Water enriched with hydrogen molecules was found to enhance the symptomatology of neuropathic pain and related emotional disturbances. The findings of the study were published in the journal Antioxidants.
Neuropathic Pain: Facts and Figures
Twenty percent of the Spanish population suffers from chronic pain and between 7 and 10% from neuropathic pain. This condition mostly caused by nerve damage, causes people to feel intense and constant pain. Treatments are scarce and often involve a large number of adverse effects that affect the patients’ quality of life.
The study has analyzed the effects of administering to mice models of neuropathic pain water enriched with hydrogen molecules, a treatment that had already shown positive effects in neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease and depression.
“This treatment can alleviate not only the pain caused by a nerve injury, but also the states of anxiety and depression that accompany it, which would substantially improve the patients’ quality of life”, explains Olga Pol.
In the study, the treatment was administered to mice by injection, but in the future other routes will be tested, such as oral administration. The next steps will be to investigate how the treatment works in animal models of pain associated with chemotherapy, because many times cancer patients present neuropathic pain as a side effect of the treatment, as well as evaluating its effects on the memory and emotional deficits that these same patients can also suffer.
Source: Eurekalert
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