Oxygen Water Scams - Myths & Truths

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Trolling the internet for 'Oxygen Water Scams' you will find several articles relating to Scammers who have seduced people to buy their oxygen water to cure AIDS, Cancer and a multitude of illnesses. Most relate to a time when it wasn't even possible to measure the oxygen molecule under a microscope because the technology just didn't exist. Also the technology to create nanoscopic oxygen bubbles that saturate and are stable in water was in its infancy and in general was only being used as a form of water treatment for dying lakes and fish farms. The oxygen bubbles that were created back in 2014 were more likely to be micro bubbles, which are not stable in water and have the tenancy to rise to the surface and burst.

To save you time researching scam articles we've provided links to various articles we've found for you to decide for yourself. Enjoy.
You can obtain oxygenated water by turning on the cold water tap in your sink and very carefully (so as not to waste any) collecting it in a drinking glass. Since our water supply is exposed to the atmosphere, it already contains as much O2 as it will hold. If any commercial sources of oxygenated water force more O2 into solution by increasing gas pressure, it will come bubbling out of solution as soon as it is exposed to the atmosphere, just like CO2 bubbles out of soda.

Besides, it won’t be any healthier than non-oxygenated water, no matter where you get it. It’s supposed to work by delivering more O2 to enhance muscle performance, but the solubility of O2 in water is so low that, even with the claimed 4× increase (about 32 mg/L) one liter of Big-O Water will contain about 1 mmol of oxygen, roughly equal to three ordinary breaths. Moreover, your hemoglobin and plasma are already very nearly saturated with O2 when the blood arrives in the GI tract, so it won’t magically absorb more from your stomach.

Save your pennies for a nice bottle of wine.

View all comments quora.com

Eric Ressner 2017 - Quora.com

Oxygen water? You can’t breathe through your stomach

My exercise of choice is running. Despite the heat I’ve been having a great summer, training for the Chicago marathon. I’ve followed the training schedule fanatically since June. But it all came crashing down in one run last week when I moved from the ranks of “marathoner in training” to “injured runner”.

With the sudden onset of very sharp, radiating back pain, I was struggling to walk. My marathon plans seemed to evaporate. And in that moment of weakness, I became prey. Prey to pseudoscience, and prey to anyone offering a quick fix.

I usually know what it takes to resolve back pain. Mainly it’s time. It will resolve. Exercise seems to help me, and the memory of back pain keeps me active almost every day. But despite our best efforts, it can reappear. I’m a terrible patient. I want to do something, anything, that will get me back to normal as quickly as possible.

With the desire to do something other than wait, I found a physiotherapist who could see me the next day. And in doing so, I may have found a setting with more pseudoscience than your local drug store. It’s the sports therapy clinic. In the waiting room there was a display of Kinesio Tape for sale. Brochures invited me to consider acupuncture for my injuries. And I could have booked time with a chiropractor if wanted. I didn’t want any of that. I don’t know what the problem with my back is, but I know it’s not a subluxation, or a problem with Qi. The physiotherapist I met seemed evidence-based, and thankfully didn’t suggest acupuncture. I’ve been doing some of the gentle exercises she recommended, and mobilizing daily. And while I’m not limping anymore, the pain isn’t gone yet, and I’m trying not to get to anxious as I approach two full weeks without running. (If there’s an activity that’s more boring than water running, I haven’t found it.)

Leaving the clinic after my second visit, in slightly less pain, I noted that this athletic therapy clinic also sold bottled water. But it wasn’t just any bottled water. This water was specifically for athletes. The label caught my attention and I snapped a picture (above). I had never heard of water with extra oxygen before, with the exception of when I blogged about hydrogen peroxide. Based on the marketing for this particular product, GP8, some athletes endorse oxygenated water, claiming that they can perform better. There are dozens of water products that claim to deliver more oxygen with each swallow, and they’re sold widely.

I can see why this product would be tantalizing to anyone that wants an athletic edge or faster recovery. When you’re injured, there can be a strong feeling of “what’s the harm” that can overwhelm any cautious consideration of the science and the evidence. It’s the same reason that dietary supplement vendors are sponsoring Olympic athletes, and why many athletes endorse these products despite the lack of evidence that they provide any meaningful benefit. Athletes want any edge they can get, even if it’s pseudoscience. Anything that can help performance (or perhaps recovery from injury) can seem very attractive. What better setting could there be to market these products than a clinic treating injured athletes?

Despite the hype, the claims and the athletic endorsements, there’s no persuasive evidence that oxygenated waters offer any meaningful health or athletic benefits beyond the basic hydration you can get from a tap. Like many pseudoscientific products, oxygenated water in an unsinkable rubber duck.
Who drinks oxygen, anyway?

