Hydrogen Water Does More Than Just Help You Hydrate

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Gone are the days of water being just a means by which we clean and hydrate ourselves. There’s vitamin water and alkaline water and activated charcoal water and… well, you get the point — specialized water products have an entire industry to themselves. And now, hydrogen gas-infused water is making its way into the market.

HTWO is one of the main hydrogen water brands available today, and in addition to giving the water a try during several workouts, we spoke with creator Dr. Cody Cook about how hydrogen gas works in the body. There are currently more than 500 published medical research papers exploring the role hydrogen gas helps the metabolism, and this research is the foundation of HTWO (along with other hydrogen gas-infused water beverages).

“Hydrogen gas can help any aging cell, whether it’s a brain cell or a liver cell or a heart cell,” said Dr. Cook. “It has a multitude of health benefits.”

Think of hydrogen gas in the body like premium gas in a car. Hydrogen works within your cells where metabolism occurs, and while it’s not an energy source itself, it helps the machinery of your metabolism function more effectively. So, just like how premium gas helps your car run more efficiently in real time and struggle less with maintenance problems later on in its lifespan than regular unleaded gas, hydrogen gas helps you gain a better utility from the food you consume and experience less inflammation and lactic acid build-up in your muscles and other tissues. According to Dr. Cook, a well-oiled, efficient metabolism is the best defense against inflammation.

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Now, hydrogen gas also happens to be the smallest molecule in the universe. That’s why we’ve come to use water as the delivery system for hydrogen gas — it offers a much safer option than combustible gas tanks. Companies like HTWO pressurize filtered water with the hydrogen gas and trap it in an aluminum foil pouch so that it has a long enough shelf life to reach retail stores (and buyers) with enough hydrogen gas left in the beverage pouch by the time it’s consumed. Dr. Cook says traditional beverage packaging like glass bottles or aluminum cans can’t hold hydrogen gas very well.

It’s recommended that when you’re consuming hydrogen gas-infused water like HTWO, you should finish the pouch within a 30-minute timeframe to make sure you ingest as much of the available hydrogen as possible. And if that’s not an option for you, squeeze any residual air out of the pouch and twist the cap back on to keep the benefits of the beverage intact for a longer period of time.

Counter to what many people think, hydrogen gas-infused water isn’t meant to be an “energy” beverage. It contains zero neurostimulants like other energy products on the market do. Instead, it’s just adding to your body’s natural supply of hydrogen gas.

“The only time you typically find hydrogen gas in the body is if your body is producing the hydrogen gas,” said Dr. Cook. “We don’t have hydrogen gas in our atmosphere in the air we breathe. Microbial flora is what produces hydrogen gas in our gut, and it’s a nutrient that our body uses. Science is starting to show that hydrogen gas produced by this flora has very strong antioxidant properties. It’s a natural nutrient. Most people just don’t know that about hydrogen gas in the body, how it’s produced and how important it is.”

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While only about a quarter of the studies on the biological effects of molecular hydrogen involve humans (as opposed to rats or mice), the number of clinical trials increases every year, and the results continue to suggest that it benefits all organs and aides in the recovery of inflammation throughout the body.

The price points for each hydrogen gas-infused water beverage varies, but HTWO is available for between $2.82 and $4 per pouch (which you ideally consume once a day) depending on how many you buy at a time. Of course, it’s a little more expensive than your average water bottle, but then again, your average water bottle isn’t giving your body this additional boost, either.