Editor’s Be aware: This text is a reprint. It was initially printed December 15, 2019.
Alex Tarnava, whom chances are you’ll not have heard of earlier than, is the inventor of the open-container molecular hydrogen tablets, thus making it broadly accessible in a handy kind.
What Is Molecular Hydrogen?
Molecular hydrogen (H2) — two hydrogen atoms mixed collectively — is a fuel with very distinctive and selective antioxidant results that particularly goal essentially the most dangerous free radicals. It really works primarily by enhancing and optimizing the redox standing of the cell when wanted.
Consequently, you see enhancements in superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione ranges, for instance. Not solely does hydrogen selectively scale back essentially the most poisonous radicals, however it might probably assist forestall an extra (which turns into poisonous) of the free radicals from being produced within the first place. This can be a very highly effective prevention mechanism.
H2 additionally prompts the Nrf2 pathway when wanted. Nrf2 is a transcription issue that, when activated, goes into the cell’s nucleus and binds to the antioxidant response ingredient within the DNA.
It then induces the transcription of additional cytoprotective enzymes equivalent to glutathione, superoxide dismutase catalase, glutathione peroxidase, part II enzymes, heme-1 oxygenase and lots of others.
A landmark paper1 on molecular hydrogen got here out in Nature Medication in 2007, exhibiting 2% hydrogen fuel was efficient at stopping mind harm from ischemia reperfusion and, as an antioxidant, has highly effective therapeutic purposes. Hydrogen is the smallest molecule within the universe, and is impartial and nonpolar, which is why its bioavailability is so nice.
Tarnava’s Journey of Discovery
As is so typically the case, Tarnava’s curiosity in molecular hydrogen and his subsequent invention was born out of a private well being problem that required him to dig deeper for an answer. He explains:
“I had one other enterprise that allowed me a whole lot of freedom for athletics and train. I used to be coaching six to eight hours a day. I used to be coaching in varied martial arts and CrossFit. Then I bought actually sick. It materialized in sudden-onset narcolepsy. I had central nervous system shut down.
My heavy lifts weren’t altered however I could not bounce on a plate, whereas a few weeks earlier than I had the 54-inch plyometric bounce. I used to be sleeping 16 to fifteen hours a day. I would go to sleep if I sat down for a couple of minute. My bloodwork was weird … My C-reactive protein was 34 [mg/dL].”
Your C-reactive protein ought to ideally be under 1 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL), so Tarnava clearly had huge irritation occurring. He was additionally iron-deficient and anemic, regardless of consuming a whole lot of purple meat and leafy greens.
“It lasted for weeks. They could not determine it out … When the mud settled, my shoulder was frozen. All of the irritation, the narcolepsy and the surplus sleeping simply went away, however I had a frozen left shoulder. I mainly had arthritis in eight spots in a single day. At the moment, hydrogen was already on my radar, so I purchased a machine for $5,000.”
Inventing Molecular Hydrogen Tablets
The issue was, the hydrogen water machine was solely producing a really small quantity of hydrogen fuel. When he examined the water for its hydrogen content material, Tarnava discovered it had a focus of 0.03 components per million (ppm), which is just about nothing. In the long run, that is what spurred Tarnava to develop molecular hydrogen tablets that may ship a constant concentrated dose when dissolved in water.
“I used a little bit of a Ray Kurzweilian technique once I was growing the tablets,” he says. “I discovered specialists. I discovered engineers. I discovered pharmaceutical formulation companies. I contracted a physicist, a chemist and biochemist …
Ultimately [I succeeded in making the tablets]. I failed a pair thousand instances … I used to be studying a whole lot of the research. They’re utilizing magnesium in several methods. I attempted magnesium sticks. It wasn’t working …
I began trying to make powders and tablets … At first, the [metallic] magnesium was actually onerous to get. I needed to undergo the Division of Protection and the state division to be compliant with eight totally different authorities businesses to make use of the magnesium.
Normally whenever you’re shopping for a magnesium, it is a salt … [Metallic magnesium] is reactive — it is nonionic, elemental magnesium … It’s totally hazardous to deal with in manufacturing. We’ve very, very managed manufacturing.
But it surely’s a really protected pill. So, our hydrogen pill shouldn’t be HAZMAT (hazardous materials). It isn’t explosive. It isn’t flammable. However it is going to break up the hydrogen off your water …
We’re utilizing a really particular pharmaceutical grade magnesium that is floor in very particular methods for us to get the nano bubbles … Once I first began tinkering round, I had a few of it examined. I used to be getting magnesium in from like Russia and China that was being mislabeled.
