Hydrogen is a new type of biological antioxidant that can have preventive and therapeutic effects on oxidative stress and inflammatory diseases. The high safety of hydrogen for the human body and the economic convenience of hydrogen production have made the application of tools that generate effects through hydrogen in daily life an important direction in this field. But the specific situations and methods of using hydrogen are particularly worth exploring.

The latest study observed the role of hydrogen in solving skin roughness problems through hydrogen water bathing and foot bathing, and proposed a feasible daily application scenario for hydrogen water. The hydrogen water temperature used for foot bath in this study was 41 degrees Celsius, with a bath time of more than 10 minutes. Six subjects had rough skin on their feet, palms, fingers, or elbows. Five subjects used electrolyzed hydrogen water, and one subject used microporous jet hydrogen water. A subject with similar skin roughness on both hands showed a more significant improvement when their right hand was immersed in an electrolyzed hydrogen water tank than when their left hand was immersed in a tank containing regular water. (A friend once told me that to demonstrate the skin improving effect of hydrogen water, one only needs to soak their hand in hydrogen water for 10 minutes and the other hand in regular water, and let the user compare the changes in their skin.)

Using a laser Brownian motion analyzer Nano Sight for detection, it was found that the average diameter distribution of nano bubbles was approximately 157 nanometers, 136 nanometers, and 94 nanometers. After electrolysis of 2 liters of tap water, the number of nano bubbles increased by 3.79 times, reaching 220 million per milliliter. It can withstand boiling at 98 degrees for 2 minutes, and nano bubbles with diameters of 69-101 nanometers have good thermal stability.

With the increase of nano bubbles in electrolyzed hydrogen water, the concentration of dissolved hydrogen gas increases, and the hydrogen concentration increases from less than 15 μ g/L to 527 μ g/L. (μ g/L=1/2 μ M, with a hydrogen saturation solubility of approximately 600 μ M). The solubility of oxygen in electrolyzed water decreased from 9.45 mg/L to 6.94 mg/L. The number of nanobubbles was independent of oxygen concentration, indicating that the main component of nanobubbles came from hydrogen gas. This study proposes a method for daily use of hydrogen water, which is to use hydrogen water for bathing or foot massage to improve skin roughness.

Hydrogen water wet compress and hydrogen water bath can significantly increase the concentration of hydrogen gas on the skin, which is the most ideal method for hydrogen gas to solve skin problems. Some people have also proposed the concept of using hydrogen chambers, mainly considering the strong diffusion ability of hydrogen, hoping to place the human body in a relatively sealed chamber and diffuse hydrogen through the skin. Hydrogen has strong diffusion ability and can diffuse through the skin. The gas can also produce certain potential effects. However, as hydrogen is a flammable gas, it is not easy to use high concentration hydrogen in large volumes when using gas, as this operation carries the risk of combustion and explosion. However, the use of low concentration hydrogen gas is subject to low gas pressure, resulting in low diffusion efficiency of hydrogen gas.

Using saturated hydrogen water for bathing is equivalent to placing the human body in a 100% hydrogen gas environment, while nanobubbles can produce hydrogen water at concentrations much higher than saturation, which can produce an effect equivalent to high-pressure hydrogen gas. Therefore, using bathing can completely surpass the effect of hydrogen chambers on the skin.

This article mainly refers to a paper published in "Hydrogen", and the author is mainly from the Department of Life Sciences at the School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Hiroshima Prefectural University.

Free reading of the paper, please refer to the original text: Saitoh, Y.;  Takada, Y.;  Miwa, N. Hydrogen-Nano-Bubble-Rich Water in Bucket/Bathtub Improves Intractable Skin Roughness. Hydrogen 2023, 4, 456-473.