Editor’s Observe: 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 out there 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.
In consequence, you see enhancements in superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione ranges, for instance. Not solely does hydrogen selectively cut back essentially the most poisonous radicals, however it may 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 aspect within the DNA.
It then induces the transcription of additional cytoprotective enzymes akin to glutathione, superoxide dismutase catalase, glutathione peroxidase, section II enzymes, heme-1 oxygenase and plenty 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 injury from ischemia reperfusion and, as an antioxidant, has highly effective therapeutic functions. 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 usually 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 numerous 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 acquired 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 leap on a plate, whereas a few weeks earlier than I had the 54-inch plyometric leap. I used to be sleeping 16 to fifteen hours a day. I would go to sleep if I sat down for a few 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 large irritation occurring. He was additionally iron-deficient and anemic, regardless of consuming numerous crimson 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 principally 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 elements 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 …
Finally [I succeeded in making the tablets]. I failed a pair thousand instances … I used to be studying numerous 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 laborious 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.
Often while you’re shopping for a magnesium, it is a salt … [Metallic magnesium] is reactive — it is nonionic, elemental magnesium … It’s extremely hazardous to deal with in manufacturing. Now we have very, very managed manufacturing.
Nevertheless it’s a really secure pill. So, our hydrogen pill shouldn’t be HAZMAT (hazardous materials). It is not explosive. It is not flammable. However it’ll 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 … After 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 reputable function for these things.”
Poor High quality Hydrogen Tablets Might 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 means of 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 metallic ranges. You want 16 tablets a day to hit the edge for California Proposition 65, which is about 10 instances stricter than the pharmaceutical rules on it, which is even a number of instances stricter than some rules … For complement rules, I feel you possibly can 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 below no publication settlement.
Now we have 5 publications already in three years … Now we have seven extra which might be underway and 6 within the starting stage which might be ending up their ethics approvals and protocols. And we have now 4 outstanding universities conducting rodent trials utilizing our tablets.
In complete, we’re now working with 9 or 10 public universities around the globe to additional the analysis and help in any means we will, as a result of we need to know extra about the way it works, what dose needs to be used and when it needs to be taken. The information is beginning to come out. Issues are positively rising. Increased dose, increased focus and intermittent pulse appears to be the most effective for people.”
The Downside with Molecular Hydrogen Water Turbines
Earlier than molecular hydrogen tablets, one of the generally used methods to generate molecular hydrogen water was by means of the usage of water ionizers that purport to make hydrogen.
Nevertheless, they will not work except you have got complete dissolved solids (TDS) akin to minerals within the water. You can not use reverse osmosis or distilled water. They may even cease working as soon as the plates used to separate the water get calcified from the TDS. Tarnava explains:
“What finally ends up taking place is that they’ll nonetheless make hydrogen, but it surely would not dissolve as a result of the bubbles are too massive. It will 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, after they’re utilizing pure fuel to dissolve by means of 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 simpler it’s to dissolve.
What I discovered is while you even go into the low nano vary, you’ll be able to quasi-dissolve this cloud of fuel that does not totally 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 numerous 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 rather more hydrogen mice are consuming per physique weight than people.
Once you take a 25-gram mouse and convert it to an 80-kilogram individual (that is 176 kilos for American viewers; that is the typical weight of the American), that individual would wish 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 you want to increase your mobile concentrations of hydrogen. If you happen to’re solely ingesting half a liter or a liter a day, then you want to [raise] the focus to get that correct dosage.”
Pulsing and Dosing
Molecular hydrogen is greatest taken cyclically or pulsed. If you happen to take it constantly — say you are ingesting hydrogen water all day lengthy — the impact appears to dissipate and may truly vanish altogether.
As famous by Tarnava, your physique naturally produces about 10 liters (L) of hydrogen fuel every day by means of 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 while you take a look at the mobile response between ingestion and inhalation, ingesting 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 these items, [because the data shows] after they’ve given steady fuel administration, and continually 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 essential for optimum advantages.
Once 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 unexpectedly. If it is an excessive amount of, you’ll be able to 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 superb dose. In essence, you are getting a better focus of hydrogen, however at a decrease dose. The issue with that is that the results are usually not linear, and easily elevating the focus however decreasing the dose is not going to present you’ll the total results.
