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. 2021 Jul 19;9(9):5139-5145.
doi: 10.1002/fsn3.2480. eCollection 2021 Sep.

Hydrogen-rich water and caffeine for alertness and brain metabolism in sleep-deprived habitual coffee drinkers

Nikola Todorovic  1 , Dragana Zanini  1 , Valdemar Stajer  1 , Darinka Korovljev  1 , Jelena Ostojic  1 , Sergej M Ostojic  1   2
Affiliations

Hydrogen-rich water and caffeine for alertness and brain metabolism in sleep-deprived habitual coffee drinkers

Nikola Todorovic et al. Food Sci Nutr. .

Abstract

The main aim of this randomized-controlled cross-over interventional trial was to assess the acute effects of taking a single dose of hydrogen-rich water (HRW), and compare it with caffeine, HRW plus caffeine, and control water, for alertness, brain metabolism, brain and oxygen saturation, and self-reported adverse events in healthy men and women who were habitual coffee drinkers and were sleep-deprived for 24 hr. Sixteen apparently healthy young adults (8 men and 8 women; age 24.0 ± 3.5 years) were allocated in a cross-over design to receive a single-dose drink of HRW (8 ppm), caffeine (50 mg), HRW plus caffeine, or control drink (tap water) in the morning after 24-hr sleep deprivation and 12-hr fasting. The primary and secondary outcomes were assessed at baseline (pre-intervention) and 15-min follow-up. Significantly less time was needed to complete trail-making test after both HRW and HRW plus caffeine compared with the control drink (p < .05). The number of errors in the symbol digit modalities test was significantly lower after drinking HRW or caffeine than control drink (p < .05). Both HRW and caffeine significantly increased the choline-to-creatine ratio in several brain regions (frontal white and gray matter), while HRW and the combination intervention also affected brain metabolism in the paracentral brain. No participants reported any side effects from any intervention. The attention enhancement driven by HRW appears along with changes in brain metabolism. Being generally recognized as a safe intervention, hydrogen could be thus recommended as a novel intervention that upholds attention in stressed conditions, with its metabolic footprint likely different from caffeine.

Keywords: alertness; brain metabolism; choline‐to‐creatine ratio; hydrogen; sleep.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
The composition of experimental interventions. HRW—ahydrogen‐rich water
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Location of the individual voxels (blue square) evaluated during the study
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Changes in the choline‐to‐creatine ratio (blue) and choline‐to‐N‐acetyl aspartate (NAA) ratio (orange) in 12 various brain regions during the study. Y‐axis labels absolute values for metabolic ratios; each bar indicates changes from baseline to 15‐min follow‐up. Asterisk (*) indicates a significant difference at p <.05 between the experimental drink and control drink; # indicates a significant difference at p <.05 between hydrogen‐rich water (HRW) and HRW plus caffeine
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