Why would we drink oxygen at all? We’ve all got unlimited access to air, which at about 21% oxygen keeps our bloodstream almost completely saturated with oxygen. I can only postulate the reasoning behind the development of these products:

    We need oxygen to live
    When we exercise, we sometimes get short of breath
    If some oxygen is good, then more must be better
    “Hey guys, I’ve got an idea. What if we cram more oxygen in drinking water? Then we can bypass the lungs and put more oxygen in the bloodstream.”
    ?????
    Profit (and perhaps get a supportive anecdote)

It’s true that we need oxygen to live, and when we breathe heavily during exercise, it’s to take in more oxygen and eliminate carbon dioxide (CO2). Almost of the oxygen the blood carries is bound to hemoglobin. There’s a small amount of oxygen that’s dissolved in the plasma. When we exercise, the amount of oxygen in the blood decreases only slightly, from nearly 100% saturation to around 90%. Under most circumstances, the air we breathe is providing all the oxygen we need – exceptions being specific medical conditions, or breathing at very high altitudes, where air pressure is lower and the oxygen saturation in the blood is lower, too.

While there’s an oxygen atom in every water molecule, this isn’t “free” oxygen that is available for respiration. There’s a small amount of oxygen (as O2) that’s dissolved in water and available to aquatic life. Putting water under pressure, you can force more oxygen to dissolve into it. But release the pressure, and you’ll see it emerge – it’s the same principle as carbonated water, where CO2 is released when a no longer under pressure.

The manufacturer of the bottled water I spotted in the clinic claims to have solved this issue:
    GP8’s Enhanced Solubility Water contains up to 400% as much dissolved oxygen as untreated water. This oxygen occurs in the form of ‘guest’ molecules of O2 which occupy and stabilize the spaces between molecules of H2O. The unique purification process used to create GP8 results in larger spaces between H2O molecules, which in turn allow for two or more molecules of O2 occupying and stabilizing them. The result is increased oxygen content. And unlike ‘oxygenated waters’ which quickly release their dissolved gas after opening, the oxygen in GP8 is not under pressure and remains in the water for several hours, even with agitation. GP8 is believed to improve oxygen delivery through the circulatory system by promoting more efficient oxygen transfer through the plasma. Not only does GP8 maximize oxygen intake, but it is also one of the few alkaline pH waters available – a property which is thought to help counter the effects of lactic acid. Committed to serious athletes, GP8 Oxygen Water is 100% additive-free and contains no chemical by-products resulting from the purification process.

There’s about 5mg/L of dissolved oxygen in typical drinking water, but that can vary based on the source, the temperature and other factors. The proprietary method claimed by GP8 states that it can increase the effective oxygen levels without putting the water under pressure. While there’s an elaborate information sheet posted online, I can’t find any published evidence to show that (1) this phenomena actually exists and that (2) there’s actually more oxygen absorbed through the gastrointestinal tract.

Our need to use oxygen at elevation tells you what happens if we happened to absorb oxygen into our bloodstream. Without putting the body under higher atmospheric pressure, the blood can’t simply dissolve more oxygen in it when it’s already saturated.

View all comments sciencebasedmedicine.org

sciencebasedmedicine.com 2016

“Oxygenated” water and athletic performance

A decade or so ago, the idea arose that athletes might gain a competitive edge by drinking water that contained extra dissolved oxygen (O2). The notion stems from observations that O2 breathing during exercise enhances athletic performance,1,2 but the connection of O2 breathing during exercise with drinking “hyperoxygenated” water before exercise conflates physics and physiology in a struthonian visit to placebo land. Fuelled by bottled‐water mavens, who collect testimonials for oxygenated waters, claims abound of ergogenic benefits of water advertised to hold up to 40 times more O2 than plain water.

The issue of hydration aside, such claims have a flimsy rationale and no rigorous experimental support. On close inspection, three scientific problems immediately arise. Firstly, for all practical purposes, supplemental O2 improves performance only during exercise, not before or between bouts.3 With normal lungs, breathing of even pure O2 at sea level increases maximal O2 uptake (V̇o2max) by only 5–10% because air breathing alone, except at high intensity work, keeps the arterial O2 saturation (Sao2) and content (Cao2) very high.2

The next problem is that the solubility of O2 in water (and plasma) is low. The solubility constant obeys Henry's Law: it is directly proportional to O2 partial pressure at the air‐liquid interface as well as inversely proportional to the temperature—cold water holds more O2 than warm water.4 At sea level (760 mm Hg) and room temperature (20°C), O2 solubility in water is ∼0.68 ml/dl. The O2 content of bottled water can be raised by increasing the O2 partial pressure, but when the pressure returns to atmospheric—for instance, when the bottle is opened—O2 off‐gases just like the CO2 fizz in a carbonated beverage. The aqueous O2 content rapidly falls to the lower equilibrium.

