Hydrogen gas (H2) water infusion with electrolysis, per se, is century-old technology. The Tesla coil was used, for the first time, to split water into its constituents. The controversy is because people know inherently that there is water that is healthier than other water, but the general public wants the scientific explanation of why and how, which is quite complex and even not fully understood by Nobel laureates.

 

That glacial water from an untouched nature reserve is healthier than the filtered plastic bottle at the supermarket is obvious.

 

Here is a simple approach to this topic, debunking some of the marketing nonsense.

 

Let's start with pH alkaline water, since this is something most of us are familiar with. In the most basic sense, pH refers to the negative logarithmic (log) measurement of the H⁺ ion concentration in solution. The more H⁺, the more acidic; the less H⁺, the more alkaline.

1) An alkaline solution simply means it has a pH greater than 7.
2) Alkalinity, on the other hand, refers to a solution’s quantitative ability to neutralize an acid. Therefore, you can have water with high (alkaline) pH and low alkalinity, or high alkalinity and low pH.

 

pH itself stands for potentia hydrogenii, in English, "the potential of hydrogen." Emphasis is on exponential 'potential.'

 

Now, let's clarify what kind of hydrogen we are talking about. Hydrogen has many faces and forms. For pH matters, it is the positive hydrogen ion (H⁺), often referred to as simply 'hydrogen.'

 

But this form of hydrogen is responsible for the 'acid' level (pH) of water. Alkaline ionizers raise the pH of the water not as a direct result of adding H₂, the real therapeutic agent, but because in order to produce H₂, they must consume the H⁺ ions in the water, thus making the water more alkaline.

 

So, alkaline water can be an indicator for water that is infused with hydrogen gas (H₂). Hydrogen gas infused water, on the other hand, has more than 3000 peer-reviewed studies with 300+ disease models showing clearly beneficial biological effects.

 

A good question now should be, why is hydrogen gas good for us and how does it even dissolve in water?

 

For the how, without diving too deep into dipolar molecules and their electrostatic properties, imagine soda water. It is the same concept, but hydrogen gas escapes significantly faster.

 

Why is hydrogen gas so good for us? There is currently no full explanation available; we can see through countless studies how it optimizes our metabolism, even mimics caloric restriction, improves gene expression for genes such as PGC1-alpha, Nrf2, and a few more. We can observe how it can go through a cell membrane effortlessly and communicate with certain proteins. Again, it does so by activating genes, which in turn have the blueprint for certain proteins. Proteins are, so to say, the final products of gene expression.

 

What else can we say about hydrogen gas? It has a higher biological effect when dissolved in water than when inhaled. Shigeo Ohta tested this by exposing mice to live in an atmosphere of constant 2% hydrogen gas concentration. They showed positive biological effects, which became less prominent after a while.

 

Once he started the same mice drinking hydrogen gas infused water as well, they immediately improved several biomarkers of health. So, water itself has a specific influence on the 'bioavailability,' if that is something that can be applied here, of the hydrogen gas.

 

Not just hydrogen gas, by the way; in the short booklet 'Healthy Water for a Longer Life', Martin Fox could show that minerals have a higher bioavailability when consumed with water.

 

How is it different from normal water that we consume? Normal ordinary water is not so easy to define today. With normal, I assume you are talking about the water that is coming out of our tap and the water you can buy at the supermarket. That water is inherently not normal at all; it is very processed and treated with countless chemicals. Pretty much the opposite of normal.

 

Normal drinking water still exists. It can be found in nature reserves, from glaciers, certain mountain lakes at higher elevations. It's untouched from agricultural and other pollutants. That is inherently 'normal' water.

 

Back to the common sense 'normal' water. The largest historical decrease in morbidity and mortality caused by infectious disease was experienced not with the modern antibiotic and vaccine era, but after the introduction of clean water and effective sewer systems.

 

These systems are still in place today and make sure that we are not being infected with deadly viruses and bacteria. In that sense, water treatment plants hugely contributed to the increased lifespan we enjoy today. So, it's not all bad.

 

This is especially important today with large cities and many people living together. In the future, with a more vertical city structure, I think we will see interesting advances in that field. Wastewater from a high-rise could be used to generate electricity during its way down, maybe some miles or so, before reaching a filtration and preparation facility somewhere on or below the ground.

 

A hydroelectric structure like this could generate very significant amounts of energy. Anyway, normal water, as you can see, is always a conversation depending on your perspective.

 

Municipal filtered water today is not water that is optimal for our health, nor is water at the supermarket optimal for our health. All of them are processed, filtered, and some enriched with a handful of minerals.

 

Chlorine and fluoride are clearly showing their effects on us. One out of three people today gets cancer in America. Six out of ten Americans get autoimmune diseases.

 

There is a reason why 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated: they simply don't want to drink this crap.

We get motivated for second fashion-forward water marketing, but inherently we can feel and know that something with it is just not right.

Drinking truly healthy water makes you feel great; you are actually looking forward to enjoying a glass of water, maybe even more than sodas.

 

Imagine a thick glass filled with perfect ice cubes and crystalline glacial water. Just the visual image of this makes us want to drink it, naturally.

 

Maybe we should listen to that voice more often.

 

P.S. Glacial meltwater naturally can have 1 mg/L or more of dissolved hydrogen, which is stabilized by colloids and silica acids. Silica acids also play an important role in scavenging H⁺ and keeping this 'truly normal' water pH alkaline.