Fighting CINP by… Drinking Water?

Chemotherapy-induced neuropathic pain (CINP) is seen in up to 70% of cancer patients. Unfortunately, there is no effective treatment, and CINP causes many people to terminate their chemotherapy treatments. In a study published in the Journal of Pain Research, mice were separated into 4 test groups and 1) fed normal drinking water + injected with saline, 2) fed normal drinking water + injected with oxaliplatin, 3) fed hydrogen-rich water + injected with saline, 4) fed with hydrogen-rich water and injected with oxaliplatin. The study concluded that “hydrogen-rich water was found to exert a significant protective effect on mice with oxaliplatin-induced CINP.”

Hydrogen may not only help those with CINP; it “is currently considered to be a promising medical gas with a potential to prevent or cure a range of diseases, such as ischemia-reperfusion injury, neurodegeneration, metabolic syndrome, inflammation, mitochondrial diseases, and even cancer.” In this study, “it was demonstrated that hydrogen-rich water affects the lipopolysaccharide toll-like receptor pathway by altering the diversity and structure of the gut microbiota, thereby improving oxaliplatin-induced mechanical hyperalgesia and reversing the imbalance of inflammatory cytokines and oxidative stress, thus alleviating CINP. Therefore, H₂ may be a promising method for alleviating CINP.”

 

Read the journal article.

Other Categories:

• chemotherapy

• chemotherapy induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN)

• neurology

• neuropathic pain

• research/study