Discover · 发现
Understand it before you spend on it.
Seminars, video explainers, the actual papers we cite, and unedited member stories. All free, no account needed.
We would rather you arrive sceptical and informed than enthusiastic and disappointed.
SEMINARS · VIDEOS · MEMBER STORIES
The library lives in the app.
Seminar recordings, short explainers and unedited member stories — searchable, in English and Chinese, free and without an account. The papers themselves stay on this page, below.
Seminars
Small-group sessions at the Macpherson Road studio — what the research shows, where it is thin, what to ignore. Dates and booking in the app.
Videos
Short explainers on the molecule, the size argument, and what an hour in the chair actually involves.
Member stories
Unedited accounts from people using it, including the ones who noticed nothing.
Research & reading.
Every paper we cite anywhere on this site is listed here with a direct link. Read them before you believe us — including the one that argues against the mechanism.
Start here
The two papers that define the field. If you read nothing else, read the first one.
Nature Medicine · 2007
Hydrogen acts as a therapeutic antioxidant by selectively reducing cytotoxic oxygen radicals
Ohsawa, Ishikawa, Takahashi et al. (Ohta, senior author). The founding paper. Showed H₂ neutralises the hydroxyl radical while leaving signalling species alone, in cell culture and a rat stroke model. Everything downstream builds on this.
Foundational · Animal + in vitro
Science · 1975
Hyperbaric hydrogen therapy: a possible treatment for cancer
Dole, Wilson & Fife. Skin tumours regressed in mice under 97.5% hydrogen at 8 atmospheres. Included for honesty, not as a cancer claim — it sat unreplicated for thirty years and the conditions are nothing like a wellness session.
Historical · Never replicated at scale
Overviews
If you want the whole landscape in one sitting.
Medical Gas Research · 2018
Molecular hydrogen: a preventive and therapeutic medical gas for various diseases
Ohta’s own survey of the field — mechanism, delivery methods, and the disease models studied. The source of the “170+ models” figure you see quoted everywhere, including on our home page.
Review
Molecules · 2023
Molecular hydrogen therapy — a review on clinical studies and outcomes
Assesses 81 identified clinical trials in humans. The most useful single document if you specifically want to know what has been tested on people rather than on mice.
Review · Human trials only
Where health systems took it seriously
Two occasions when hydrogen moved from journals into actual treatment protocols.
Circulation Journal · 2016
Feasibility and safety of hydrogen gas inhalation for post-cardiac arrest syndrome — first-in-human pilot study
Tamura et al. Five patients, no adverse effects, four surviving 90 days with favourable neurological outcomes. Tiny — but it preceded Japan listing H₂ inhalation as Advanced Medical Care B.
Human · n=5
Journal of Thoracic Disease · 2020
Hydrogen/oxygen mixed gas inhalation improves disease severity and dyspnea in COVID-19 patients
Guan et al. Multi-centre, open-label. Associated with Academician Zhong Nanshan and preceded inclusion in China’s seventh-edition national protocol. Open-label means no blinding — read it with that in mind.
Human · Open-label
Exercise and recovery
The best-studied consumer-relevant area, and the one with the most randomised, placebo-controlled human data. Note these mostly use hydrogen-rich water, not inhalation.
Med Gas Res · 2012
Effects of drinking hydrogen-rich water on muscle fatigue caused by acute exercise in elite athletes
Aoki et al. The pilot that started this line of work. Lower blood lactate and less decline in muscle function after exercise. Ten athletes — treat it as a starting point, not a conclusion.
Human · n=10 · Pilot
Front Physiol · 2024
Hydrogen-rich water supplementation promotes muscle recovery after two strenuous sessions in elite fin swimmers
Randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover — the strongest design in this list. Lower creatine kinase, less muscle soreness, better jump height at 12 hours.
Human · RCT · Crossover
Front Physiol · 2024
Effects of 8 days intake of hydrogen-rich water on muscular endurance and fatigue recovery during resistance training
Eighteen trained men, 1,920 ml daily for seven days. Useful because it reports a realistic dose and duration rather than a laboratory one-off.
Human · RCT
Metabolic markers, and the honest result
We include this one specifically because most of its findings were not statistically significant. That is what the evidence looks like in this area.
Int J Endocrinol Metab
Effects of hydrogen-rich water on blood lipid profiles in metabolic disorders: systematic review and meta-analysis
Eight double-blind RCTs, 357 patients. Triglycerides, total cholesterol, HDL and LDL all shifted slightly — and most of those shifts did not reach statistical significance. A useful corrective to the marketing.
Meta-analysis · Mostly non-significant
bioRxiv preprint · 2021
Hydroxyl-radical scavenging activity of hydrogen does not significantly contribute to its biological function
The most important paper on this page. It argues the accepted mechanism — direct hydroxyl scavenging — cannot account for the observed effects at physiological concentrations. It is a preprint and not peer-reviewed, but if it holds, the explanation on our Science page is incomplete.
Preprint · Argues against the standard mechanism
We link the last one on purpose. A company confident in what it sells should be able to hand you the strongest argument against it.
Keep reading on your own
Independent sources that are not us.
Non-profit
Molecular Hydrogen Institute
Founded by Tyler LeBaron. Maintains a literature database and study index, and is openly critical of overstated industry claims. The best neutral starting point outside the journals.
Independent
Database
PubMed — search “molecular hydrogen therapy”
The US National Library of Medicine index. Free abstracts for essentially everything published. Filter by “Clinical Trial” and “Humans” to skip the animal work.
Primary source
Nature Communications · 2018
Local generation of hydrogen for enhanced photothermal therapy
He Qianjun et al. Where the field is heading — nanomaterials that release hydrogen at a target site rather than systemically. Not relevant to a wellness session, but worth seeing.
Frontier research
Still have questions?
Come to a seminar, or just book a free session and ask in person.