Benefits of Long-Term Ingestion of Oxygen-Enriched Water

I. INTRODUCTION

Homeostasis is the balanced internal environment of the body; the automatic tendency of an organism to maintain a steady state. Homeostasis describes the body’s constant effort toward dynamic equilibrium. The sheer complexity of human biochemistry is matched, paradoxically, by the simple but basic requirements for life: food, water and oxygen. We know that the adult human may go 60 days without food, but is seriously affected after just three days without water and is no longer functionally viable within minutes of oxygen deprivation.

Chronic Oxygen Debt Syndrome

There is enormous probability of impaired oxygen transfer and cellular oxygen uptake in the majority of today’s adult population, hence the interest in oxygen therapies, and specifically in oxygen-enriched drinking water. Long-term ingestion of oxygen-enriched water should apply to the majority of the population, most of whom suffer from Chronic Oxygen Debt Syndrome.

II. OVERVIEW OF EXISTING STUDIES

A. An unpublished study conducted by John J. Duncan, PhD, in 1997, concluded that of the 25 non-professional athletes who took part in a double-blind study to determine effects of drinking oxygenated water on performance, 83% of the half who drank bottled oxygenated water for two weeks achieved a personal best time in a 10K run.

B. Led by John Porcari, Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin, a study included 12 college-aged men and women who were randomly assigned to drink either 16 ounces of super oxygenated water or regular tap water. Researchers found that drinking super oxygenated water had no measurable effect on the subjects’ resting heart rate. However, drinking only 16 ounces of oxygenated water prior to a series of exercises is an inadequate intake of water, and the group was too small for this type of study.

C. A Highly O2-Supersaturated Infusate for Regional Correction of Hypoxemia and Production of Hyperoxemia (Circulation. 1997;96:4385-4391.© 1997 American Heart Association, Inc). The results of the present work support the hypothesis that an Aqueous Oxygen infusion can be used either to correct hypoxemia or to produce hyperoxemia on a regional basis.

D. Peer-Reviewed Study Supports The Transport of Oxygen Via Oxygen-Enriched Water from the Stomach Into the Portal Vein. April, 25, 2002. Esam Z. Dajani, Ph.D., FACG, commented on a study published by the European Journal of Medical Research, November, 1998. The study examined the intragastric absorption of oxygen following the consumption of oxygen-enriched water in anesthetized rabbits. The study clearly supports the systemic transport of oxygen, derived from oxygenated water, from the stomach into the portal vein.

III. OXYGEN AND CHEMICAL OXYGEN DEMAND

Oxygen is catabolic, meaning, it tears down, but more important, oxygen cleanses. Oxygen destroys the side products, or metabolites, of anabolism, the building-up process of the body.

Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) as defined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is: A measure of the oxygen required to oxidize all compounds, both organic and inorganic, in water. Everything we eat, breathe, drink, smoke or generate internally, such as enzymes and hormones, has a relative COD value. A compound that all of us are familiar with is nicotine. The COD of nicotine is extremely great – the oxygen required to react with and metabolize nicotine appears to have caused severe disruption of the oxygen cycle.

IV. OVERVIEW OF CELL RESPIRATION

Ambient air is made up of 20.9% oxygen and several inert gases. Only a quarter (ideally) of that oxygen we breathe is transferred to blood, through the alveoli in the lungs. In health, an individual will have a respiratory system that will saturate 94-96% of the hemoglobin as it passes by the lungs.

In aerobic cell respiration, ambient air is inhaled and gas exchange occurs in the alveoli of the lungs. At the cellular level, anaerobic respiration occurs in a deficiency of oxygen in tissues of higher species and produces much less energy than the aerobic process. With inadequate oxygen, anaerobic energy production occurs, ultimately creating a byproduct, lactic acid, hence reducing pH, toward the acidic.

V. OXYGEN AS A THERAPEUTIC TOOL

Overweight/Obesity

Fats are made up of the same elements as those that form carbohydrates, but in fats these elements are combined in different proportions, being especially poor in oxygen. The chemical makeup of fat demands excessive oxygen – far more than muscle tissue – and may explain why overweight/obese patients experience high blood pressure, among other diseases, as the body strives toward dynamic equilibrium.

Endocrine System

Researchers have known for decades that stress causes the body to secrete hormones that can harm the immune system. The extremely potent hormones released by the pituitary and the adrenals have exceedingly high COD. The adaptation to and metabolism of these hormones require oxygen and a lot of it.

Digestion

The implementation of digestive system functions is accomplished by highly specialized mucosal cells located at the surface of the intestinal wall. These mucosal cells require a significant input of energy in the form of oxygen and nutrients in order for the digestive system to function at peak performance levels.

Cancer

For his discovery of the nature and mode of action of the respiratory enzyme, the 1931 Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to Otto Heinrich Warburg, M.D. He has shown, among other things, that cancerous cells can live and develop even in the absence of oxygen. Dr. Warburg’s name is often used to support the promotion of oxygen therapies and of drinking oxygenated water.

VI. CONCLUSION

If one were to name the universal factor in all death, whether cellular or planetary, it would certainly be loss of oxygen. Dr. Milton Helpern, who was for twenty years the Chief Medical Examiner of New York City, is said to have stated it quite clearly in a single sentence: Death may be due to a wide variety of diseases and disorders, but in every case the underlying physiological cause is a breakdown in the body’s oxygen cycle.

Homeostasis and its required dynamic equilibrium is the result of the basic formula: oxygen + nutrition = energy. This three-part equation is easily knocked down by deficits in oxygen or nutrition. Drinking oxygenated water is as benign a “therapy” as ever there has been. Indeed, disease and aging are destined to be -- and the national health crisis makes it imperative that they be -- observed through the prism of the oxygen cycle. Oxygen: truly, the big picture.