View all comments National Institutes of Health

National Institutes of Health 2006

Oxygenated Water: Great stuff? Or Just Water?

Have you seen the ads for oxygenated water? It’s supposed to be good for the skin and good for health. Of course water is good for the skin. It keeps it clean, healthy and looking good. Oxygenated water adds extra oxygen to tap water. It’s supposed to make your heart and muscles work better. And certain proponents say it can improve wrinkles, hair loss and even spider veins.

Have you seen the ads for oxygenated water?  It’s supposed to be good for the skin and good for health. Of course water is good for the skin.  It keeps it clean, healthy and looking good. Oxygenated water adds extra oxygen to tap water. It’s supposed to make your heart and muscles work better. And certain proponents say it can improve wrinkles, hair loss and even spider veins. 

Is there any science to this? It turns out that a single breath of air contains more oxygen than a whole bottle of oxygenated water. And the amount of oxygen in that $3 bottle – it only lasts a few seconds in the body. No science here, the heightened cost simply isn’t worth it.

The bottom line? This is an easy one. Don’t get ripped off by oxygenated water. 

View all comments doctoroz.com

Dr. Perry Blog 2018

Q: Can drinking oxygenated water have any health benefits?

A: No. Makers of oxygenated water (bottled or canned) claim the water is infused with at least seven times more oxygen than regular water. This, supposedly, will help your muscles, improve athletic performance, and “purify” the body.

But this makes no sense. First, there’s little free oxygen gas in water to begin with; adding more doesn’t amount to much. Even if it does contain extra oxygen, a bottle of oxygenated water would have less oxygen than the amount you get taking a single breath.

Most important, it doesn’t matter how much oxygen is in the water because we absorb oxygen into our blood through our lungs, not our digestive tract. And, in general, healthy people’s blood already contains all the oxygen it needs. Adding a little more won't improve health or performance.

View all comments Berkerly Wellness

Berkley Wellness 2013
ATLANTA (August 3, 2001) – The scientific research behind oxygenated water -- a product growing in popularity throughout the country – leaves much to be desired, according to the latest issue of the Georgia Tech Sports Medicine & Performance Newsletter.

The Georgia Tech Sports Medicine & Performance Newsletter is a monthly publication of the Homer Rice Center for Sports Performance at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Also in this month’s issue:
• Exercise Quotient vs. Orthopedic Limit
• Ankle Injuries, Flexibility
• Menstrual Cycle and Knee Injuries
• Salt Tablets, Preventing Anemia
• Squats, Pitch Count, Pinched Nerves

For subscription information, write to Georgia Tech Sports Medicine & Performance Newsletter, P.O. Box 3000, Denville, NJ, 07834, or call Customer Service at (800) 783-4903. Subscriptions are $34 a year for 12 issues.

According to Jim Brown, Ph.D. and executive editor of the newsletter, a 1997 study conducted at a university in Texas became the basis for one of the latest in commercial sports-performance products. The concept of using oxygenated water – also called oxygenized water -- to enhance athletic performance caught on after the study’s release. However, the study was seriously flawed, Brown writes.

View all comments Georgia Tech

Georgia Tech 2001

FTC Attacks "Stabilized Oxygen" Claims

Various products referred to as "stabilized" or "aerobic" oxygen," are being marketed with claims that they can cure disease by increasing oxygen delivery to the cells. Some claim that "oxygen deficiency" or "oxygen starvation" is an underlying cause of disease and has been increasing because the oxygen content of the earth's atmosphere has been decreasing and junk food does not contain enough oxygen [A, B, C, D]. These claims are absurd -- for several reasons.

  • There is no reason to believe that the products actually deliver oxygen to the body. It is possible to use an electric current to add a tiny amount of oxygen to water, but to access it, a human would need gills.
  • Even if they could, taking oxygen into the stomach through a liquid, pill, or food would not significantly raise the body's blood level of oxygen.
  • Oxygen enters the bloodstream through the lungs. The body adapts to what it needs by changing its breathing rate.
  • The oxygen content of air is not changing and remains constant at 21% regardless of the weather.
  • If enough oxygen is available to sustain life, the body will extract what it needs from the air and deliver what is needed to the cells. Blood returning to the lungs contains surplus oxygen.
  • "Oxygen deficiency" is not an underlying cause of disease.

