Hydrogen-Nano-Bubble-Rich Water in Bucket/Bathtub Improves Intractable Skin Roughness

Abstract

Determining how to apply hydrogen as a therapeutic/preventive antioxidant for oxidative-stress-related diseases practically in daily life has not been studied. The effects of bathtubs and buckets filled with hydrogen water (41 °C, >10 min bathing) were investigated on six subjects, without a medical prescription, suffering from skin roughness on the foot, hand, finger, or elbow. They were also treated with an electrolyzer composed of a lattice-shaped, microscopically flat, platinum-plated three-layer electrode, except for one subject who was treated with a micro-porous emittance terminal hydrogen-jetting apparatus, resulting in improvements in both cases. For another subject with similar skin roughness on both hands, immersing the right hand in an electrolytically generated hydrogen water bucket showed more marked improvement than immersing the left hand in a bucket with normal water. The nano-bubbles (average, mode, and median sizes of 157 nm, 136 nm, and 94 nm, respectively) increased 3.79 fold to 2.20 × 108/mL after 30 min electrolysis with 2 L of tap water and were boiling (98 °C, 2 min)-resistant, with heat stability in nano-bubbles as small as 69–101 nm, as evaluated by laser-beam-based Brownian movement trailing Nano-Sight analysis. The marked increase in nano-bubbles caused by electrolysis correlated with an increase in dissolved hydrogen (<15 μg/L to 527 μg/L) but not a decrease in dissolved oxygen (9.45 mg/L to 6.94 mg/L). Thus, the present study proposed the novelty of hydrogen regarding its contribution to health from the perspective that hydrogen-nano-bubble-rich water in a foot bucket, which was additively used together with a conventional bathtub and can be frequently used in daily life, improved diverse types of skin roughness.