I later discovered they had been unlawful for export from each locations. It is closely managed within the U.S. Simply to get it out to Canada, it was an eight-month course of with the state division doing background checks, facility checks and in-person interviews to ensure I had a official objective for these things.”
Poor High quality Hydrogen Tablets Could Be Excessive in Contaminants
Tarnava’s tablets are additionally examined and compliant for heavy metals. Tarnava tells the story of a competitor who didn’t trouble going by the intricate certification processes Tarnava has adopted and bought magnesium from a fireworks reseller, which resulted in tablets that had been excessive in lead.
“We’re ultra-compliant in our heavy steel ranges. You want 16 tablets a day to hit the brink for California Proposition 65, which is about 10 instances stricter than the pharmaceutical laws on it, which is even a number of instances stricter than some laws … For complement laws, I believe you could possibly take one thing like a few hundred tablets a day …
We went to nice lengths to make sure purity and to make sure the framework was in place earlier than we began [production], which can be why we’re pursuing a lot analysis with public groups beneath no publication settlement.
We’ve 5 publications already in three years … We’ve seven extra which can be underway and 6 within the starting stage which can be ending up their ethics approvals and protocols. And we have now 4 outstanding universities conducting rodent trials utilizing our tablets.
In whole, we’re now working with 9 or 10 public universities world wide to additional the analysis and help in any approach we are able to, as a result of we need to know extra about the way it works, what dose must be used and when it must be taken. The information is beginning to come out. Issues are undoubtedly rising. Increased dose, increased focus and intermittent pulse appears to be the very best for people.”
The Drawback with Molecular Hydrogen Water Turbines
Earlier than molecular hydrogen tablets, some of the generally used methods to generate molecular hydrogen water was by using water ionizers that purport to make hydrogen.
Nevertheless, they will not work except you might have whole dissolved solids (TDS) equivalent to minerals within the water. You can’t use reverse osmosis or distilled water. They will even cease working as soon as the plates used to separate the water get calcified from the TDS. Tarnava explains:
“What finally ends up occurring is that they’ll nonetheless make hydrogen, but it surely would not dissolve as a result of the bubbles are too large. It’s going to nonetheless make the identical quantity of hydrogen, but it surely’s simply out and in. It would not dissolve within the water.
In a lab, once they’re utilizing pure fuel to dissolve by a beaker, it would take half an hour of effervescent. Liters and liters of hydrogen to get to 1.6 ppm … However the smaller in bubbles you go, the better it’s to dissolve.
What I discovered is whenever you even go into the low nano vary, you may quasi-dissolve this cloud of fuel that does not absolutely dissolve with out accompanying strain, but it surely additionally would not escape. So, you will get, in a half a liter, 8 to 10 ppm [of molecular hydrogen], as a substitute of the 0.1 ppm that a whole lot of these ionizers offer you.
That is vital as a result of lots of people take a look at the rodent analysis and fail to correctly [calculate] … simply how far more hydrogen mice are consuming per physique weight than people.
Whenever you take a 25-gram mouse and convert it to an 80-kilogram particular person (that is 176 kilos for American viewers; that is the common weight of the American), that particular person would want to drink the equal of 12.8 liters of water a day to get the identical quantity [of hydrogen] that mouse drinks.
Consequently, it’s vital as a result of it is advisable to elevate your mobile concentrations of hydrogen. Should you’re solely consuming half a liter or a liter a day, then it is advisable to [raise] the focus to get that correct dosage.”
Pulsing and Dosing
Molecular hydrogen is finest taken cyclically or pulsed. Should you take it constantly — say you are consuming hydrogen water all day lengthy — the impact appears to dissipate and might truly vanish altogether.
As famous by Tarnava, your physique naturally produces about 10 liters (L) of hydrogen fuel every day by micro organism that break down carbohydrates in your digestive system.
It might appear odd that taking a comparatively small quantity of supplemental hydrogen fuel could make a distinction, however whenever you take a look at the mobile response between ingestion and inhalation, consuming hydrogen water can double your mobile focus of hydrogen fuel. For about 5 minutes, your blood degree peaks, and that is when helpful modifications in cell signaling and gene expression happen.
“Most of what hydrogen does is oblique response from altered cell signaling and modifications in gene expression,” Tarnava explains. “We merely want that pulsed dose to change all this stuff, [because the data shows] once they’ve given steady fuel administration, and continuously raised the mobile focus, it is had no profit, even at a a lot increased dose, whereas when pulsed, the impact is sweet.”
