Irritable bowel syndrome is a common gastrointestinal disorder in the general population.Because drug therapy often only temporarily improves symptoms and does not work well enough, patients may need to increase the dose of the drug or take multiple drugs, which can easily lead to toxic side effects.Therefore, the long-term use of alternative therapies for irritable bowel syndrome without side effects has received widespread attention.Many animal experiments have found that the control of electrolyte balance or ph has some effect on functional gastrointestinal disorders.For example, the alkalinity of electrolytic reducing water continuously affects the activity of pepsin, which has a certain effect on gastritis in animals.
Irritable bowel trouble, hydrogen water can be treated [clinical]
Tsinghua: hydrogen water treatment of gastric ulcer has dose-dependent relationship
There are also views that daily consumption of alkaline soda mineral water can treat functional dyspepsia, improve gastrointestinal peristalsis and internal and external secretion.These studies support the treatment of ibs by alkaline electrolysis of water, but there have been no previous studies on the treatment of ibs by electrolysis of water in humans. The purpose of this study was to study the effect of 8-week electrolysis of water on the improvement of ibs.
The research in this paper,
Twenty-seven patients with irritable bowel syndrome were randomly divided into two groups: the electrolytic hydrogen water group, 13 of whom drank 2 liters or more of hydrogen water every day for eight weeks, and the control group, 14 of whom drank similar placebo water (plain water).Ibs scores, such as quality of life, abdominal pain or discomfort, stool shape, stool frequency, etc. were used as indicators to be measured by questionnaires before and after the trial.The results showed that 8 subjects (61.5%) and 6 control subjects (42.9%) improved, and the ibs related quality of life score in the h2o group decreased from 57.2 to 30.8, while the control group decreased from 48.7 to 42.2, with a significant difference between the two groups (p= 0.029).This suggests that electrolysis of hydrogen water can improve the quality of life in ibs.The abdominal pain index of the hydrogen-water group decreased from 1.8 to 0.9, while that of the control group decreased from 1.8 to 1.1. The difference between the two groups was not significant. According to the results of the paper, there were differences in the data of the two groups every week, especially in the 4-6 weeks.This suggests that drinking hydrogen water is not ideal for the improvement of irritable bowel syndrome abdominal pain.The results suggest that drinking hydrogen water for 8 weeks can improve the quality of life of diarrheal irritable bowel syndrome.This study indicates that hydrogen water is worthy of large-scale clinical study on irritable bowel syndrome.
The results discussed
This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study examined the effects of electrolytic reduction water on ibs related indicators such as improved quality of life, abdominal discomfort or pain, stool shape and stool count.The primary end point was a significant difference in the overall rate of improvement of related symptoms between the treatment group and the control group over the course of 8 weeks and over 4 weeks.But the results were not ideal, and there was no statistical difference between the two groups.Or negative.However, since the sample size of the experiment was only 27 people, and there were only 13 and 14 people in each group, this was the most important factor affecting the statistical results.For example, if the same difference is increased by 50 people per group, there may be a statistical difference.So even though the results are negative, it doesn't follow that there's no effect.But because there are no similar studies to predict such results, larger studies should be conducted to determine.The original study authors also believed that a large sample study would yield positive results.(We believe that a positive result could be obtained in alarger-scale study.) although the primary endpoint failed, there was a statistical difference in the secondary endpoint.There were statistical differences in the life treatment and abdominal pain indicators related to ibs, indicating that electrolytic reduction water could improve the quality of life of patients with ibs, and abdominal pain was also significantly improved.Considering the small sample size, the results of this study indicate that electrolysis reduced water can significantly improve these indicators.Because the subjects did not receive any other medication, this suggests that the use of electrolytic reducing water for the disease is of great value.
Although the study suggests that electrolysis of reduced water is valuable for irritable bowel syndrome, the study also found that there are shortcomings in this method.
No improvement was found in stool shape or frequency, for example, which are more important problems for the disease.Initially, all patients had two to three bowel movements per day, which was less than the standard of more than four per day for diarrhea.This suggests that the subjects had mild diarrhea, which could explain why there was no significant effect on diarrhea.
