Is Hydrogen Water a Scam? What the 2017 Hungarian Academy Criticism Actually Said

If you have landed here because you read an article or heard someone say that a Hungarian scientist called hydrogen water a scam outright, the short answer is that the criticism concerned a specific marketing claim, not the physical fact that hydrogen gas can dissolve in water. In November 2017, at a lecture held at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, István Fábián, a chemistry professor at the University of Debrecen, criticized several completely unrelated products at once, one of which was water enriched with hydrogen and advertised as having antioxidant and detoxifying effects. However, reports about the event conflated several different products and claims, so it is worth separating exactly what the criticism in question referred to from what can be treated as fact today, after several years of research and an official food-safety position.

• The 2017 criticism targeted the marketing language used for hydrogen water—the claims advertised as “effects,” such as antioxidant and detoxifying effects—not the physical fact that hydrogen gas can dissolve in water.
• Claims about oxygenated water and “water memory” were also criticized at the same event, but each on the basis of a different chemical argument, neither of which applies to hydrogen.
• Hydrogen concentration expressed in PPB is a real, measurable physical quantity, but how reliable a manufacturer’s figure is depends on the measurement method.
• Current clinical research supports safety, but does not consider efficacy proven for any specific health condition.

What did the 2017 Academy lecture actually say?

As part of the “Celebration of Hungarian Science” program series held at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, chemist István Fábián, department chair and professor at the University of Debrecen, examined several “miracle waters” then on the market in a lecture. He described water enriched with hydrogen and advertised as having antioxidant and detoxifying effects as a claim whose untenability would be obvious to anyone with even some knowledge of chemistry (source: Miracle-water scams exposed at the Academy - Index). The index.hu report did not provide any further chemical reasoning tied to this specific claim; it only recorded the characterization itself. This matters because readers are often missing precisely that reasoning, which would help them decide exactly what the criticism refers to.

One report criticized two products, another covered a third

The same index.hu report did not stop at hydrogen water: it also examined another product marketed as a “miracle water,” this time using a different physical and chemical argument specific to that gas. The lecturer rejected oxygen-enriched water because, at normal atmospheric pressure, water cannot retain as much dissolved oxygen as the advertisements claim, and the stomach is not equipped to absorb dissolved oxygen (source: Miracle-water scams exposed at the Academy - Index). The argument about oxygen cannot be applied chemically to hydrogen, because it concerns a different gas and different solubility conditions. Another publication, Origo, also reported on the same event, and the two articles together provide a fuller picture of what was said that day: Origo’s own report covered a third product also called a “miracle water,” which is discussed below.

Which criticism referred to what—and what it did not

The most common misunderstanding is that readers remember the entire lecture as one all-encompassing “exposé of miracle water,” when in fact each criticism was separate and based on a different argument. The criticism of hydrogen water targeted the marketing language—that manufacturers sold the product by making claims about health outcomes, such as antioxidant effects and detoxification—not the fact that hydrogen gas can physically dissolve in water. As explained above, the argument about oxygenated water concerned the inability to retain and absorb oxygen, which relates to a different gas and a different physiological question.

Origo’s own report covered this third category, also described as “miracle water”: it refuted claims about “water memory” (pi water, vibration-treated water) by explaining that the hydrogen-bond structures in water rearrange in 10^-12 - 10^-11 seconds, meaning water cannot “remember” any previous treatment (source: The legend of the miracle water that cures everything - Origo). The argument about molecular structure and water’s “memory” is not about dissolved hydrogen gas, and the two should not be conflated, because they concern completely different physical questions.

How dissolved hydrogen concentration is actually measured

Having separated which criticism referred to what, one concrete, verifiable question remains: how much hydrogen is actually in the water in a particular bottle or device, and how can we know? Hydrogen concentration expressed in PPB or ppm is a real, measurable physical quantity, but measurement methods are not equally reliable, so a number on its own does not say much. An analysis published in a scientific journal in 2022 concluded that ORP meters (redox potential meters) are not suitable for estimating or comparing dissolved H2 concentrations, because pH, temperature, and the instrument’s own margin of error can affect the reading more than the dissolved hydrogen itself (source: ORP should not be used to estimate or compare concentrations of aqueous H2 - Frontiers in Food Science and Technology, 2022). In other words, a negative ORP reading only indicates that there is some dissolved hydrogen in the water; it does not tell you exactly how much.

