Liquid Assets

Infused into drinking water and skin care, hydrogen (yes, that atom from Chem 101) might prove to be a powerful tool in fighting disease—and delivering glowing skin. By Megan O’Neill

- Megan O’Neill

Like everyone who came of age post–Cindy Crawford, I was raised to believe one had to chug eight glasses of water a day to stay healthy and beautiful. Okay, sure, water is a life force—up to 60 percent of the adult body is composed of it. But downing liter after tasteless liter has never stirred me in quite the same way as tossing back a sugary blue Gatorade.

Until now. Hydrogen-rich water, in which protons and electrons are added to regular old H2O, giving it a surplus of hydrogen gas (H2O + molecular hydrogen does not a new element make), has been a thing in Japan since the 1960s and was called Shin’nooru solution. For decades, it was gulped down in bottles and used for bathing. Fast-forward to 18 months ago, when Japan’s health ministry approved hydrogen-infused saline IVs for medical use to help treat (solo or alongside other medications) everything from dehydration to serious infections. Now the country is in full-tilt hydrogen mania: Major companies such as Panasonic sell machines that gas up water for at-home guzzling (picture the non bubbly version of a Soda Stream). And Japanese health nuts pop hydrogen-infused antiaging skin supplements (said to help fade melasma) and soak in hydrogen-infused bath salts to reap an array of skin-perfecting, anti inflammatory, and antioxidant benefits.

Too good to be true? Consider this: In a small 2011 Japanese study from the Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology, six subjects who bathed in hydrogen-enriched water daily for three months showed significant improvement in neck wrinkles compared to a control group. In another study in the same publication, samples of UV-damaged human fibroblasts (aka sun-zapped skin cells) were shown to increase collagen production twofold after being immersed in hydrogen water for three days. Take note, spring breakers.