The mechanism by which electrolytic reducing water improves ibs remains unclear.The electrolytic water used in the test had a pH of more than 8.4, and the pH of most drinking water was between 6.7 and 7.4.Therefore, it is speculated that the alkalinity of water may have a certain effect on the stomach. Since the acidity of stomach acid is high and the buffer capacity is strong, the alkalinity of drinking water can hardly have a significant effect on the stomach acid.However, the addition of a small amount of acid will have an effect on most patients with poor consumption, which means that chemical knowledge cannot be used to infer the effect of the ph of water on the gastrointestinal tract.In addition, excessive duodenal acidification can induce stomach relaxation and suppress appetite.Animal studies have shown that duodenal acidification induces increased gastric sensitivity, which activates serotonin receptors and leads to indigestion in patients with irritable bowel syndrome.Inadequate islet function in the small intestine, such as in cystic fibrosis, can lead to malabsorption.The rapid neutralization of gastric acid in the proximal part of the duodenum and the accurate regulation of acidity and basicity are important factors to maintain the function of the small intestine such as nutrient absorption.Mineral water containing certain electrolytes can help relieve indigestion.Carbonated water can stimulate bile and pancreatic secretion to improve gastrointestinal peristalsis.Drinking carbonated water for more than 15 days was found to improve gallbladder muscle contractility..Drinking water with too many minerals can help to empty the stomach of indigestion.It is speculated that various minerals in drinking water can regulate the movement of gastrointestinal smooth muscle directly or indirectly, and can also relieve intestinal flatulence.All of these effects may have some value for ibs symptoms.Of course, these effects of minerals are not the basis for the electrolysis of reducing water.
Gastrointestinal flora may also be an important factor in ibs.Acute gastroenteritis with indigestion and abdominal discomfort may result in post-infection irritable bowel syndrome.Post-infection ibs may be caused by a sustained, low-grade inflammatory response and changes in intestinal flora.Changes in intestinal flora composition are also associated with the pathophysiological process of ibs and the host immune response.Cyanobacteria abundance is associated with intestinal flatulence, satiety, and abdominal discomfort.The number of proteobacteria is associated with pain.So it has been suggested that probiotics, antibiotics and faecal transplants may play a role in the treatment of ibs.Many intestinal disorders, including irritable bowel syndrome, are caused by an imbalance in the intestinal flora.The human intestinal flora is 96-99% anaerobic and 1-4% aerobic.The anaerobic and aerobic bacteria are suitable to grow in different REDOX potential environments.REDOX potential +400mV is suitable for aerobic bacteria, −300 to −400mV is suitable for facultative anaerobic bacteria.The REDOX potential of reduced water produced by electrolysis is 0 to −300mV, and that of tap water is +300 to +450mV.Drinking negative reducing water may help accelerate the growth of anaerobic bacteria and inhibit the growth of aerobic bacteria (pathogenic bacteria) to improve intestinal diseases.(why can't it be understood that the decrease of oxygen content in reduced water makes it difficult for aerobic bacteria to grow without oxygen, because there is no oxygen to protect the anaerobic bacteria)
The latest study has some shortcomings.First of all, small sample size and weak statistical efficacy are the obvious deficiencies of this study.Second, patients with ibs often lack trust in traditional therapies (the nocebo effect).Third, it is difficult to recruit volunteers.Despite the high incidence of ibs, many subjects reported difficulty drinking more than 2 liters of water a day, which was an important factor in the study's small size.This needs to be taken seriously, because some people emphasize that you should drink 2 liters of hydrogen water or 3 liters of hydrogen water to achieve the effect. Many people cannot accept this amount of water, which has become a limiting factor for research.In fact, you don't have to drink that much water if you can increase the concentration of hydrogen effectively.Many patients who had been on multiple medications had difficulty stopping their medication altogether for eight weeks to participate in the study.In future patient recruitment, subject compliance must be taken into account.Fourth, lifestyle and eating habits are also difficult to control.These factors make randomization difficult to achieve.Despite these deficiencies, the study was consistent with a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled design.Electrolysis of hydrogen water is a simple and inexpensive treatment that can easily be used by doctors.This is the first clinical study on the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome by electrolysis of hydrogen water.
The research conclusion
Recent research suggests that drinking electrolytic hydrogen water can improve the quality of life of patients with diarrhea-type irritable bowel syndrome and relieve abdominal pain.This preliminary study provides a solid basis for larger clinical trials in the future.
Dong Woo Shin, pantang hospital, Seoul national university, et al., article published in the journal evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine in 2018.
WooS D, Hyuk Y, Soo K H, et al. Evidence-based Complementary and AlternativeMedicine, 2018, 2018:1-8.