Mitobiogenesis by Hydrogen
- Thomas P Seager, PhD
- Aug 2
- 7 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
Summary
Hydrogen is produced naturally via fermentation of soluble fiber in the colon, but few Americans don't have the gut microbiome and the diet that will support hydrogen production.
Hydrogen in the bloodstream will signal mitobiogenesis and boost mitochondrial dynamics, which explains the incredible health benefits of hydrogen therapy.
There are four routes for dosing hydrogen: 1) drinking, 2) breathing, 3) injection, and 4) bathing.
The Morozko Hydrogen Mineral Skinny Bath is a new product offering. Smaller and less expensive than the two-person Mineral Bath, the Skinny is sized to fit through a standard 32" wide home doorway.
Hydrogen's Incredible Health Benefits
In my podcast interview with George Wiseman, he described the tremendous health benefits he's experience since starting a regular practice of hydrogen gas inhalation. Wiseman invented a machine called AquaCure that produces a hydrogen-enriched air stream from the electrolysis of water. He began drinking water infused with hydrogen around 2005 and reported not getting sick since.
His claims of health benefits sound incredulous:
Healing/improving psoriasis (skin peeling to reveal smooth skin).
Restoring libido (which he says helped him recover from grief).
Stronger immune function.
Broader benefits reported by users, including improvements in Parkinson’s symptoms, ALS, lupus, stage-4 cancer cases, scars, warts, and general vitality/anti-aging effects.
Bubbling the gas into water dramatically accelerated plant growth (e.g., radishes 4× faster, strawberries 10×) and fish growth.
One user reportedly resolved a melanoma with topical application of hydrogen-bubbled water.
Although pharmaceutical thinking would deny that any therapy could possibly exhibit such broad and powerful benefits, there is one mechanisms through hydrogen could act that can explain all of them.
The mitochondria (Zhang et al. 2023).
Hydrogen Regulates Mitochondrial Dynamics
The early work on hydrogen therapy speculated that the anti-oxidant properties of the gas must be the mechanism by which hydrogen provides health benefits. However, I now think that's mostly wrong.
Increasingly, the evidence indicates that hydrogen is not directly neutralizing reactive oxygen species (ROS) within the mitochondria -- it is signaling the production of new mitochondria. A number of recent studies have revealed that hydrogen improves mitochondrial dynamics and upregulates the processes that govern mitophagy (removal of damaged mitochondria) and mitobiogenesis -- i.e., production of new, healthy mitochondria (Cui et al 2024 [mice], Luo et al. 2022 [rats]). In other words, the presence of hydrogen in the bloodstream is likely a hormetic stressor that causes the body to respond by boosting mitochondrial function, thereby boosting every health function including the immune system, sexual function, eliminating cancer, and modifying autoimmune disorders.
Natural Hydrogen in the Body
Hydrogen occurs naturally in a healthy human body -- but is not always in abundance. Because hydrogen is a product of fermentation of fiber in the colon, it is produced by the gut microbiome only under certain conditions.
The microbial community in the gut must be healthy and capable of fermentation, and
The diet must contain sufficient soluble fiber to feed the fermenting microorganisms in the colon.
Before agriculture, it's likely that humans mostly ate fish, shellfish, other animals, and fruits or berries when they were in season. None of these foods particularly lend themselves to fermentation in the colon. However, when fishing or hunting was scarce, humans must have incorporated more plants into their diets, including tubers, seeds, nuts, and flowers. These are exactly the types of foods that provide the hydrogenogens with the metabolic substrate they require.
Modern human beings living in industrialized countries are unlikely to have both the right population of gut microbiome and the diet that would encourage production of hydrogen, and consequently we rarely would experience periods of hydrogenesis. By contrast, our ancient ancestors likely experienced poor hunting outcomes periodically, or seasonally, in ways that would put their guts into fermentation on a regular basis. These periods would be the tough times, when our ancestors could not obtain their preferred foods, and instead had to make do digging up yams or gathering and detoxifying nuts and seeds to survive.
For example, cassava (also known as manioc, yuca, or tapioca root) is a starchy root vegetable and a major staple food for hundreds of millions of people, especially in Africa, Latin America, and parts of Asia. Raw or improperly prepared cassava can release hydrogen cyanide, which can cause acute poisoning or, with chronic exposure, conditions like konzo (a neurological disorder). To eat cassava, it must be detoxification by peeling, soaking or fermenting in water, pressing out the liquids, drying, and cooking. Cashews, acorns, and almonds similarly contain toxins that must be removed by processing before they are fit for human consumption. It's unlikely that our ancient ancestors would go through the trouble when they could have salmon roe, honey, or animal fat instead. However, during times of scarcity, they would likely turn to these foods, unconsciously creating exactly the type of hormetic stressor that could stimulate rejuvenation of the mitochondria.