Within the interview, Tarnava discusses hydrogen fuel dosing utilizing each ppm and mg. To make clear, ppm and mg/L are similar and each discuss with the focus of hydrogen within the water. The mg refers back to the precise dosage. As famous by Tarnava, getting the right acute dosage is necessary for optimum advantages.
Whenever you dissolve two molecular hydrogen tablets in 1 liter of water, you get 8 to 10 ppm of hydrogen fuel focus, which interprets into an 8 to 10 mg dose if consumed whereas the water is “white.”
Ideally, you’d need to drink the total liter suddenly. If it is an excessive amount of, you may divide it into two doses, with one pill in half a liter of water taken within the morning and one other half-liter (with one pill) once more within the afternoon.
Whereas it could be tempting to easily put two tablets in half a liter of water, this is not going to provide the splendid dose. In essence, you are getting the next focus of hydrogen, however at a decrease dose. The issue with that is that the consequences will not be linear, and easily elevating the focus however lowering the dose is not going to present you’ll the total results.
The right way to Drink Your Hydrogen for Greatest Outcomes
So, for finest outcomes, place two to a few tablets in 1 liter (about 32 ounces) of water and drink all of it within the morning. This gives you a really sturdy pulse, which can produce higher outcomes than a decrease pulse twice a day.
Remember that as soon as the tablets are absolutely dissolved and the water has turned white — which may take wherever from 30 seconds to a few minutes, relying on the temperature of the water — you will need to drink it as quick as potential. Room temperature water is finest, permitting the tablets to dissolve in about 90 seconds.
Between 45 and 90 seconds, the water may have a secure focus of hydrogen at or above 10 ppm. Between one and 6 minutes, it’s going to drop from 10 ppm to 1.6 ppm. So, the sooner you drink it the higher. Nevertheless, even for those who let it sit for a couple of minutes, you are still getting 1.6 ppm, which is much increased than what you will get from water ionizers that value 1000’s of {dollars}.
As an added bonus, you are additionally getting extremely accessible magnesium — about 80 mg of elemental magnesium per pill, which fits straight to the place magnesium is required. The basic magnesium doesn’t dissipate, so that you’re getting that even for those who overlook to drink it earlier than the hydrogen dissipates.
Blowup Results in a Shocking Discovery
As Tarnava was creating the tablets, he was additionally utilizing them on himself. As soon as he was capable of make a pill that offered 3 ppm in half a liter of water, his shoulder unfroze and the arthritis in his hip eased.
“I used to be consuming 1 liter within the morning, 1 liter within the afternoon and 1 liter earlier than mattress. Then I began getting somewhat bit extra hardcore. I began [increasing] the strain and was getting shut to five ppm in taking this dose.
However I used to be needing to place the thermoses in vice grips to take away the caps as a result of they had been getting knocked off the threads. That was my first run-in with security management, as a result of certainly one of my thermoses blew up in my fridge.”
The explanation for it is because the molecular hydrogen converts to fuel, which will increase the strain in a closed container. This ultimately led Tarnava to develop an open-container pill.
Most hydrogen tablets require utilizing a closed container, or else the fuel will merely escape. Tarnava’s product, then again, might be dropped into an open glass, and the fuel nonetheless stays put within the water and would not escape.
“I believe that is actually what units us aside,” he says. “That is the premise of most of our IP and what we have performed. And it was an accident. We did not do it on objective … Our preliminary objective was to get 3 to 4 ppm in half a liter in beneath 5 minutes in a sealed container …
However each time we would unseal these fast-reacting tablets, the water went white. This might take a look at very excessive and return down in a short time. The half-life did not make any sense. We’re beating our heads towards the wall. After just a few months, it simply dawned on me, ‘Why are we preventing this? We’re getting increased ranges by doing this … I ponder how we would do in an open cup?’
It was increased. It was beneath two minutes at the moment … It actually did not make sense. Lastly, after we did it within the open cup and we replicated it over and over, it nonetheless did not make sense. I contacted Tyler LeBaron [a molecular hydrogen expert]. I instructed him what we had been engaged on. He stated, ‘I do not imagine you. Present me.’ I put him on-line …
Tyler didn’t falsify what we had been doing. He did a number of assessments. He took them into testing in Japan and China, to totally different conferences and apparatuses. He requested me to do some assessments and I did it. I have been by the identical factor with Randy Shark who runs H2 Sciences …
He was as or extra skeptical than Tyler, however he … [too] didn’t falsify what we’re doing. Now, as we’re getting extra knowledge — we’re doing fuel chromatography, we’re doing all these various things — each report … [is] indicating between 8 to 11 ppm in half a liter with one pill … No person else comes shut.”