Why a number is not enough if you do not know how it was measured

Redox titration gives a more direct picture of dissolved hydrogen than ORP measurement, although it is not a perfect method either. This distinction matters to consumers because a manufacturer’s PPB figure may be based on different measurement methods, which fundamentally determines how comparable the figures for two different products are. If you would like to understand in more detail exactly what the difference between PPB and ppm means and how the units relate to each other, our separate article provides a full overview: a detailed explanation of PPB and ppm values in hydrogen water. For those who want to look beyond the manufacturer’s figures and see measurement results independently verified by a third party, the independent laboratory test report for Hydrion Core and Pulse shows what this kind of external verification looks like in practice.

What science says today—and what it does not say

In the years since the 2017 lecture, research and the regulatory landscape have both expanded, and it is worth distinguishing the current state of affairs from the snapshot taken seven years ago. According to a 2023 journal article summarizing clinical trials, most studies involving molecular hydrogen are still small-scale, and the authors specifically described some as case-report-like. Although several studies support its safety, efficacy is not considered proven for any specific health condition; the authors call for larger, controlled, double-blind, randomized trials before any clinical recommendations can be made (source: Molecular Hydrogen Therapy - A Review on Clinical Studies and Outcomes, Molecules, 2023). If you would like to learn how to distinguish a reliable study from one with weak methodology—looking at sample size, placebo control, dosage, and funding—a separate guide will walk you through the relevant considerations.

What exactly does GRAS status mean, and what does it not mean?

There is also a specific official U.S. position on safety. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) responded “no questions” to a GRAS notice (GRN 520) finalized in 2014, stating that hydrogen gas dissolved in drinking water, flavored beverages, and soda is safe to use at concentrations of up to 2.14 percent by volume (source: GRAS Notices - GRN 520: Hydrogen gas, U.S. Food and Drug Administration). This GRAS status only means that the specified amount of dissolved hydrogen is considered safe as a food ingredient; it does not mean that the FDA has recognized or approved any health effect or benefit. It is worth consciously keeping these two things separate: food-safety status and evidence of health effects are two independent questions.

What to consider before deciding whether to try it

If, after reading the above, you have decided that you are interested in the measurable, verifiable aspects—not “miracle water” promises, but the actual hydrogen concentration—there are a few specific things worth checking for a particular product. First, check whether the manufacturer provides a specific PPB figure and also states how it was measured: a number on its own, without a measurement method, is difficult to assess and difficult to compare with figures for other products.

Second, the generation method itself matters: with an electrolysis bottle—for example, the Core above, or the Hydrion Pulse, which assigns concentrations to two clearly specified operating modes (4,000 PPB in 5 minutes, 8,000 PPB in 10 minutes)—the process is a verifiable physical step, described in detail on the product page. It is important to note, however, that a higher PPB value does not by itself mean “healthier” water: differences in concentration between two different models result from differences in the generation method and how the device is used, not from one having a proven better physiological effect than the other. Third, it is worth realistically considering what you can expect from a product like this: according to the current state of research, neither the treatment of any specific disease nor an immediate improvement in well-being has been proven, so no product should be chosen on the basis of such a promise. If you are specifically interested in what visible or experiential results the body of research on hydrogen water currently shows, a separate, comprehensive article honestly summarizes what we know about this question today, while our article covering common misconceptions explores other similarly misunderstood claims. And if you specifically want to learn how to identify a genuinely misleading, poorly documented hydrogen water product, this guide is built around precisely those criteria.

Overall, the 2017 Hungarian criticism targeted a specific marketing claim being made at the time, and did not refute the fact that hydrogen gas can be measurably dissolved in water. That remains a verifiable physical fact, now accompanied by an official food-safety position and several clinical studies, albeit small-scale ones. If you want to use measurable specifications to inform yourself and compare the concentration figures and measurement methods provided for different models, reviewing the hydrogen water range is a good starting point for that comparison.