How does hydrogen control cancer？

The effect of hydrogen on cancer was studied as early as 1975. At that time, high-pressure hydrogen was used, which did not attract the attention of the medical community until 2007 when Japanese scholars discovered the biological effect of hydrogen: neutralizing toxic free radicals. In 2018, Professor Xu Kecheng used hydrogen inhalation as an adjuvant therapy for tumors and achieved remarkable results. Professor Xu Kecheng summarized the effects of hydrogen molecules on cancer mainly in the following aspects:

 

1. The effect of hydrogen molecules on cancer: Relieve cancer fatigue. Anyone will have fatigue, but cancer patients are more prone to fatigue. Cancer fatigue is different from ordinary fatigue. Even if you have a good sleep, you still feel tired. No matter how determined you are to cheer up, it is difficult to fight against the lingering fatigue. The impact of fatigue on the quality of life of cancer patients exceeds the sum of nausea, depression and pain. For improving cancer fatigue, traditional measures are either ineffective or have many adverse reactions, which are difficult for patients to tolerate. Are there any measures that can produce effects, can be widely used, and have no side effects? Perhaps hydrogen therapy meets the above requirements.

 

2. Hydrogen molecules can fight against peroxide free radicals in the body. It is now recognized that the accumulation of peroxide free radicals, i.e. reactive oxygen species, is a central factor causing fatigue. This is a remarkable research result in recent years. Regarding peroxide free radicals, hydrogen molecules (H2) have the following effects: (1) Directly reduce hydroxyl free radicals. (2) Directly reduce peroxynitrite and regulate gene expression. Hydrogen molecules can remove another strong free radical, ONOO-. (3) Regulate gene expression and indirectly reduce oxidative stress. Hydrogen can improve peroxidation damage in an Nrf2-dependent manner.

 

3. Hydrogen molecules can eliminate inflammation. Inflammatory pathway activation has been considered to be the basis for persistent fatigue in cancer patients. Fatigue usually begins during cancer treatment. Chemotherapy and surgery can induce inflammatory responses. In patients who are actively receiving treatment, an increase in inflammatory markers is associated with an increase in their fatigue level. In cancer survivors, elevated levels of inflammatory markers have been observed despite the cessation of cancer treatment, and there is a correlation between them and the degree of fatigue.

Hydrogen molecules can reduce the expression of biological factors that promote inflammation and play an anti-inflammatory role. There are many pro-inflammatory factors, including NF-κB, TNF-α, interleukin (IL) -1β, IL-6, IL-10, IL-12, CCL2 and interferon (INF) -γ, ICAM-1, PGE2 and PGE2. Korean scholars studied the effect of hydrogen-rich water on the chronic fatigue mouse model and found that compared with the control group that took pure water orally, the inflammatory factors in the hydrogen group, serum TNF-α, IL-6, IL-17, and intrahepatic IL-1β were significantly reduced. Inflammation can be infectious inflammation caused by infection or non-infectious inflammation not caused by infection. Usually, acute inflammation is beneficial and is an automatic defense response of the human body, but chronic inflammation is often harmful and can cause many chronic diseases, especially cancer. Cancer cells are normal cells that are traitors formed by gene mutations during replication under the influence of their own genetic defects or microenvironment. The number of cancer cells produced = the number of cell divisions x the number of mutated genes produced in each division. Because of inflammation, organ cell damage will increase, the number of cell divisions will increase, and the occurrence of cell mutations will also increase, and the formation of cancer cells will increase. Controlling inflammation helps control cancer.

The mechanism of hydrogen's anti-inflammatory effect was found in the study of brain injury models, and hydrogen can reduce the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines; using the animal model of systemic inflammatory response induced by yeast polysaccharide, it was found that inhaling hydrogen can reduce multi-organ damage and improve the survival rate of mice. This effect is mainly due to its reduction of serum oxidative damage products, tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α) production, and the reduction of the level of pro-inflammatory cytokine HMGB1; cell and animal experiments have confirmed that hydrogen can inhibit the phosphorylation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), reduce the expression of factors such as amino-terminal kinase (JNK), and prevent phosphorylated ERK from shifting from the cytoplasm to the nucleus, thereby reducing the expression of inflammatory mediators and alleviating inflammatory response; in the study of ischemia-reperfusion renal injury, it was also found that hydrogen can reverse the expression of many inflammation-related factors after reperfusion injury, thereby exerting a renal protective effect. Regardless of the mechanism, it seems that hydrogen can play a role in inhibiting tumor occurrence, progression and metastasis by exerting anti-inflammatory effects and reducing the release of inflammatory factors. Of course, this requires more in-depth experimental research to confirm.

 

4. Hydrogen molecules have neuroprotective effects and improve sleep. Cancer patients often have circadian rhythm disorders and sleep disorders before, during and after treatment. This abnormality is also a factor that causes cancer fatigue.

