientists already disagree about whether supplementing your diet with extra antioxidants can improve your health, he added. And even if hydrogen gas lowers inflammation in laboratory studies, the same will not necessarily be the case inside the body.

Few studies supporting the drink’s benefits have been performed in humans. And they are small and often contradictory.

In one 2020 study of 16 male athletes, researchers found that hydrogen-infused water improved the race times and fatigue levels of the four slowest runners – but not the four fastest runners – in the group. But a 2021 study of 37 trained and untrained cyclists had different results – only the trained cyclists benefited from hydrogen-rich water in terms of endurance, speed and fitness, when compared with the untrained cyclists.

In a review of 30 hydrogen water studies published in January 2024, Dr Dhillon and his colleagues set out to see whether the drink has any health benefits. While some of the studies were encouraging, he said, they could not draw any clear conclusions.

“More studies are needed to see if drinking hydrogen-infused water can reduce inflammation, ageing or disease,” said sports medicine researcher Tamara Hew-Butler at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. She added that some companies also sell oxygen-infused water, which the body does not need.

Still, some people say they feel benefits from hydrogen-infused water. Prof Forman said this might be because of the placebo effect, in which people feel better because they believe it works.

Is hydrogen water safe?

Although the benefits are murky and drinking too much water in general can be dangerous, Dr Rosner said hydrogen-infused water was not linked to any serious health risks.

“Everything I’ve read seems to say there’s no downside,” he said.

The US Food and Drug Administration considers hydrogen-infused water to be “generally recognised as safe”, as long as the hydrogen molecules make up no more than 2.14 per cent of the drink. Determining this percentage can be tricky, since companies are not required to disclose it on product labels.

Hydrogen-infused water can come with a high price tag – some of the fancy make-it-yourself bottles can cost around US$100 (S$133) – which is why both Dr Rosner and Prof Forman said drinking hydrogen water might not be worth it without more proven benefits.

“If you have US$100 and want to improve your health, you’re probably better off buying US$100 of fresh fruit and vegetables than two cases of hydrogen water,” Dr Rosner said. NYTIMES