Have you heard of “oxygen water?” This self-explanatory product that you may have passed by unsuspectingly at a grocery store or a gas station contains higher levels of oxygen than normal water. The manufacturers of oxygen water such as GP8 oxygen water and OXiGEN all claim their products have many health benefits, one of them being an improvement in an athlete’s performance; but is this true? In short it isn’t.
OGO Oxygen Water, courtesy of Flickr Commons
Oxygen is an essential ingredient needed to generate energy in the human body. When vigorously exercising, athletes are always in short of oxygen; therefore, they breathe heavier and faster to get more oxygen in their lungs. What if there was an alternate way of getting oxygen inside your body than breathing? Oxygen water manufacturers say that their products will increase the blood oxygen level because there is an extra supply of oxygen in the body from drinking oxygen-rich water. Unfortunately, this is no where near the truth.
With the popularity of oxygen water growing in both professional and amateur athletes, a few teams of scientist decided to challenge the science behind oxygen water. Dr. Piantadosi tested whether consuming oxygen benefited athletic performance or not. The study concluded that oxygen water did not improve any athletic abilities and Dr. Piantadosi stated: “oxygenated water fails both quantitative analysis and practical physiological tests of exercise performance and recovery.”
Oxygen Radicals, courtesy of Wikimedia
Another study investigated the effects of oxygen water but approached the subject slightly different. Schoenberg et al. (2006) were determined to figure out if oxygen water was more harmful than beneficial. The team suspected that drinking oxygen-rich water will generate oxygen radicals and when tested, they were right. Oxygen radicals, which are unstable form of oxygen that damage or even kill our cells, were higher than normal in the volunteers who drank oxygen water up to 30 minutes after consumption. From these results, it is clear that oxygen water should be avoided. Unlike the claims made by the manufacturers, they do not enhance physical endurance or athletic ability and they do more harm than good.