From Sickness to Well being with Molecular Hydrogen
As Tarnava continued utilizing the hydrogen water, his frozen shoulder and arthritic joints continued to enhance to the purpose the place he can now play soccer and work out. He additionally carried out higher sleeping habits, which most likely performed a job as properly, seeing how he was solely sleeping about 4 hours — half of the advisable quantity of sleep you want for optimum well being.
He is additionally doing my cyclical fasting protocol. “I have been doing that for months,” he says. “I quick 43 to 48 hours per week each week. Each fourth, I am pushing it to 72 [hours]. I dropped 40 kilos from February to August.”
This brings up an necessary level: Whereas molecular hydrogen is a implausible complement — I take it day by day — it is not a magic bullet by itself. It must be built-in with different parts of a wholesome life-style. Tarnava was not doing that originally. Now that he is sleeping extra and doing time-restricted consuming, and a few longer fasting as properly, his well being is beginning to considerably enhance.
“That is truly what excites me essentially the most about hydrogen,”Tarnava says. “First, it is proven to have this protecting impact … The extra harm somebody has, usually, the extra outstanding hydrogen is working to deliver them again to homeostatic operate.
However on high of that … hydrogen is proven not simply to cancel out and mitigate the stresses from different types of hormesis, as a result of it appears to be a type of hormesis itself … like train … however then, it has this rescuing impact to mainly deliver restoration sooner.
On this actually managed rat examine, the rats had increased stress, had been swimming longer. However as their stress spiked extra, their redox regulated sooner and their irritation was blunted. A extremely cool article I simply learn this weekend [showed] … it considerably improved train efficiency.
However what was attention-grabbing is it considerably lowered insulin-like progress issue 1 (IGF-1), whereas train raises IGF-1. [The rats] carried out higher, however that they had IGF-1 lowered.”
The Significance of Biking
As simply talked about, hydrogen works by a course of known as molecular hormesis, so there is a delayed influence. If you are going to undergo oxidative stress, equivalent to flying domestically throughout the nation, for instance, you will need to take it a number of hours and even days beforehand.
The explanation for it is because it has to undergo the method of activating your antioxidant genes. Tarnava additionally recommends biking your use of hydrogen in an effort to maintain its effectiveness. He explains:
“For example, for my surgical procedure, a month earlier than I cycled off [hydrogen]. Each three to 6 months, I am going to cease taking hydrogen and let all my joints seize and deprive my physique of the exogenous hydrogen. After which I alter my dosing protocol to maintain my physique guessing. This appears to kick issues into gear.
It appears that previously, once I had the identical dose of protocol for a 12 months, that issues began seizing again up once more. Once I get a wash-out interval and alter [the dosage] … I get well once more. I have been telling most individuals to do the identical.
Each time I alter it, typically I am going to do it twice a day. Generally, I am going to do it 3 times a day … I am going to have the next focus or a decrease dosage. Different instances, I train 5 or 6 days per week and I used to be solely taking them on days I train, 5 minutes earlier than I train, which, anecdotally, is after we see the largest profit for train … particularly on coronary heart charge and modifying coronary heart charge.”
Molecular Hydrogen Is a Highly effective Well being Support
Based on Tyler LeBaron, one of many preeminent specialists on molecular hydrogen, greater than 1,000 peer-reviewed scientific publications have collectively demonstrated that H2 has therapeutic potential in over 170 totally different human and animal illness fashions.
The truth is, hydrogen is proven to profit just about each organ of the human physique, and the rationale for it is because hydrogen truly targets and mitigates the basis causes of irritation and oxidation.
As talked about at first, hydrogen has the flexibility to selectively goal essentially the most poisonous radicals, and helps forestall their creation within the first place, which is a really highly effective prevention mechanism.
For instance, scientific research have proven molecular hydrogen successfully prevents liver harm (fatty liver) attributable to a high-sugar food regimen and metabolic syndrome.2,3 Animal analysis4 counsel hydrogen may very well induce GLUT4 translocation by an analogous mechanism as insulin.
To be taught extra about molecular hydrogen, take a look at the Molecular Hydrogen Institute’s web site. There, you will discover analysis, video lectures and a wide range of different assets, together with quite a lot of totally different certifications for these serious about working with and administering molecular hydrogen.