Find out how to Drink Your Hydrogen for Finest Outcomes
So, for greatest outcomes, place two to 3 tablets in 1 liter (about 32 ounces) of water and drink all of it within the morning. This will provide you with a really sturdy pulse, which is able to produce higher outcomes than a decrease pulse twice a day.
Needless to say as soon as the tablets are totally dissolved and the water has turned white — which might take anyplace from 30 seconds to a few minutes, relying on the temperature of the water — you will need to drink it as quick as doable. Room temperature water is greatest, permitting the tablets to dissolve in about 90 seconds.
Between 45 and 90 seconds, the water may have a steady 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 quicker you drink it the higher. Nevertheless, even should you 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 hundreds of {dollars}.
As an added bonus, you are additionally getting extremely out there magnesium — about 80 mg of elemental magnesium per pill, which matches straight to the place magnesium is required. The fundamental magnesium doesn’t dissipate, so that you’re getting that even should you 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 in a position to make a pill that supplied 3 ppm in half a liter of water, his shoulder unfroze and the arthritis in his hip eased.
“I used to be ingesting 1 liter within the morning, 1 liter within the afternoon and 1 liter earlier than mattress. Then I began getting a bit of 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 one in all my thermoses blew up in my fridge.”
The rationale for it’s 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 feel that is actually what units us aside,” he says. “That is the idea of most of our IP and what we have executed. And it was an accident. We did not do it on function … Our preliminary purpose was to get 3 to 4 ppm in half a liter in below 5 minutes in a sealed container …
However each time we would unseal these fast-reacting tablets, the water went white. This is able to 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 a couple of months, it simply dawned on me, ‘Why are we combating this? We’re getting increased ranges by doing this … I ponder how we would do in an open cup?’
It was increased. It was below two minutes at the moment … It actually did not make sense. Lastly, after we did it within the open cup and we replicated it again and again, it nonetheless did not make sense. I contacted Tyler LeBaron [a molecular hydrogen expert]. I instructed him what we had been engaged on. He mentioned, ‘I do not consider 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 means of 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 information — 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 one 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 in all probability performed a task as nicely, seeing how he was solely sleeping about 4 hours — half of the really helpful 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 every week each week. Each fourth, I am pushing it to 72 [hours]. I dropped 40 kilos from February to August.”
This brings up an essential level: Whereas molecular hydrogen is a improbable complement — I take it each day — it is not a magic bullet by itself. It must be built-in with different components of a wholesome way of life. Tarnava was not doing that originally. Now that he is sleeping extra and doing time-restricted consuming, and a few longer fasting as nicely, 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 injury somebody has, usually, the extra outstanding hydrogen is working to carry them again to homeostatic perform.
However on prime 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 principally carry restoration quicker.
On this actually managed rat research, the rats had increased stress, had been swimming longer. However as their stress spiked extra, their redox regulated quicker and their irritation was blunted. A very cool article I simply learn this weekend [showed] … it considerably improved train efficiency.
However what was attention-grabbing is it considerably lowered insulin-like development issue 1 (IGF-1), whereas train raises IGF-1. [The rats] carried out higher, however they’d 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 affect. If you are going to undergo oxidative stress, akin to flying domestically throughout the nation, for instance, you will need to take it a number of hours and even days beforehand.
The rationale for it’s because it has to undergo the method of activating your antioxidant genes. Tarnava additionally recommends biking your use of hydrogen as a way to maintain its effectiveness. He explains:
“As an illustration, 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 yr, that issues began seizing again up once more. After I get a wash-out interval and alter [the dosage] … I recuperate 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 a better focus or a decrease dosage. Different instances, I train 5 – 6 days every 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 most important profit for train … particularly on coronary heart price and modifying coronary heart price.”
Molecular Hydrogen Is a Highly effective Well being Assist
In line with 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.
In actual fact, hydrogen is proven to profit just about each organ of the human physique, and the rationale for it’s because hydrogen truly targets and mitigates the basis causes of irritation and oxidation.
As talked about in the beginning, hydrogen has the power 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, medical research have proven molecular hydrogen successfully prevents liver injury (fatty liver) brought on by a high-sugar food regimen and metabolic syndrome.2,3 Animal analysis4 counsel hydrogen may very well induce GLUT4 translocation by the same mechanism as insulin.
To be taught extra about molecular hydrogen, try the Molecular Hydrogen Institute’s web site. There, you will discover analysis, video lectures and quite a lot of different sources, together with a lot of totally different certifications for these excited about working with and administering molecular hydrogen.