Two-ounce bottles of "3%"or "5%" solutions cost about $20 per bottle. Earth Portals also markets a higher-priced "super-oxygenated solution at 25% . . . for serious competitive athletes and individuals looking to get the maximum oxygen into the blood stream." At least a dozen companies have marketed such products.

View all comments FTC

FTC Ruling 1999

Unless you have gills, it's just an expensive burp!

Oxygenated water (also known as "superoxygenated" water) is offered at hundreds of Web sites. I highly recommend it if you happen to be a fish, but if you have lungs that breathe air, then forget about it! All  water that has been exposed to the air is "oxygenated" to a small extent— about 8 milligrams of O2 per liter of water at room temperature— and this can be increased by pressurizing the water with oxygen gas; each additional atmosphere of oxygen pressure pumps an additional 40 mg into each liter. But what happens when you open the bottle? That's right, the extra oxygen goes right back out— but not immediately, so by drinking oxygenated water, you can still take a bit more oxygen into your stomach. But can any oxygen molecules that don't get burped back out actually find their way into your bloodstream through absorption in the stomach or intestine? I very much doubt it; the lungs are exquisitely adapted to this function, while your digestive system is specialized for absorbing other nutrients.

Suppose, instead, that you simply breathe in an extra liter of air (much easier to do than drinking a liter of water!) It's an easy chemistry students' calculation to show that you will be inhaling about 146 mg of oxygen in this way. Not all of it will enter your bloodstream, but you can always take an extra breath; it's free!

These products seem to be pitched especially at the sports community, always on the lookout for that thin advantage that can make all the difference. There is no credible evidence that it does, as the following articles mention:


View all comments Chem1

Chem 1 website 2000's
Nanobubbles or Ultra Fine Bubbles have come along way. Here's the thoughts of today with insights in to their potential across many industries.

Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis (NTA) utilizes the properties of both light scattering and Brownian motion in order to obtain the nanoparticle size distribution of samples in liquid suspension.

Particles in liquid suspension are loaded into a sample chamber, which is illuminated by a specially shaped laser beam. Particles in the path of the beam scatter the laser light which is easily collected by the 20x microscope objective and is viewed with a digital camera.  The camera captures a video of the particles moving under Brownian motion. The Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis (NTA) software analyses many particles individually and simultaneously (particle-by-particle), and by using the Stokes Einstein equation, calculates their hydrodynamic diameters. NanoSight instruments provide high resolution nanoparticle size, count-based concentration and aggregation measurements while a fluorescence mode provides specific results for suitably labelled particles.  With real time monitoring, subtle changes in the characteristics of particle populations are provided with all of these analyses confirmed by visual validation.

The technique uses low sample volumes with little sample preparation which, along with minimal instrument consumables, reduces running costs on a day to day basis.  The technique is also non-destructive and the sample can be recovered if required.

NanoSight NTA systems support work within ISO19430: 2016 Particle Tracking Analysis (PTA) Method and ASTM E2834-12 (2012) Standard Guide for Measurement of Particle Size Distribution of Nanomaterials in Suspension by Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis (NTA).

Applications include:

  • Exosomes, microvesicles and extracellular vesicles characterization.
  • Viral vaccine research and development.
  • Development of drug delivery systems.
  • Protein aggregation studies.
  • Nanotoxicology.
malvernpanalytical.com
Analysis of Nanoparticles

Why don’t they float to the top?

We all know what happens to bubbles in water: They float to the top and disappear, eventually. In a bubbly foam bath, the bubbles are stabilized with surfactants and other ingredients. This extends their presence for some time. Yet, they all soon float on the surface of the bath. However, when looking at ever smaller sizes this is not quite the case. When the size of an air bubble in water is below a few microns, the influence of diffusion becomes meaningful. Now the random Brownian motion can overtake buoyancy: the bubbles no longer rise to the top in the case of Nanobubbles. (You might also read about them as ultra-fine bubbles in the literature.)

I came across an interesting publication with data from a Zetasizer that I thought would be good to share here. If you want to read the whole story, you can find it in Environmental Engineering Science 35,11(2018), pp. 1216-1227 by L.N. Meedoga, W.A.  Hewage, and J.H. Batagoda under the title “Stability of Nanobubbles”.

How big are Nanobubbles?

The authors report a hydrodynamic size range from ~50nm to ~700nm. While this may in the strictest sense fall slightly outside the definition for Nanomaterials, the term Nanobubble has existed for several decades. The authors did some clever experiments showing that different gas molecules – as well as pH – can lead to different hydrodynamic sizes.