What better way to prepare the body to survive a hardship diet than to boost function in the very organelles most responsible for converting food energy into ATP?
Dosing Hydrogen
Rather than spend two weeks living on detoxified roots and nuts, modern human beings seeking the mitochondrial benefits of hydrogen therapy should consider alternative dosing methods. There are four: 1) drinking hydrogen water, 2) breathing hydrogen gas, 3) injecting hydrogen-infused saline, or 4) transdermal absorption of hydrogen. In the table below, I've described the advantages and disadvantages of each.
Method | Advantages | Disadvantages |
oral - drinking hydrogen water |
|
|
breath - hydrogen gas |
|
|
injection of H2 infused saline |
|
|
bathing |
|
|
The only place that these occur in Nature are in the rare places that natural hot springs that are infused by hydrogen or hydrogen sulfide gas. These types of natural sites have typically been highly prized for thousands of years. Wherever they have been discovered, they have been celebrated for their healthful and restorative benefits -- even without a molecular or mechanistic understanding of their modes of action. Nonetheless, it is easy to imagine how bathing, breathing, or even drinking the natural hydrogen-infused waters of a hot spring would restor our ancient ancestors and cure their ailments. It's no wonder humankind has always sought out these sites.
Morozko Hydrogen Mineral Bath
In the Morozko Mineral Bath Fixes What's Wrong With Hot Tubs I wrote about what distinguishes Morozko from every hot tub available on the American market. What I didn't do well enough was describe the importance of the hydrogen mode. The purpose of this article is to correct that oversight, and introduce you to a compelling case study that helps illustrate the critical difference in health made by transdermal absorption of hydrogen via the water.
Peter M took delivery of his Mineral Bath a few weeks ago and he recently wrote to me to describe his experience. Now in his 90's, Peter was taking the medication his Medical Doctor prescribed to relieve his constant pain. Instead of living his remaining years in a medicated haze, he bought a Morozko Mineral Bath so he could soak in hydrogen & mineral enriched water. After fewer than a half dozen hydrogen sessions, he quit all his pain meds.
This is what he wrote:
Your mineral bath is a great invention. For many months I have been under doctors medical treatments for pain, in my legs, with me taking medication and often pain killers at night. I was pleasantly surprised, that after 4-5 treatments --under water massage in your mineral bath, at a temperature of 103-104 degrees, the pain completely disappeared. I have not taken the prescribed medicine and pain killers now for over three weeks. I also note that I have more energy. At early morning and before retiring to bed at night, 15-20 minutes in the mineral bath is a wonderful thing to do. Please feel free to share this information with others, as you wish.
Mineral Skinny Bath
The principal disadvantage of the Hydrogen Mineral Bath is that it's very large and very expensive. To overcome those obstacles and make the bath more accessible, Morozko is introducing a new at-home bath using a smaller, one-person tub. This version, called the Hydrogen Mineral Skinny Bath is less expensive and sized to fit through a standard 32" home doorway.
Skinny Mineral Bath has all the same technology that the full-size tub has:
chlorine-free ozone disinfection
warrantied for Morozko Minerals
grounded to Earth
104F operating temperature
Hydrogen mode, for stimulating mitobiogenesis
For those customers who cannot, or will not, get into an ice bath, the hydrogen mode in Mineral Bath will provide the same mitochondrial boost that heretofore has only been available with ice. We think there are probably a lot more customers like Peter out there who could benefit, but don't have the room for the full two-person tub in the larger Mineral Bath.
Are you one of them?
References
Cui Y, Meng S, Zhang N, Liu J, Zheng L, Ma W, Song Y, Wang Z, Shen Y, Liu J, Xie K. High‐concentration hydrogen inhalation mitigates sepsis‐associated encephalopathy in mice by improving mitochondrial dynamics. CNS Neuroscience & Therapeutics. 2024 Sep;30(9):e70021.
Luo M, Lu J, Li C, Wen B, Chu W, Dang X, Zhang Y, An G, Wang J, Fan R, Chen X. Hydrogen improves exercise endurance in rats by promoting mitochondrial biogenesis. Genomics. 2022 Nov 1;114(6):110523.
Zhang X, Xie F, Ma S, Ma C, Jiang X, Yi Y, Song Y, Liu M, Zhao P, Ma X. Mitochondria: one of the vital hubs for molecular hydrogen’s biological functions. Frontiers in cell and developmental biology. 2023 Nov 7;11:1283820.
About the Author
Thomas P Seager, PhD is an Associate Professor in the School of Sustainable Engineering at Arizona State University. Seager co-founded the Morozko Forge ice bath company and is an expert in the use of ice baths for0building metabolic and psychological resilience.
Great overview of a complex topic. I like discovering educational content like this alongside my usual hobbies, including following the fnaf community.