What Is Oxygenated Water, and What Happens to Your Body When You Drink It?

Oxygenated water, or "hydrogenated water," has extra oxygen added to water during the bottling process. Oxygenated water may help speed up alcohol metabolism and enhance lactate clearance after exercise.

If you are into exercise, fitness, and sports, you may have already heard of oxygenated water or drink it yourself. Oxygenated water is claimed to have multiple health benefits. Extra oxygen is added under pressure to purified water, so more oxygen is absorbed into your bloodstream. However, most of the oxygen may escape your bottle when you open it.

Water is good for your health in many ways, but is there an additional advantage to drinking the extra added oxygen?

This article will compare oxygen water to plain tap water, examine the risks and benefits, and see if it is good for your body.

Oxygenated water, or "hydrogenated water," has extra oxygen added to water during the bottling process. Many companies claim that oxygenated water has health benefits beyond the usual benefits of drinking water. Oxygenated water is made by increasing the atmospheric pressure around the water so that the level of dissolved water increases. This process is done at the canning or bottling part of the production. Some producers will use electrolysis to convert the water.

For example, one company claims it is "scientifically proven to improve various biological processes." The company then lists some studies. The problem is there is limited research to back claims up. What does the science say about the benefits of adding oxygen to the water? Well, other than what the companies are telling you. 

In theory, oxygen in water sounds like it would help. Fish and other aquatic life can absorb oxygen from the water through their gills. The problem is that humans can't absorb the extra oxygen in water through the stomach and digestive system. Only a tiny amount of oxygen can pass through the intestinal lining into your bloodstream. 

In fact, according to a 2017 report, no study can verify that oxygen in water can be absorbed into the bloodstream via the gastrointestinal tract. There are some claims that oxygen has been absorbed by way of the digestive tracts of animals. Still, so far, there is little to no human data published to verify this.

In the 2017 study that showed that a rabbit's stomach absorbed oxygen, researchers enriched the oxygen with CO2. So, it isn't easy to compare. 

In a separate study, researchers examined five different brands of oxygenated water. The scientists tested the five brands against tap water to see if there was any difference in performance or extra oxygen intake. According to the researchers, one breath of air contains about 120 mL of oxygen. On the other hand, the oxygen content of one bottle of oxygenated water was 80 mL. They consequently discovered that a breath of fresh air contains more oxygen than a bottle of oxygenated water.

Another smaller study from the University of Wisconsin conducted a double-blind study between tap water and oxygenated water. They discovered that the oxygenated water did not affect the athlete's blood lactate, blood pressure, or heart rate. In addition, there was no difference in time to exhaustion, indicating that it did not improve the performance. 

Another study done by ACE Fitness found that drinking oxygenated water did not affect heart rate, blood pressure, or blood lactate values.

Even more interesting is another study conducted by ACE fitness a few years later on the placebo effect of people who consume oxygenated water. In the placebo trial, the participants ran 83 seconds faster when they thought they drank oxygenated water. If people believe something will help them, their performance typically reflects it.

It's a healthy choice to drink water of any kind to stay hydrated. Staying hydrated dramatically reduces your risk of kidney stones and other adverse problems with dehydration. So, you could drink oxygenated water to achieve your daily fluid intake goals.

Oxygenated water may help to sober you up after drinking a large amount of alcohol. A small study found that dissolved oxygen in drinks sped up the process of blood alcohol content decreasing after consuming a large amount of alcohol.

So, drinking oxygenated water could be beneficial in speeding up alcohol metabolism. When you consume alcohol too quickly for your metabolism to process, then the alcohol goes directly into your bloodstream. However, there needs to be more research into whether oxygenated water helps reduce hypoxia.

Another study found that oxygenated water enhanced lactate clearance after exercise but did not improve performance or lactate kinetics. They concluded that consuming oxygenated water may be beneficial during and after exercising —  especially in those activities that produce more significant amounts of blood lactate.

A small study found that drinking oxygenated water leads to a moderate generation of oxygen radicals. The concentration of radicals increased by 42% and stayed elevated until two hours after consumption. Excess oxygen free radicals can lead to heart attacks, strokes, emphysema, and even damage your DNA.

Drinking regular water will help your energy levels. A study on the dehydration of men found that being dehydrated negatively affected their mood and made them tired.

Your body comprises approximately 60% water, so staying hydrated is essential to staying healthy. In addition, drinking plenty of oxygenated water can help you stay hydrated. So, drinking enough fluids daily will help you maintain better energy levels.

Your body is saturated with as much oxygen as you need to survive, and the rest you need you can adequately get from breathing.

A couple of studies have proven that drinking oxygenized water benefits lactate clearance in people who exercise. 

Other than that, most research implies that the drink doesn't increase productivity in athletes and that you absorb much more oxygen from breathing than you could from drinking oxygenated water. On the other hand, the glass may hydrate you and has fewer calories than sodas or tea. More studies must be conducted to prove oxygenized water's claimed health benefits.