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Q: Can drinking oxygenated water have any health benefits?

A: No. Makers of oxygenated water claim the water is infused with 7 to 40 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. A bottle of oxygenated water has less oxygen than what 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 tracts. And, in
general, healthy people’s blood already contains all the oxygen it needs.

Oxygen water is a scam.

More Ask the Experts
• Why do beans cause gas? How can I prevent this?
• Are hyaluronic acid supplements effective against joint pain?
• What is farmer cheese, and why does it have little or no calcium?

UC Berkeley Wellness Letter, August 2011