Water And The Aging Process- Part Two
We continue on with part two of water and the aging process.
Functional Water – Hydration plus Hydrogen
Japanese research going back into the 1980’s has augmented the understanding of the central role of water in supporting the human body’s efforts to heal. Dr. Hidemitsu Hayashi began pioneering the use of electrolyzed water as a complementary treatment with health protocols. His clinical observations revealed incredible promise for functional water, particularly in the diversity of problems it addressed and conditions it ameliorated.
In 1997 he published a paper on the role of reduced water as an anti-oxidant, with his colleague Dr. Sanetaka Shirahata.6 As one of the most quoted studies on water, this paper has been used by the water electrolyzer industry to promote sales of literally dozens of different designs of water machines claiming to alkalize the body and heal all manner of disease.
However, lost in the history of science was Dr. Shirahata’s brilliant insight about which parameter of the water was effective in aiding the body. Was it the pH or was it something else? The body has very complex homeostatic mechanisms for maintaining its acidity and alkalinity of different parts. Cell membranes are very acidic and must remain so. Blood has a tiny window of pH 7.35 to 7.45, and whenever it moves outside that range, biochemical responses occur to bring it back, such as the release of carbonate to alkalize.
What was Dr. Shirahata’s conclusion about the real key to electrolyzed reduced water (ERW)? It was this:
The reduction of proton in water to active hydrogen (atomic hydrogen, hydrogen radical) that can scavenge ROS is very easily caused by a weak current, compared to oxidation of hydroxyl ion to oxygen molecule. Activation of water by magnetic field, collision, minerals etc. will also produce reduced water containing active hydrogen and/or hydrogen molecule. Several natural waters such as Hita Tenryosui water drawn from deep underground in Hita city in Japan, Nordenau water in Germany and Tlacote water in Mexico are known to alleviate various diseases. We have developed a sensitive method by which we can detect active hydrogen existing in reduced water, and have demonstrated that not only ERW but also natural reduced waters described above contain active hydrogen and scavenge ROS in cultured cells.7
Dr. Shirahata traveled to various parts of the world to investigate a number of healing waters and test them for hydrogen content. Finding them rich in molecular and atomic hydrogen, he decided to bring back samples to Dr. Hayashi in Japan. When he returned, he found that all of the hydrogen had escaped. What remained for him was the inescapable conclusion that it was the hydrogen in the reduced waters that was making the tap water into functional water.
This realization became solidified in 2007 with the publication of another study by another group of scientists, this time published in Nature Medicine, showing that indeed the active hydrogen is able to scavenge reactive oxygen species (ROS) in cell cultures.8 Since 2007, researchers have done both in vivo and in vitro studies involving the use of hydrogen-rich water.9
Expanding research with reduced water has finally drawn the proper attention to the role of water and has spawned a vast array of approaches to functional water and to the various parameters of water that might be significant. One prevalent example is the work with structured water. It has been hypothesized that smaller clusters of water molecules are critical for increased hydration, and some studies seem to back up this assertion. Nonetheless, it should be remembered that water is a food and needs to be metabolized. The aquaporins in the cell membrane are the small channels that admit water into the cell and they only allow one molecule of H2O at a time, so the work on clustered remains a bit obscure and still needs peer-reviewed studies to support its claims.
The work with hydrogen-rich water does, on the other hand, find great support in the literature, and a rapidly growing body of evidence in peer-reviewed studies.
Medicine of the Future – Hydrogen-rich Water
An examination of the published studies on hydrogen-rich water and its effects reveals a promising development in the medical research field. Many of these studies are being done by scientists at a new center in Kawasaki, Japan. It is the Center of Molecular Hydrogen Medicine, Institute of Development and Aging Sciences at the Nippon Medical School. Hydrogen-rich water as a true functional water is so promising as to have inspired a whole new branch of medicine in Japan.
This new approach to hydrogen medicine is an expression of the ever-expanding potential of integrative medicine. As the community of healers recovers deeper insights into the ancient wisdom of food as medicine and water as medicine, we will all see how the future and the past can come together. With the body being 70% water and the brain 85% water, how we ignore the primary importance of nature’s elixir in our health and vitality? With the addition of active hydrogen, we will appropriate for our daily hygiene the power of some of nature’s greatest healing springs. In that perhaps Dr. Hayashi’s vision will come to pass: that one day hydrogen-rich water will become a simple and effective daily hygiene for youthful vitality, health and beauty.
Authors Bruce and Marianne Curtis have served on the editorial board of the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, and currently work with functional foods and functional water. Marianne has maintained a practice in oriental medicine for over 18 years. Bruce has written and lectured on the future of medicine.