氫分子到底是什麼？
氫分子是兩個氫原子結合在一起形成氫氣。它具有H-H的化學結構，化學通式為「H2」。在自然界中，氫原子經常被發現與其他原子（例如氧）結合形成水（H2O），或與碳形成甲烷（CH4），但H2才具有治療目的。此外區分pH和H2的分別也很重要。pH是指溶液中帶正電的氫離子（H+）的濃度，與H2氣體完全不同。實際上H2對pH值並沒有影響，也對鹼性水沒有影響。此外，當氫氣溶解在水中時，它不會改變水的性質，而是僅僅溶解在水中的氫氣。
我們如何攝取氫分子？
在臨床研究中，往往通過吸入、飲用氣體的飲用水、使用氫水沐浴、於靜脈注射含有溶解H2的鹽水，甚至於高壓氫氣室來施放氫分子。4
氫分子有哪些好處？
現已證明氫對170多種不同的人類和動物疾病模型中，以及在人體的每個器官中均具有治療作用。5主要原因是因為H2有助於減輕過度的氧化應激和炎症，兩者是所有疾病和病理的根源。1,2
氫分子如何提供抗氧化，抗炎和抗衰老作用？
氫分子首先在《自然醫學》上被報導6，可以保護缺血再灌注損傷的大腦，並選擇性地減少細胞毒性氧自由基。6隨後有更多動物和臨床研究表明，通過吸入氫氣或喝氫水可以減弱氧化應激的指標並改善抗氧化狀態。例如在一項針對20名潛在代謝綜合症患者的研究中，受試者持續8週每天攝入1.5-2 L氫水（≈0.6mM）7，除了改善了膽固醇和葡萄糖耐受性外，患者尿液中的氧化標誌物硫代巴比妥酸反應性物質（TBARS）減少了43％，抗氧化酶超氧化物歧化酶增加了39％。7在另一項隨機雙盲安慰劑對照研究中，16名健康受試者也證明了類似的益處。8飲用氫水4週後，氧化標記丙二醛（MDA）降低了約26％，超氧化物歧化酶增加了25.9％，抗氧化劑穀胱甘肽水平增加了10.1％。8
除了表現出抗氧化作用外，其他動物和臨床研究報告也証明了減少炎症。9 H2可以減少和修改促炎性介質/轉錄因子，例如細胞因子、C－反應蛋白、TNF-α，NF-κB，NFAT等。1,2,5,9,10,11
氫分子減輕氧化應激的機制仍在研究中，然而使用miRNA干擾、基因敲除研究等已證明氫可以激活Nrf2途徑5,12，調節了200多種細胞保護基因的轉錄。13 激活Nrf2調節二期酶，包括用作於排毒（ABCG2，MRP3，MRP4，GST），抗氧化（NQO1，NQO2，HO-1），抗凋亡（Bcl-2）和代謝（G6PD，TKT，PPARγ），14解釋了氫分子能發揮抗糖尿病和抗肥胖作用的原因。15,16
對自噬的好處
動物和細胞研究中證明了氫對信號轉導和基因表達具有益作用5，以及對自噬和線粒體的好處。氫治療激活了自噬途徑，增加自噬體、自溶酶體17,18，以及增加由PINK1 / Parkin信號通路介導的線粒體。19然而，過多的自噬可能屬於病理性的，並於一項大鼠心肌缺血/再灌注損傷的研究中就是出現這種情況。20但是，氫能夠通過減輕內質網應激並下調過度的自噬，發揮保護作用。20
對神經和其他健康的好處
日本政府已批准將氫氣吸入作為治療心臟驟停後綜合徵的先進藥物，將具有神經學益處。21一項針對50名腦梗死患者的小型隨機對照臨床研究中22，將氫氣與藥物Edaravone比較，並根據MRI和NIHSS分數臨床中風的嚴重程度進行量化，初步結果表明氫療法比Edaravone更有效。22 於令一項帕金森氏症患者23的隨機對照試驗中，僅飲用氫水大約1年具有良好的效果，並且緩和認知障礙，尤其是其有APOE4基因型的患者。24另一項小型雙盲對照交叉研究也表明了健康受試者的神經系統改善。每天喝氫水600毫升，4周後休息時的交感神經激活減少，並改善情緒和焦慮。25這結果與早期進行的動物研究吻合。研究中，氫療法通過調節下丘腦-垂體-腎上腺軸和對應激的炎症反應，有效提高對急性和慢性應激的抵抗力。26隨後，在一項研究中表明飲用氫水可以令曾通過母體接收毒素VPA小鼠逆轉誘發的自閉症行為，例如社交行為受損，記憶力減退，炎症TNF-α和IL-6等。27
但是氫的研究仍處於起步階段，氫療法並非在所有情況下都是萬能藥。儘管許多研究發現氫在缺血再灌注模型中對大腦有益28-31，但一項研究發現，在中度至嚴重缺血再灌注新生鼠中，吸入氫氣無治療效用。32然而動物和臨床研究的初步數據都表明，氫氣有具大潛力對現今藥物有重大影響，因為氫氣是安全化，易於管理，可直接臨床使用。1,2
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2020-01-07
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