A Note from the Founder,
Tyler W. LeBaron, MSc, PhD.
I have always been interested in health, wellness, and optimizing physical performance. I even remember in elementary school hearing that sugar/candy was not good for your health, so I wouldn’t eat it. In late 2009, I read that molecular hydrogen had therapeutic antioxidant-like effects, which fascinated me because this molecule is everywhere. One day I was in the office visiting with one of my biochemistry professors about molecular hydrogen, who was always quite skeptical about my ideas. This day was different. He had printed out the 2007 Nature Medicine study published by Dr. Ohta (now one of our MHI advisors). He handed it to me and said, “this is really interesting, there might really be something here.”
When he told me that I just felt this desire and energy to pursue this field of research more. I collected all the scientific articles I could find regarding the therapeutic effects of molecular hydrogen. At the time, there were only 50 or so (compared to over 2000 today). I continued reading and doing some preliminary research on this area over the course of my studies.
In 2013, I needed to complete a research internship as a requirement to graduate in biochemistry. I really wanted to research molecular hydrogen, but there weren’t really any active researchers in the USA, only some USA-based collaborators. The majority of the research was still happening in Japan. I knew I needed to be there. I contacted Dr. Shigeo Ohta at Nippon Medical University and Dr. Kinji Ohno at the prestigious Nagoya University. To my surprise, both of them agreed to allow me to come and research molecular hydrogen in their labs. I decided to go with Dr. Ohno’s group because his lab was more English-friendly. I was very grateful for my time in his lab and for working with other top researchers. At this same time, I also was able to meet Dr. Ohta and we discussed hydrogen science for many hours as we drank hydrogen water in wine glasses.
I learned that the hydrogen industry in Japan was growing and was problematic. Many companies were marketing hydrogen products, but actually, they were NOT hydrogen products. Or they would make false claims about ions, negative charges, alkaline pH, etc. that created a stigma around all the molecular hydrogen research to the point that credible scientists didn’t want to even investigate it. Other scientists stopped researching it altogether because of criticism made by their colleagues who didn’t differentiate between the true science and the fake/false science (pseudoscience).
When I came back to the USA a few months later, I was very excited to help spread awareness and promote additional research. I didn’t want the same problem that happened in Japan to happen in the USA, so I thought I would make a website to get in front of any false marketing. I called this website “Molecular Hydrogen Institute”. Many of the articles written today are those written in 2013 to combat some of the misinformation. Importantly, it means that MHI was/is not established to educate on how to prevent or cure diseases using H2 as that is not supported by the scientific evidence which is still being developed.
In 2015, I transitioned Molecular Hydrogen Institute from just a website to a 501(c)3 nonprofit so I could accept tax-deductible donations to help pay for the website hosting and services. I also renamed it to the Molecular Hydrogen Foundation because I was going to do a joint collaboration with Dr. Ohta in Japan, and in Japan, the name “institute” couldn’t be used for a nonprofit. However, things didn’t work out in Japan, and in 2019, I decided to change the name back to Institute, because it better fit the mission of the nonprofit (i.e., education and research). So, if you see some old papers, links, or videos with the name “foundation”, that is the reason why! An abbreviated timeline of my history and MHI history is shown in Figure 1 below.
As I started my Master’s and later PhD research on molecular hydrogen, I started to be invited to speak at academic conferences in China, Japan, Korea, and many other countries as well as various medical conferences in the USA. This allowed me to present my research, form collaborations with other groups, and advance the science. However, most of these conferences didn’t have funds to pay for my travel, so I had to use my personal funds to do this. The nonprofit (MHI) was not even making enough money to pay for website expenses let alone cover my travel expenses. I have essentially volunteered numerous hours answering people’s questions and trying to help people navigate the field of molecular hydrogen and promote the research.
The educational courses will answer numerous questions that I have received over the past decade and help provide the nonprofit with revenue to be self-sustaining and advance its mission.
I have also done a number of podcasts to educate about the research on molecular hydrogen, which I was initially (and still am) concerned about doing. This is because I still have so many questions about H2, and we still don’t really know all the exact mechanisms of how it works, the best dose, or even how truly clinically beneficial it is. However, although we don’t know as much as we would like to know about molecular hydrogen, there is a lot that we do know and things that I can talk about (especially what it can’t do and what it isn’t). In many ways that is how science works. We try to figure out what doesn’t work until we are only left with what does work. Sounds a bit strange and counterintuitive, but that helps us to avoid confirmation bias! Because thinking like a scientist doesn’t come naturally, and it will help us understand molecular hydrogen even better (as well as other topics), the educational courses include some basics about science and how to think like a scientist.
Finally, I want to thank you for taking the time to educate yourself on molecular hydrogen and for trusting me to provide you with the best information I can. I applaud you for your interest, passion, and enthusiasm on this topic. We have a shared mission, a shared vision, and a shared passion and I welcome you to the MHI community and family!
