The following paper was written by Dr. Hayashi in 2001. Dr. Hayashi has been the world’s leading authority on the benefits of free hydrogen in improving and maintaining good health since 1985. His work has been performed at the Japanese water institute. While the concept of a “Water Institute” seems foreign to us here in North America, the Japanese and Koreans have been benefitting from studying and drinking alkaline water for 30 years.
The article begins with two quotes, one leading into the other. The first is from Lewis Thomas MD from the Sloan Kettering Hospital in NYC
“For every disease there is a single mechanism that dominates all others. If we can find it and then think one’s way around it, one can control the disorder”
The second quote is from Dr. Hayashi himself:
” A single key mechanism that dominates all others is nothing but redox reaction. So that, if we can find a way to control it, we can conquer the disorder. Water rich in atomic as well as molecular hydrogen should be an ultimate solution for it as far as my theory is concerned.”
1. Redox Reaction
In junior high school chemistry we learned that the redox reaction or oxidation-reduction is the most universal, fundamental, as well as, most important of all. The problem of life and death as well as health and sickness could, therefore, be explained and demonstrated by the concept of redox reaction. We can recap these concepts with a following analogy. Copper (Cu) loses its glitter by oxidation and is restored by reduction. In quite the same way, a cell unit (call it Cu) is damaged (made sick) by oxidation and is restored (cured) by reduction resulting in the production of H2O.Stage 1 Oxidation of Cell unit
2Cu + O2 → 2CuOStage 2 Reduction of oxidized (damaged) Cu
CuO + H2 → Cu + H2O2. Water, the prerequisite for every life form
Water or H2O is the very product of redox reaction, i.e., a product of reduction by Hydrogen and oxidation by Oxygen. Therefore, it is only natural to say that every life form, born in H2O should be under the influence of redox reaction. In short, oxidation brings it sickness and reduction restores it to health again. It is quite clear from the evolutionary record that life forms could have developed in water, because it was an environment which provided them with all the necessary conditions for birth and survival.3. Active Oxygen
Active oxygen species are considered to inactivate enzymes in the cells, damage DNA, and destroy lipid membrane. This action should cause every disease, aging, as well as cancer as far as the most recent medical research is concerned. In other words, if we can succeed in preventing oxidative damage by active oxygen species, we can control the disorder as far as my theory is concerned.4. Active Hydrogen
Then what is the most ideal countermeasure against active oxygen? It should be nothing but ‘active hydrogen’ as far as the logic is concerned. Active hydrogen or atomic hydrogen is known to have strong reducing potential. It is only natural to say that active oxygen species can be reduced or scavenged to produce O2-, H2O2 and HOE one after another to produce H2O as a result, as shown in the following.1. O2 + e- → O2-
2. O2- + HE + H+ → H2O2
3. H2O2 + e- → HOE + HO-
4. HOE + HE → H2O
5. HO- + H+ → H2O
5.Hydrogen Poor Water
According to my concept, water can be classified into two kinds, i.e., hydrogen poor and hydrogen rich water. Natural water or 99.9 % of water found on the earth can be defined to be hydrogen poor water because of hydrogen bond energy connecting hydrogen with oxygen to make H2O. It is a logic of mine that natural water, hydrogen poor water, can’t be enough to reduce or scavenge active oxygen species, which should have compelled mankind to develop a procedure with which we can fight against sickness being brought as the result of oxidative damage by active oxygen. In other words, human medicine should be a kind of fiction based and developed on our inevitable intake of natural water or hydrogen poor water. On the contrary, we could easily be free from sickness when we depend on hydrogen rich water which can be enough to scavenge active oxygen species.6. Hydrogen Rich Water
It is known that magnesium reacts with water to produce hydrogen gas when it is heated. We confirmed, however, that magnesium produces hydrogen gas even in water with room temperature which could be demonstrated by the Portable Hydrogen Detector developed by ourselves being explained in the following chemical formula.Mg + 2H2O → Mg(OH)2 + 2H → Mg(OH)2 + H2
Active hydrogen in Hydrogen Rich Water binds with active oxygen to produce H2O. Molecular hydrogen in Hydrogen Rich Water can be split to atomic hydrogen by hydrogenase in our body being implied by R.Happe in his paper ‘EEE hydrogenases are enzymes that can reversibly split molecular hydrogen. EEE Ni/Fe hydrogenases are among the oldest enzymes ( 3.8 billion years old ),demonstrating early that life forms had developed an effective way to activate molecular hydrogen at ambient temperature and pH.
(BIOLOGICAL ACTIVATION OF HYDROGEN ; NATURE,385,126,1997).
7. Hydrogen Producing Mineral( HPM )
‘Hydrogen Rich Water’ can easily be obtained by utilizing the reaction of water with magnesium, a hydrogen producing mineral.Magnesium oxide has long been used in medicine as a antacid and laxative. Quite a new aspect of the mineral, producing ability of hydrogen to scavenge active oxygen has been clarified now for the first time by us.
Hidemitsu Hayashi, MD
August 11, 2001