Hydrogen therapy for Covid-19 induced acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS)

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In cohort study involving 201 patients with confirmed COVID-19 pneumonia, risk factors associated with the development of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and progression from ARDS to death included older age, neutrophilia and organ and coagulation dysfunction. Recently, accumulating evidence suggests that a subgroup of patients with severe COVID-19 might have a cytokine storm syndrome. [1,2]

Given the theory that molecular hydrogen can significantly down-regulate expressions of inflammation-related genes and selectively reduce hydroxyl radical, there are reasons to believe that cytokine storm and oxidative stress can be suppressed by hydrogen when getting infected with CoVid-19 [8,9]

Hydrogen, a non-cytotoxic molecule, is one of nature’s most simple elements. Recent studies revealed that intraperitoneal injection of hydrogen-rich saline has surprising anti-inflammation, anti-oxidant, anti-apoptosis effects and protected organism against polymicrobial sepsis injury, acute peritonitis injury both by reducing oxidative stress and via decreasing mass proinflammatory responses. [3,4,8,9]

Studies have shown that suppressing the cytokine storm and reducing oxidative stress can significantly alleviate the symptoms of influenza and other severe viral infections diseases [5,6,7]

Proposed Solution

There are several methods to ingest or consume H2; inhaling H2 gas, drinking H2-dissolved water (H2-water), injecting H2-dissolved saline (H2-saline), taking an H2 bath, or dropping H2-saline into the eyes. [11]

It would be recommended to administer a dilute (3%) oxy-hydrogen/hydrogen gas mixed with ambient air via inhalation route to suppress the CoVid-19 virus symptoms at its entry point.

How to generate Hydrogen gas

Since the number of cases is growing exponentially and hospitals are averse to buying expensive ventilators, we need an economic and scalable solution. A water electrolyser system generating hydrogen-oxygen gas mixture by distilled water electrolysis would be effective. Generally, these kind of systems are available in the market for $ 100 and sold as brown gas/HHO generators but they aren’t medical-grade and use a catalyst NaOH/KOH.

What we need is medical grade system that utilizes electricity to generate oxyhydrogen/ hydrogen gas using stainless steel (316/318) or better electrodes and distilled water for hydrogen therapy for Covid-19.

Disinfecting critical area for Covid-19

The result of a study published in 1977 showed H2O2 in a 3 per cent concentration inactivated all the viruses under study within 1–30 min. Coronavirus and influenza viruses were found to be most sensitive. Reoviruses, adenoviruses and adenoassociated virus were relatively stable. So, H2O2 is a convenient means for virus inactivation [10]

References

1) Wu C, Chen X, Cai Y, et al. Risk Factors Associated With Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome and Death in Patients With Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pneumonia in Wuhan, China. JAMA Intern Med. Published online March 13, 2020. DOI:10.1001/jamainternmed.2020.0994

2) Mehta, Puja et al., COVID-19: consider cytokine storm syndromes and immunosuppression, The Lancet (https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30628-0)

3) Taohong Hu, Ming Yang, Zheng Zhang. (2017) Hydrogen Medicine Therapy: An Effective and Promising Novel Treatment for Multiple Organ Dysfunction Syndrome (MODS) Induced by Influenza and Other Viral Infections Diseases?SOJ Microbiol Infect Dis 5(2): 1–6

4) Ohsawa I, Ishikawa M, Takahashi K, Watanabe M, Nishimaki K, Yamagata K, et al. Hydrogen acts as a therapeutic antioxidant by selectively reducing cytotoxic oxygen radicals. Nat Med. 2007;13(6):688–694

5) Sordillo PP, Helson L. Curcumin suppression of cytokine release and cytokine storm. A potential therapy for patients with Ebola and other severe viral infections. In Vivo. 2015;29(1):1–4.

6) Zhao S, Mei K, Qian L, Yang Y, Liu W, Huang Y, et al. Therapeutic effects of hydrogen-rich solution on aplastic anaemia in vivo. Cell Physiol Biochem. 2013;32(3):549–560. DOI: 10.1159/000354459

7) Xia C, Liu W, Zeng D, Zhu L, Sun X. Effect of hydrogen-rich water on oxidative stress, liver function, and viral load in patients with chronic hepatitis B. Clin Transl Sci. 2013;6(5):372–375. DOI: 10.1111/ cts.12076

8) Ohta S. Molecular hydrogen as a preventive and therapeutic medical gas: initiation, development and potential of hydrogen medicine. Pharmacol Ther. 2014;144(1):1–11. DOI: 10.1016/j. pharmthera.2014.04.006

9) Ohno K, Ito M, Ichihara M. Molecular hydrogen as an emerging therapeutic medical gas for neurodegenerative and other diseases. Oxidative medicine and cellular longevity. 2012;2012:353152.

10) Mentel’ R et al. Virus inactivation by hydrogen peroxide Vopr Virusol. 1977 Nov-Dec;(6):731–3, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/203115

11) Shigeo Ohta,Chapter Fifteen — Molecular Hydrogen as a Novel Antioxidant: Overview of the Advantages of Hydrogen for Medical Applications,Methods in Enzymology, Academic Press,
Volume 555, 2015,Pages 289–317, https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.mie.2014.11.038.