Hydrogen comes from the Greek meaning "water-former". Water is formed when hydrogen is burned by oxygen. We create pure water in the body every day as a product of our metabolism. Hydrogen is essential to the production of the body’s principal energy source, adenosine triphosphate (ATP). This element is the source of protons necessary for ATP production. All of the food we eat is eventually broken down into ATP as the primary current of life. We utilize approximately one half pound a day of hydrogen in the production of ATP.

The Nobel laureate Albert Szent-Gyorgyi discovered that the tissues of the body store hydrogen in vast amounts. The order of hydrogen pooling by quantities found in the body are the liver, intestine, kidney, heart, lung and finally spleen. The liver stores the most hydrogen and is the body’s first line of defense in detoxification.

In conjunction with the need for an abundance of hydrogen, the body is severely taxed by a condition known as free radicals. Free radicals are toxic compounds that have lost a negatively charged electron. As a result they pull electrons from other compounds to maintain electrical balance. Loss of an electron can damage cellular biology and alter its ability perform its designated function or replicate itself.

The solution to free radical damage is the introduction of antioxidants. An antioxidant is a compound that has a weak electron bonding and can surrender an electron to a free radical, thus stabilizing it. It then becomes a less aggressive free radical itself, which absorbs one electron from other antioxidants in the chain of electron transfer during metabolism of food.

Many scientists studying mortality now believe that aging itself is really a disease, and not the inevitable experience of the biological organism. A French scientist, Dr. Alexis Carrel, received the Nobel Prize for keeping the cells of a chicken heart alive for 34 years. Dr. Carrel concluded: "The cell is immortal. It is merely the fluid (water) in which it floats that degenerates. Renew this fluid at intervals, give the cells what they require for nutrition, and as far as we know, the pulsation of life may go on forever." Dehydration of the cells is considered a major factor in the aging process.

The water we drink differs substantially from the intracellular water in our bodies. Tap water has a surface tension of approximately 73 dynes. The water in our cells has a surface tension of approximately 45 dynes. One of the jobs of metabolism is to reduce the surface tension of the water we drink so that the body can absorb it, rather than pass it through the kidneys and expel it.

To synthesize these two basic ideas, when the body becomes dehydrated the organs are less able to pool hydrogen, and it is this pool of hydrogen which helps to protect against free-radical damage. Szent-Gyorgyi wrote in his book The Living State: "Attaching hydrogen to a molecule means lending energy to it. Since in hydrogen the electron and proton are loosely coupled, by attaching hydrogen we essentially attach an electron."

If dehydration also assists the production of free radical damage then one of our primary concerns in maintaining health is to properly hydrate the body. One way to do this is to drink water that has already had the surface tension reduced so that the body can readily absorb it. These waters are known as clustered water and many companies are now producing just such water. I personally drink a clustered water along with a product that will add colloidal minerals and negatively charged hydrogen. This product was created by Dr. Patrick Flanagan and is known as Microhydrin. Microhydrin will reduce the surface tension of purified water allowing greater conductivity in body fluids. Therefore, not only is the water rendered more useful to the body, but the negative hydride ions also act as a potent antioxidant. Thus both essential needs of the body, proper cellular hydration and free radical scavenging are accomplished by using this one product.

Research has also shown that water has "memory" and that the shape of the water molecule has a great influence on how the water is assimmilated in the body. When "healing waters" from around the world are examined on a molecular scale their structure tends to form a beautifully symetrica six pointed star. In the few locations where these specific waters do exist naturally, the people are known to lead long, vibrant lives without many of the health problems that are prevalent in western society. See article on Clustered Water ™

There are many other supplements that are good antioxidants, Vitamin C, Beta-carotene, Vitamin E and Selenium are a few of the most potent. Vitamin C should be taken in varied doses throughout the day. The other three are best absorbed through food sources. Vitamin E and Selenium can be toxic if over consumed. A really excellent book on nutrition and how the different supplements work in the body is Beating Cancer with Nutrition by Patrick Quillin.

Another book that has an interesting theory is Eat Right for Your Blood Type by Dr. Peter D’ Adamo. He provides a lot of information on how different blood types absorb food or create agglutination in the body by creating antigens to some foods. The theory appears quite useful in keeping the levels of free radical damage in the body low as well as not ingesting foods that will become toxic to your particular blood type.

Beyond the essentials of proper hydration and reduction of free radical damage, there is a wealth of information available on the internet and in the library that can teach about proper nutrition.