Diabetes
Studies on blood sugar, insulin sensitivity and diabetic complications. The robust human evidence here is limited: only a few small, mostly short human studies exist — including three randomized controlled trials and some pilot and observational studies — supplemented by reviews and preclinical investigations in animal and cell models.
The studies mainly examined hydrogen-rich water (HRW) and, in individual cases, inhalation of H₂ gas, mostly in impaired glucose tolerance or type 2 diabetes. Endpoints included fasting blood sugar, HbA1c, insulin sensitivity as well as blood lipid values. Early works report favorable changes in individual metabolic and lipid markers, others find no clear effects.
Overall the results are inconsistent and, owing to small participant numbers and short durations, only preliminary. They do not permit any statement about a therapeutic benefit in diabetes; molecular hydrogen is no substitute for guideline-based treatment.
Human studies on molecular hydrogen for Diabetes. This page collects the 36 studies catalogued in this area — 3 randomized trials, 8 pilot/observational studies and 14 reviews. Listed newest first.
2026 · Seneff — The essential role of hydrogen gas recycling by gut microbes in reducing deuterium load in host mitochondria: is trimethylamine oxide a deuterium sensor?
This hypothesis paper proposes that the gut microbiome's recycling of molecular hydrogen plays a role in keeping mitochondria supplied with deuterium-depleted water — and that TMAO (a gut-derived metabolite elevated in many chronic diseases) may function as a marker for impaired deuterium management.
2025 · Bjørklund — Advanced Glycation End Products and Skin Autoimmune Disorders: Pathogenic Insights into Vitiligo, Bullous Pemphigoid, and Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus
Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) — toxic compounds formed under high blood sugar — trigger oxidative stress and autoimmune responses that can cause skin diseases such as vitiligo and bullous pemphigoid in Type 1 Diabetes.
2024 · Tsuzuki — Idiopathic Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss: A Review Focused on the Contribution of Vascular Pathologies
Idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss (ISSNHL) — an abrupt hearing loss of unknown cause, sometimes with vertigo — is believed to be primarily driven by vascular impairment of the inner ear, including cochlear ischemia and infarction.
2020 · Kawamura et al. — Application of Molecular Hydrogen as a Novel Antioxidant in Sports Science
This review surveys the evidence on molecular hydrogen (H₂) intake and exercise, covering all administration routes and focusing on exercise-induced oxidative stress.
2019 · Qian — Medical Application of Hydrogen in Hematological Diseases.
This review article surveys the clinical and basic research on molecular hydrogen in haematological diseases, including graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) after stem cell transplantation, and summarises H₂'s established antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-apoptotic properties.
2018 · Zhang — Hydrogen Therapy in Cardiovascular and Metabolic Diseases: from Bench to Bedside
This review summarises a decade of H₂ research in cardiovascular and metabolic diseases — from animal models to early clinical trials.
2016 · Zheng — Molecular Hydrogen Therapy Ameliorates Organ Damage Induced by Sepsis
This review summarises animal-based evidence suggesting that molecular hydrogen can reduce inflammatory cytokine release, oxidative stress, and organ damage in sepsis models, improving survival rates across brain, lung, liver, kidney, and intestinal tissues.
2015 · Ostojic — Molecular hydrogen in sports medicine: new therapeutic perspectives.
Molecular hydrogen (H₂) may offer a novel approach for addressing exercise-induced oxidative stress and sports injuries, with potential to also improve exercise performance.
2013 · Takaki — Multiple hits, including oxidative stress, as pathogenesis and treatment target in non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH)
Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) progresses through multiple simultaneous pathways — including insulin resistance, gut microbiota, and oxidative stress — and conventional antioxidants have failed in long-term trials because they act non-selectively.
2013 · Lucas — Role of the Toll Like receptor (TLR) radical cycle in chronic inflammation: possible treatments targeting the TLR4 pathway
Activation of the Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) pathway — triggered by environmental factors such as ozone, particulate matter, ionizing radiation, and LPS from bacteria — may underlie a wide spectrum of chronic inflammatory and neuropsychiatric diseases.
2012 · Ohno et al. — Molecular hydrogen as an emerging therapeutic medical gas for neurodegenerative and other diseases.
