What Has Hydrogen To Do With The Gut Microbiome And Healthy Skin?

Hydrogen is the chemical element H2. We learned this in our chemistry lessons. But molecular hydrogen can also have an effect on the skin, because it acts as a selective antioxidant that neutralizes the most harmful free radicals in particular. How does this work? Jürgen Jansen, an expert in alternative methods of self-healing, explains in this article how hydrogen can be used on the skin.

Hydrogen and the skin. Where is the connection? Almost all of us are familiar with these changes on the face in form of wrinkles, spots or greasiness – typical symptoms of skin ageing associated with excessive reactive oxygen radicals. Frequent exposure to UV light also causes these symptoms. Basically, these are clear signals from the body that something is wrong. It is well known that our skin is our largest organ and acts as our first line of defense against environmental toxins. What not many people realize, however, is that the skin is in constant communication with the intestines.

Healthy skin starts on the inside

The gut-skin axis is formed via many bidirectional pathways. The structures and functions of the skin are very similar to those of the gut. An important communicator between the two is the immune system. There is increasing scientific evidence that the composition of, or damage to, the gut microbiome has an impact on the skin. Our gut microbiome naturally produces a high H2 concentration with butyrogenic bacteria, regulates this and also has an anti-inflammatory effect.

How can you improve your skin using molecular hydrogen?

There are many ways to do this – either bathing in H2 water, drinking H2 water, using an H2 shower or an H2 skin spray or even inhaling H2. Bathing in hydrogen-rich water is particularly popular in Japan. However, you must have a device that allows the H2 gas to remain in the water for a long time, as the molecular hydrogen escapes very quickly. In addition, it is recommended to use a towel soaked in H2 water with warm water, to use H2 water for inhalation and to drink H2 water.

The simplest option is to apply a nanospray of H2 water to the skin or to take an H2 shower every morning with hydrogen-rich water. It is important that the molecular hydrogen gets to the place where it is needed, which is why it is so important to use all application options in parallel. This can also be seen in pictures in a 2021 skin study from Japan.

Anti-ageing with hydrogen

Drinking molecular hydrogen water is also an anti-ageing agent that works from the inside. This can bring good long-term results via the gut-skin axis described above. Inhaling HHO (hydrogen-oxygen gas) will also improve the skin in the long term via the body’s regulatory mechanisms, similar to a change in diet. Molecular hydrogen is more comparable to food than to a drug or a form of therapy. Just as Hippocrates is said to have said: “Your medicine should be your food.”

Unfortunately, the food that is generally available today is no longer what it used to be. Depending on what we eat, we produce hydrogen ourselves via our intestinal bacteria. The food is metabolized in such a way that hydrogen is combined with oxygen in the mitochondria to produce energy. In the meantime, we need more of it because the demands are increasing and the nutrients that release the hydrogen into the mitochondria are decreasing.

This can be compensated for by adding hydrogen directly from the outside to make up for any nutritional deficits. In addition, we are also very stressed by emotional and psychological pressure and environmental toxins. It is not for nothing that the saying goes: “The skin is the mirror of the soul.”

The connection between skin and gut is far more important than we often realize. As our largest organ, the skin not only reflects external influences such as UV radiation or environmental toxins, but also reacts sensitively to the condition of our gut microbiome. The gut-skin axis shows how crucial a healthy microbiome is for radiant, vital skin. Molecular hydrogen plays a central role in this: it has an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effect and supports skin regeneration both internally and externally.

Whether through drinking hydrogen-rich water, inhalation, bathing or skin sprays – molecular hydrogen offers a wide range of applications. The decisive factor is regular and combined use to get the hydrogen to where it is needed. Studies show that this not only improves skin elasticity, but also enables long-term anti-ageing effects. Molecular hydrogen is not so much a therapy as a natural supplement that balances body and skin.