What Is Oxygenated Water?

Oxygenated water is a type of bottled or canned water that has oxygen added to it. The purpose of adding oxygen to water is to provide various health benefits, including better exercise recovery, although there’s limited evidence to support these benefits.This article will discuss the water oxygenating process, the potential benefits and setbacks of oxygenated water, and more. 

Oxygenated water is made by adding oxygen to water during the bottling or canning process, raising the water’s dissolved oxygen levels. 

Oftentimes, oxygenated water is purified prior to oxygenation, which means it is free from other dissolved gases and impurities like chlorine, heavy metals and nitrate. Other ingredients may be added to oxygenated water, such as caffeine and electrolytes. 

The most likely benefit of oxygenated water is that it encourages you to meet your daily hydration needs. 

You may be more inclined to stay hydrated throughout the day if you believe the water is healthier than normal tap water. 

If you drink more water simply because it is oxygenated, you will enjoy the health benefits of good hydration, including regulated body temperature, elevated energy levels and properly functioning organs. 

Many oxygenated water sellers claim that water with added oxygen helps the body to clear lactase, a protein that’s produced during high-intensity exercise, at a faster rate.  Lactase is produced when the blood’s oxygen levels begin to drop during exercise. As lactase builds up in the body, it leads to muscle fatigue, affecting performance.  Supposedly, drinking oxygenated water during training improves lactase clearance - and there’s a 2017 study that supports this idea. However, more evidence is needed to validate this single study and determine just how oxygenated water may boost lactase clearance during exercise. 

Most people do not drink oxygenated water for its potential ability to speed up their body’s metabolism of alcohol, but this may be a benefit, nevertheless. Alcohol is absorbed by the small intestine and the stomach, before being metabolized by the liver. The metabolization of alcohol can’t occur without oxygen. One 2012 study found that drinking oxygenated water may speed up the metabolization of alcohol in the body, and that water containing oxygen reduced blood alcohol levels at a faster rate in 15 men who had consumed large amounts of alcohol. 

Because the evidence to support the health benefits of oxygenated water is minimal, many manufacturers add other ingredients to their water products to make them more sellable. Some of the ingredients often found in oxygenated water are caffeine and electrolytes, which have been shown to boost exercise performance and are commonly found in pre-workout beverages.  Some oxygenated water products also contain hemp extract, which may reduce anxiety and chronic pain (although higher doses are usually required than those found in bottled water). 

The biggest setback of oxygenated water is that there is currently limited scientific evidence to support the claims about its health benefits.  Many health claims are based on a single study, so more studies and research are needed to uncover trending results that prove the benefits of oxygenated water. 

When you open a bottle or can of oxygenated water, the oxygen will begin to escape immediately. That means you’ll need to drink the water quickly before it loses the very thing that makes it a premium product: its dissolved oxygen.Most bottled water sellers say you should drink their water within a half hour of opening it, to enjoy the benefits of its high oxygen levels. 

Oxygenated water is usually cleaner and purer than normal tap water, because most oxygenated water products are filtered or purified before the dissolved oxygen is added.  How does oxygenated water compare to other bottled water products? Typically, oxygenated water tastes flatter than bottled spring water and mineral water because its other gases and impurities have been removed.Like caffeinated water, chlorophyll water, antioxidant water, and other functional water products, oxygenated water is often sold at a premium price but has very little scientific data to support its so-called health benefits. 

Oxygenated water is an expensive product. Since the benefits of drinking water with elevated oxygen levels aren’t supported by much scientific evidence, it isn’t worth switching solely to an oxygenated water supply at the moment. You might want to drink a bottle of oxygenated water before or during a heavy workout for its potential performance benefits. If you think the water works to reduce lactase production in your muscles, you can continue to drink a bottle of water a day to enhance your workouts.

Some sellers of bottled oxygenated water claim that the water has a more pleasant taste due to its high dissolved oxygen levels, but this isn’t true. Purified oxygenated water may taste a little flatter than normal tap water because the gases that are normally present have been removed. 

At the moment, there isn’t enough evidence to support the claimed health benefits of oxygenated water - but that doesn’t mean that oxygenated water is a gimmick. More research is needed before scientists can say for certain whether or not oxygenated water has more benefits than normal tap water. 

Alkaline water is water that has been treated to increase its pH and alkalinity, while oxygenated water is purified water that contains high levels of dissolved oxygen. Both of these water types can’t be combined - oxygenated alkaline water doesn’t exist.