This review surveys the research on molecular hydrogen (H₂) across 63 disease models and human diseases documented in the four and a half years after the landmark 2007 Nature Medicine paper.
2011 · Noda et al. — The principle and the potential approach to ROS-dependent cytotoxicity by non-pharmaceutical therapies: optimal use of medical gases with antioxidant properties.
Oxidative stress and reactive oxygen species (ROS) are implicated in many major diseases including inflammation, diabetes, glaucoma, cancer, ischemia, and neurodegeneration.
2024 · Dawson — Early time-restricted eating improves markers of cardiometabolic health but has no impact on intestinal nutrient absorption in healthy adults.
Eating only between 08:00 and 14:00 (early time-restricted eating, eTRE) improved blood glucose regulation in healthy adults — but left gut function completely untouched.
2018 · Korovljev — Molecular Hydrogen Affects Body Composition, Metabolic Profiles, and Mitochondrial Function in Middle-Aged Overweight Women
A double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover pilot trial in 10 overweight women found that hydrogen-generating mineral caplets significantly reduced body fat percentage and triglycerides while improving fasting insulin levels — without affecting body weight or BMI.
2026 · Xu et al. — Hydrogen-Enriched Hyaluronic Acid Dressing Ameliorates Diabetic Foot Ulcer via Promoting Mitophagy
A hyaluronic acid dressing enriched with molecular hydrogen accelerated wound healing in diabetic foot ulcer patients and, in parallel laboratory experiments, activated the cellular „self-cleaning“ programme for damaged mitochondria (mitophagy).
2025 · Misnikova et al. — Hydrogen and Methane Detection in Breath in Response to Two Different Types of Dietary Fiber and Its Relationship to Postprandial Glucose Concentration in Obese Patients with Type 2 Diabetes and Normoglycemic Subjects
This study reveals a striking difference in gut-produced H₂ between people with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and metabolically healthy controls.
2025 · Lin et al. — Molecular Hydrogen as a Potential Adjunctive Therapy to Improve Renal Function and Reduce Fatigue in an Elderly Patient With Chronic Comorbidities: A Case Report
An 89-year-old woman with coronary artery disease, type 2 diabetes with nephropathy, and SLE — presenting with recurrent wound infection — showed improved renal function and reduced chronic fatigue after adjuvant hydrogen capsule therapy.
2022 · Zhao — Effectiveness and safety of hydrogen inhalation as an adjunct treatment in Chinese type 2 diabetes patients: A retrospective, observational, double-arm, real-life clinical study
Hydrogen inhalation as an adjunct improved blood sugar control in type 2 diabetes. In a large real-life study (n = 1,088), over 6 months the H₂ group lowered long-term blood sugar HbA1c more (−0.94% vs.
2020 · Asada et al. — Effects of hydrogen-rich water prepared by alternating-current-electrolysis on antioxidant activity, DNA oxidative injuries, and diabetes-related markers.
Hydrogen-rich water produced by alternating-current (AC) electrolysis — reaching nearly the theoretical maximum H₂ concentration of 1.55 mg/L — showed promising effects on blood glucose markers and systemic DNA oxidative damage in nine people with elevated diabetes-related serum markers over eight weeks.
2015 · Tamasawa et al. — Hydrogen gas production is associated with reduced interleukin-1β mRNA in peripheral blood after a single dose of acarbose in Japanese type 2 diabetic patients.
In 16 type 2 diabetic patients, a single dose of the glucose-lowering drug acarbose did not significantly increase breath H₂ compared to no treatment — but the individual change in H₂ production was inversely associated with the change in blood IL-1β mRNA, suggesting a link between gut-produced H₂ and anti-inflammatory signaling.
2014 · Makiyama et al. — Do alpha-glucosidase inhibitors have the potential to induce portal venous gas? — Two clinical case reports.
This case report describes two diabetic patients who developed portal venous gas after starting alpha-glucosidase inhibitor (α-GI) therapy.
2011 · Tachibe et al. — Digestibility, Fermentability, and Energy Value of Highly Cross-Linked Phosphate Tapioca Starch in Men
This study measures breath hydrogen to assess gut fermentation of a modified tapioca starch — it is a food science/nutrition study, not an H₂ therapy trial.