  • Ozone, Oxygen, Air, Nitrogen can all produce good nanobubbles, with size ranges from 50nm-200nm, [2mM NaCl, pH7, 20°C, 0.3mS/cm].
  • pH influences Oxygen nanobubble generation. At pH10 (~80nm) the size is much smaller than at pH4 (~350nm).
  • pH influences Oxygen nanobubbles stability. At pH10 and pH7 the size grows slowly to only about 200 to 300nm, respectively, over one week.

The authors also include data showing an interesting size increase of ozone nanobubbles in up-to 1 molar high salt, 1M NaCl.

Why are they stable?

This is quite interesting. It turns out that there is some charge present at the gas-liquid interface. Most likely, negatively charged OH- hydroxide anions help to stabilize the bubbles. Electrophoretic light scattering can measure the overall effective negative charge of these objects. Below are some typical zeta potential values obtained by the authors. (They used the Smoluchovski approximation to convert electrophoretic mobility.)

  • Ozone, Oxygen, Air, Nitrogen nanobubbles exhibit zeta from ~-25mV to -20mV, so were always negative at standard conditions [2mM NaCl, pH7, 20°C, 0.3mS/cm].
  • Oxygen nanobubbles generated at pH10 (~-27mV) were much more strongly charged than those generated at pH4 (~-4mV).
  • Oxygen nanobubbles lost effective charge over one week of observation, about 5mV per week, making low pH starting conditions neutrally charged.

They also show the typical decrease in zeta potential magnitude when salt is added. (This is due to Debye screening). What all this indicates is that charge stabilization plays an important role in the stabilization of nanobubbles. Select nanobubbles data from Meedoga et al. (primarily oxygen, excluded ozone) are summarized in this scatter plot titled “Nanobubble size versus zeta potential”. Stronger, more negative zeta potential is generally consistent with smaller nanobubble hydrodynamic size.

Nanobubble size verus zeta potential for different nanobuuble preparations from cited reference, more negative charge correlates with smaller particle size

NB: In addition to above, the latest Zetasizer Ultra can also determine the concentration of nanobubbles, typically in the range from E7 to E9. This extends the range of nanoparticle tracking analysis, for details see application note on Nanobubble Characterization and white paper on Nanobubble NTA.

Previously

If you have any questions, please email me at ulf.nobbmann@malvernpanalytical.com. Thanks! While opinions expressed are generally those of the author, our editorial team may have modified some parts.

View all comments Zetasize

Nanobubbles – Are they real? 2019
J Cell Biochem. 2019 Sep;120(9):15546-15552. doi: 10.1002/jcb.28821. Epub 2019 May 3.

Evaluation of antitumor effect of oxygen nanobubble water on breast cancer-bearing BALB/c mice.

Mahjour A1, Khazaei M2, Nourmohammadi E3, Khoshdel-Sarkarizi H4, Ebrahimzadeh-Bideskan A4, Rahimi HR2, Safipour Afshar A1.

Author information

1
Department of Biology, Neyshabur Branch, Islamic Azad University, Neyshabur, Iran.
2
Neurogenic Inflammation Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
3
Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
4
Department of Anatomical Sciences and Cell Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.

Abstract

Hypoxia is a condition of low oxygen level which poses a common feature of most cancers. In the current study, we investigated effect of water containing oxygen nanobubble (ONB) on tumor growth in breast cancer 4T1-bearing mice during 14-day treatment period. Tumor-bearing mice were randomly divided into three groups (six mice per group), including the ONB group drinking water containing ONB, the air nanobubble (ANB) group drinking water containing ANB, and control group drinking normal water. Tumor weight and size were measured in 2-day interval during 14-day treatment. mRNA expression of p53, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF), and cyclin D/Cdk2 genes were measured in the treated and control mice. After 8, 12, and 14 days of treatment, tumor size in ONB group was significantly decreased by 40.5%, 32.8%, and 28%, respectively, when compared with the control group. In addition, ANB group showed a significant reduction in tumor burden as well. The messenger RNA (mRNA) level of p53 in tumor cells of ONB and ANB group was found to be 36-fold (P = 0.0001) and 33-fold (P = 0.0001) higher than that in the control group, respectively. There was a ninefold increase in mRNA expression of VEGF gene in tumor cells of ANB mice than that in control mice; however, there was no significant changes in ONB group. Expression of HIF gene was significantly lower in tumor cells of ONB and ANB group than in the control group. It is concluded that drinking ONB water has potential to inhibit tumor growth, however more preclinical and proof-of-concept studies are needed to confirm its safety and therapeutic effect.

© 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


View all comments PubMed

Breast Cancer Research 2019 Trial
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