Hydrogen molecules can improve sleep, in addition to eliminating chronic low-grade inflammation as mentioned above, but also due to its direct neuroprotective effect. There is a special connection between the stomach and the brain, called the stomach-brain axis. Inhaled hydrogen activates the expression of b-adrenergic receptors, induces the stomach to release plasma ghrelin, activates the growth hormone secretagogue receptor (GHSR) in the brain, promotes growth hormone production, plays a neuroprotective role, thereby maintaining a normal circadian rhythm and improving sleep.

 

5. The effect of hydrogen inhalation on cancer: inhibiting cancer cells Hydrogen molecules can inhibit cancer cells, which is generally believed to be due to their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. The most powerful and toxic oxidants in the body are •OH and ONOO-, which can act on nucleic acids, lipids and proteins, causing DNA damage, lipid peroxidation and protein denaturation. Smoking, air pollution, chemicals, mental stress, inflammation, etc., by inducing these peroxidants, promote cell mutations and trigger cancer cell formation. Hydrogen is a specific scavenger of these two oxidants. Only neutralizing these toxic active oxygen species without affecting active oxygen species such as oxygen, nitric oxide, and hydrogen peroxide that have effects on the body is the concept of hydrogen selective antioxidant. Some people in Japan say that hydrogen is effective for 67 diseases; an American scholar published an article saying that hydrogen molecules can improve at least 170 unhealthy conditions and diseases; another American expert said that among the top ten causes of death in the United States, except for suicide and traffic accidents, hydrogen can improve them.

 

6. The effect of hydrogen inhalation on cancer: Lung protection Hydrogen can "protect" the lungs and has the effect of improving and preventing lung damage. The characteristics of hydrogen lung protection are: First, hydrogen has a strong diffusion ability. Hydrogen has a small molecular weight and can easily penetrate the biological membrane and enter the cytoplasm, mitochondria and cell nucleus. The lungs are the organs closest to the external environment, and hydrogen is more likely to enter the lungs; second, hydrogen has a selective antioxidant effect. Hydrogen molecules can selectively react with free radicals hydroxyl and peroxynitrite without reducing other reactive oxygen species related to cell signaling (such as H2O2), so they will not affect the normal metabolic oxidation-reduction reaction in the body, nor will they affect the gas exchange of the lungs themselves; third, hydrogen has strong biocompatibility. The tissue compatibility of hydrogen molecules is higher than that of other antioxidants, which is particularly important for delicate tissues such as the lungs, and will not harm lung tissue; fourth, hydrogen is particularly safe. So far, there is no evidence that hydrogen is harmful to the human body. Data on hydrogen biosafety published by the EU and US governments show that hydrogen has no acute or chronic toxicity to the human body under normal pressure. In December 2014, the National Health Commission issued the national standard for hydrogen as a food additive, GB31633-2014 "National Food Safety Standard Food Additive Hydrogen" Fifth, the lungs have abundant blood flow. Whether inhaled or injected with a solution containing hydrogen, hydrogen can quickly penetrate the lung tissue and enter the whole body, which is extremely helpful in improving the body's overall condition; sixth, the high concentration of hydrogen may have a stronger effect.

 

7. Effect of hydrogen inhalation on cancer: Transforming cancer cells and microenvironment Studies have shown that hydrogen molecules can inhibit cancer cell proliferation and movement, and promote cancer cell degeneration and apoptosis. Animals with axillary tumors were given hydrogen (H2) (6 hours a day) or nitrogen (N2) and the tumor formation was observed weekly. It was found that the animals that inhaled hydrogen formed tumors very slowly and the tumors were smaller, indicating that hydrogen inhibited tumor growth. The researchers further conducted cell culture experiments to compare the growth status of cancer cells under normal gas and hydrogen-containing gas conditions. It was found that under hydrogen-containing conditions, cancer cell proliferation slowed down, movement slowed down, and degeneration and apoptosis occurred. In 1975, American scholars Dole and others published an article in the journal Science, reporting that continuous breathing of 97.5% hydrogen at 8 atmospheres effectively inhibited skin squamous cell carcinoma, and proposed for the first time that molecular hydrogen inhibited tumor growth through antioxidant effects. Japanese scholars found that giving cirrhotic animals hydrogen water to prevent liver cancer. Treating tongue cancer cells with hydrogen water found that cancer cell growth was inhibited. Scholars from Shanghai Jiaotong University have found that hydrogen can inhibit intestinal cancer in animals by regulating the redox microenvironment and interfering with the expression of genes related to cancer cell proliferation, thereby promoting cancer cell apoptosis and inhibiting cancer cell proliferation. Hydrogen molecules have been proven to be a selective, non-toxic, residue-free, and extremely cheap antioxidant. In the "elimination" and "transformation" of Chinese cancer control, hydrogen molecules appear to play a role in transforming cancer cells and microenvironments.