Hydrogen Peroxide Therapy; A Life Saver or Fallacy

The simplest naturally occurring peroxide molecule is Hydrogen peroxide, composed of two oxygen atoms bonded to two hydrogen atoms (H₂O₂). Peroxide molecules serve various purposes, including use in cosmetic products and disinfectants, but not as a health supplement.

As a child, my mum would use hydrogen peroxide on every wound and even to wash our mouth but would make sure we didn't drink it. Actually, those clinic based hydrogen peroxides includes stabilizers such as phenol, tetrasodiumphosphate, and sodium stannate, so they were not advised to be swallowed. But it has become a thing as a lot of people now use hydrogen peroxide therapy, and if you check online, you would see different blogs with no references on hydrogen peroxide therapy, so today, I will be looking into their claims and why they are wrong.

_Flickr

A lot of people have decided to see Hydrogen Peroxide as their go-to substance for health-related issues, including being a panacea for viral infections such as HIV and the Herpes virus, and it sounds really shocking to me. A lot of people even believe that since it has oxygen, it can increase the concentration of oxygen in the blood. These beliefs spun from the fact that hydrogen peroxide is an oxidizing agent, and has 2 oxygen atoms.

For me, most oxidizing agents are good as disinfectants and examples are Potassium Permanganate (KMnO₄), and Bleach (NaOCl), which bond their oxygen atoms to other molecules in a process known as oxidation. which changes the structure and properties of the molecules. That is why hydrogen peroxide can kill bacteria by splitting in half when in contact with bacteria creating an unstable molecule and creating a free radical and so getting hydrogen from the lipids in the bacteria, thereby causing a chain of free radicals that is destructive, leading to the breaking of the bacteria cytoplasm and the leaking of the organelles from the cytoplasm.

This doesn't work like that in the body, so I begin to ask why people take them with the hope that the same effect is going to replay itself. First, it gets into a large body and comes in contact with the cells in the body before getting to any destination. So when it is taken, the splitting occurs immediately when it comes in contact with the cells because the cells contain catalase which converts the peroxide to water and oxygen.

Humans naturally produce their own peroxide, which is stored in peroxisomes. This peroxide is responsible for recycling fatty acids in the body through oxidation, after which catalase comes into play to recycle the hydrogen peroxide, preventing cellular damage. I understand that many articles and studies suggest that various viruses, including swine flu, rubella, and rabies, are sensitive to hydrogen peroxide. However, these studies are conducted in vitro, meaning they take place in Petri dishes or controlled lab settings, not in living organisms like humans or lab animals, where various conditions can affect the outcome. Therefore, without randomized controlled trials or clinical observational studies involving H₂O₂, these claims should be taken with caution.

Coming up with the additional oxygen in the blood is another thing I find little funny, because oxygen or any gas isn't absorbed from the stomach. It is either passed out as fart or from the mouth. Also, increasing the oxygen level in the blood can be fatal, so I really do not understand where they got that believe from. There is a limit to the amount of oxygen in the blood so as to keep the blood pH at 7.4. Any increase or reduction in the pH of the blood can be fatal as high pH as a result of too much oxygen can lead to alkalosis. Another article I came across discussed how cancer cells utilize hydrogen peroxide to extract nutrients from neighboring fibroblasts, fueling cancer metabolism, aging, and inflammation.

Before considering hydrogen peroxide therapy, I strongly advise looking for scientific reviews, articles, and clinical trials that substantiate its efficacy. As of now, most of the research available is limited to in vitro studies and not clinical trials.

^Reference

^{https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32505069/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8904298/
https://www.webmd.com/drugs/2/drug-76035/hydrogen-peroxide/details
https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/24/5/4673
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7262503/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6885225/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4610122/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3433860/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK507807/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3180186/}