Suffocating Trends: Oxygen Bars and Drinks
Don't
get me wrong. I like oxygen. I breathe
in my share every day. Nevertheless I remain
skeptical of new products designed to put more
oxygen into my body. Marketers of oxygenated
bottled water and oxygen bars are breathing down
my neck.
Actor
and noted hemp enthusiast Woody Harrelson opened
an oxygen bar in Hollywood a few years ago, where
you pay a premium to breathe in the good stuff.
I know what you're thinking: "Woody
Harrelson! I loved him as a bald-headed mass-murderer
in 'Natural Born Killers.' Surely he knows a thing
or two about my respiratory system."
Well,
believe it or not, Woody might be a little off
this time.
Ludicrous
idea
The notion that we need extra oxygen is ludicrous.
The human body has adapted quite well to this
lower atmosphere of ours that is roughly 21 percent
oxygen, 78 percent nitrogen and 1 percent trace
gases. Blood cells, on exiting the lungs,
are nearly saturated with about 97 percent oxygen
bound molecularly to hemoglobin. Getting more
oxygen serves no purpose. In fact, it's
a bad thing.
Deep
in the lungs, tiny and fragile sacs called alveoli
are the site where inhaled oxygen enters the bloodstream
and carbon dioxide leaves to be exhaled.
With a surplus of oxygen in the lungs, the carbon
dioxide can't leave the body. Worse, the
build up of oxygen in the lungs can collapse the
alveoli and cause permanent lung damage.
Adults with emphysema, chronic asthma or chronic
bronchitis, in particular, will stop breathing
if they inhale pure oxygen for too long.
Premature babies, given extra oxygen because their
lungs aren't sufficiently mature to transfer oxygen
into the blood, can go blind if the concentration
gets too high, a malady called retinopathy of
prematurity; that's likely what happened to Stevie
Wonder.
Also,
oxygen may be what ultimately kills you, rusting
your body from the inside in a process called
oxidation and free-radical production. Breathing
pure oxygen creates an abundance of free radicals.
Unfortunately
the world of alternative medicine has painted
a scenario in which the human body is oxygen-deprived.
More oxygen will remove toxins and even cure cancer,
many in this community argue. This is a
persuasive argument in this age of industrial
pollution, but this goes against basic biology.
Oxygen
doesn't cure; and we aren't lacking any.
Mall
science
Oxygen bars are now popping up in shopping malls.
For the past five years they have been common
in trendy clubs in big cities that attract young
people hoping to throw away money as quickly as
possible. For a few dollars per minute,
you can breathe in pure oxygen through a mask
or tubes, for that oh-so-sexy emphysema-sufferer
look. Sometimes the oxygen is flavored.
O2 enthusiasts report clearer thoughts, more energy
and other subjective stuff that you can't measure.
Then they get drunk.
Oxygenated
water, available in bottled water aisles everywhere,
is cheaper but equally as dumb.
Aside
from the O part in H2O, ordinary water has about
0.5 percent dissolved oxygen gas. This is
what fish filter through their gills. Oxygenated
water can carry as much as 5 percent oxygen.
Now, if we assume that humans absorb oxygen efficiently
through their gut, which they don't, and if the
dissolved oxygen in the oxygenated water doesn't
bubble into the air when you open the bottle and
expose it to standard pressure, which it does,
how much O2 are you getting?
The
math is straightforward. Most oxygenated
drinks contain no more than 125 mg/liter; air
contains about 250 mg/liter. (Although air
is about 20 percent oxygen and the oxygenated
water is 5 percent dissolved oxygen, the density
is different, so this isn't quite 4:1.)
Each minute we inhale about 12 times and breathe
in about 4 liters of air. So you need to
drink two liters of oxygenated water (at 125 mg/l)
just to keep up with three good breaths (about
a liter of air).
At
a dollar a bottle, you might want to reconsider
drinking your oxygen. After all, the air
is free ... well, except at Woody's place.