Oxygenated Water Facts

Marketers of oxygenated water have made numerous claims about their product's health benefits. Oxygenated water is supposed to boost health, increases athletic performance, hydrate your body more quickly and even slow the aging process. However, several scientific studies have not been able to back up these claims.

Misconceptions

• The term "oxygenated water" suggests a high amount of oxygen. However, very little oxygen dissolves in water, even under pressure. A bottle of oxygenated water contains less oxygen than a single human breath--and most of that dissipates into the air when you open the bottle.

Considerations

• It doesn't matter how much extra oxygen is in oxygenated water, however, because your digestive tract can't absorb it, only your lungs. Even if the oxygen did get absorbed into your bloodstream through your digestive tract, the blood would carry it right back to the lungs, not to your muscles, according to researchers at the University of Wisconsin.

Studies

• Several studies, such as a 2003 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and a 2002 study conducted by researchers at the University of Wisconsin, found that subjects who drank oxygenated water before exercising showed no increase in performance over subjects who drank ordinary water. Claims that oxygenated water boosts performance are based in marketing, not science, according to these studies.