Latest Research Shows that Sewer Gas May Prevent Damage After a Heart Attack

According to research just completed from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, administering hydrogen sulfide (H2S)- otherwise known as sewer gas - directly into the heart during a simulated heart attack has been able to significantly reduce the tissue as well as the cell damage that is often seen in organs when they are deprived of oxygen.

H2S is able to boost the heart's function after a heart attack by helping to minimize what is known as reperfusion injury which is a side effect of restoring the blood flow too swiftly to hearts that are suffering from low oxygen.

They tested their theory on mice and found that injecting H2S led to as 72% reduction in the amount of severe heart tissue death after they restored the normal oxygen and blood flow to the hearts.

In the mice that were not given the treatment, there was a much larger average amount of tissue death after they experienced the same 30 minutes of oxygen deprivation. In addition to a decrease in heart-tissue death, the mice who received the treatment showed a 35% decrease in blood-protein levels that are a sign of myocardial damage, as well as a 26% decrease in heart-tissue markers of inflammation when compared to un-treated mice hearts.

These findings regarding the way H2S can protect tissues have very broad implications for improving human survival after events like cardiac arrest, heart transplants and any trauma in general.

In addition, when they isolated mitochondria from the treated mice, they were able to confirm that heart cell functional integrity had indeed been preserved. In recent reports from other studies, have shown that inhaled, not injected H2S can induce a state of suspended animation in animals. This is a reversible effect.