Hydrogen is Great for Skin

The desire to have healthy, elastic, wrinkle-free, and young looking skin dates back to primeval times. One of the ways (which is still used today) to try and accomplish this is the ancient practice of bathing in springs and mineral waters.However, unlike most conventional practices of lotions, creams, oils, powders and other cosmetics that may not help and/or even have negative side effects,3 bathing in specific waters that have reductive characteristics seems to have great therapeutic application.One study tested a mineral water with reductive characteristics (most likely due to dissolved molecular hydrogen) and a prepared water containing molecular hydrogen. The results revealed that bathing in both of these waters decreased the oxidation-reduction potential (ORP) of human skin. This is an important observation because healthy skin has reductive characteristics, and the ORP of the skin increases by oxidative damage (from sun exposure) and also by aging (as measured by lipid-peroxide levels). This relationship between redox potentials of the skin and aging has been investigated in more detail and shows that reductive waters lower the oxidation of the skin. Bathing in hydrogen water not only reduced the ORP of skin, but also improved its elasticity. Moreover, treating bleached hair with this water gave an improvement in fluency and gloss.