2025 · Wang — Hierarchical ROS-scavenging platform breaks vicious cycle of stem cell senescence, angiogenesis arrest, and immune dysregulation in diabetic wounds.
Diabetic chronic wounds are driven by a self-reinforcing cycle of oxidative stress, stem cell ageing, impaired blood-vessel growth, and immune imbalance.
2025 · Yu — Protective Effects of Hydrogen Treatment Against High Glucose-Induced Oxidative Stress and Apoptosis via Inhibition of the AGEs/RAGE/NF-κB Signaling Pathway in Skin Cells.
In cell culture, molecular hydrogen protected human skin cells (keratinocytes and fibroblasts) against the oxidative stress and cell death caused by high glucose or advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) — compounds that accumulate in diabetic tissue.
2024 · Xu — Poly(ionic liquid)-Flocculated Chlorella Loading Bactericidal and Antioxidant Hydrogel as a Biological Hydrogen Therapy for Diabetic Wound Dressing.
A hydrogel wound dressing that uses living algae to continuously produce H₂ on-site was engineered and tested on infected diabetic wounds in cell and animal models.
2022 · Chen et al. — Photocatalytic Glucose Depletion and Hydrogen Generation for Diabetic Wound Healing
Researchers engineered hydrogen-incorporated titanium oxide nanorods that, under visible light, simultaneously deplete glucose and generate molecular hydrogen (H₂) at diabetic wound sites — addressing both the hyperglycaemic microenvironment and chronic inflammation.
2021 · Marzullo et al. — Ammonium Formate-Pd/C as a New Reducing System for 1,2,4-Oxadiazoles: Synthesis of Guanidine Derivatives and Reductive Rearrangement to Quinazolin-4-Ones with Potential Anti-Diabetic Activity
This is an organic chemistry study describing a new laboratory synthesis method for heterocyclic compounds with potential anti-diabetic activity.
2020 · Liu — Effect of thermal treatments on in vitro starch digestibility of sorghum dried noodles.
This food science study investigates how roasting, microwave treatment, stir-frying, and heat-moisture treatment (HMT) of sorghum grains affect the starch digestibility and glycemic index of dried sorghum noodles.
2020 · Jiao — Protective effects of hydrogen-rich saline against experimental diabetic peripheral neuropathy via activation of the mitochondrial ATP-sensitive potassium channel in rats.
In streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats, hydrogen-rich saline injected intraperitoneally for four weeks reduced behavioural, biochemical, and molecular markers of diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN), with effects partially mediated through mitochondrial ATP-sensitive potassium (Mito-K-ATP) channels.
2016 · Zhang — How the Imidazole Ring Modulates Amyloid Formation of Islet Amyloid Polypeptide: A Chemical Modification Study
This in-vitro biochemistry study investigated the role of a specific amino acid (histidine-18) in the misfolding of islet amyloid polypeptide (hIAPP), a protein linked to type 2 diabetes.
2014 · Nazreen et al. — Thiazolidine-2,4-diones derivatives as PPAR-γ agonists: synthesis, molecular docking, in vitro and in vivo antidiabetic activity with hepatotoxicity risk evaluation.
This in-vitro and animal pharmacology study synthesised new thiazolidinedione-chromone compounds as potential antidiabetic agents — using hydrogen gas as a chemical reducing agent in the synthesis process, not as a therapeutic substance.
2013 · Alexandrescu — Amide proton solvent protection in amylin fibrils probed by quenched hydrogen exchange NMR.
This structural biology study used hydrogen-deuterium exchange NMR spectroscopy to map the secondary structure of amylin (a hormone that forms amyloid plaques in type 2 diabetes) inside protein fibrils.
2011 · Yu — Hydrogen-Rich Medium Protects Human Skin Fibroblasts from High Glucose or Mannitol Induced Oxidative Damage
In human skin fibroblasts stressed with high glucose or mannitol — models of diabetic oxidative stress — a hydrogen-rich culture medium significantly reduced intracellular superoxide, stabilised mitochondrial membrane potential, and lowered markers of DNA and protein oxidation damage.