Liquid Assets

The smallest element on the periodic table might prove to be a powerful tool in fighting disease – and delivering glowing skin

- Megan O’Neill

Like everyone who came of age post-Cindy Crawford, I was raised to believe I had to chug eight glasses of water a day to stay healthy. Sure, water is a life force – up to 60 per cent of the body is composed of it – but downing litre after tasteless litre has never stirred me in quite the same way as tossing back a sugary Gatorade. Until now.

Hydrogen-rich water – in which protons and electrons are added to regular old Hâ‚‚O, giving it a surplus of hydrogen gas (Hâ‚‚O plus molecular hydrogen does not a new element make) – has been a thing in Japan since the ’60s, and the country is now in full hydrogen mania: major companies sell machines that gas up water for at-home guzzling, and health nuts pop hydrogen-infused anti-ageing supplements or soak in hydrogen-enriched bath salts to reap an array of skin-perfecting, anti inflammatory and antioxidant benefits.

Too good to be true? Consider this: in a small study documented in the Journal Of Photochemistry And Photobiology, subjects who bathed in hydrogen-enriched water daily for three months showed significant improvement in neck wrinkles. In the same study, samples of UV-damaged human fibroblasts (aka sunzapped skin cells) were also shown to increase collagen production twofold after being immersed in hydrogen water for three to five days.

Hydrogen (H) is the smallest and lightest element on the periodic table. When ingested, it travels through the bloodstream and, according to research, weasels its way into the mitochondria, the energy centres of cells, and penetrates the nucleus, where the majority of DNA is stored. There, it reduces free radicals – inflammation-causing molecules linked to everything from accelerated skin ageing to cancer. This is no minor thing: a 2010 study in the