INTRODUCTION
Before
we discuss any particulars of the oxygen-enriched beverage technology
and market, we must make you aware of key issues which continue to surround
this apparently emergent market.
- There
is considerable controversy surrounding the usefulness, and safety(to
the body) when oxygen is taken via water or beverages.
- There
is considerable controversy around the various methodologies being
used to place oxygen in water and "stabilize" it for long
periods of time/shelf-life.
As
a former president and CEO of one of the first oxygen-enriched beverage
companies in the USA, I have formed my personal opinions on these two
key issues. These opinions/positions will become obvious in the following
discussions.
NATURE
OF THE OXYGEN-ENRICHED
BEVERAGE
MARKETPLACE 
In
discussing this specific application of structured/altered water, it
important to understand the composition and dynamics of the existing
domestic and international drinking water marketplace.
The
dramatic turn the consuming public has recently been taking AWAY from
carbonated beverages toward supposedly healthier "juices"
and "natural" drinks bodes well for alternative beverages
such as drinking water.
However,
a virtual horde of bottling companies already is packing this business
area with a wide range of drinking waters in both small and large format
containers as well as vending apparatus and bottled delivery systems.
California, the Sun Belt and now the Eastern seaboard are beset with
scores of bottling enterprises pumping spring and purified water into
all types of outlets.
This
massive assault on the drinking water marketplace has created a highly
competitive situation for all concerned: prices are depressed and the
market is saturated with near-identical drinking waters, with profits
at both water vending machines and store-shelves growing slimmer by
the month due to the increasingly competitive nature of the market.
It
would be safe to say that in many geographic areas, the current bottled
water market is approaching a "maturity" or "saturation"
phase where multiple entities are competing for virtually the same demographic
groups attempting to merchandise virtually identical products(except
for product labels and bottle styles/shapes)..
Progressive
bottlers are therefore looking deeper into the demographics of the marketplace
to identify so-called "niche" products---products which will
attract the health conscious Yuppie and X generations---products which
can demand a premium price(and subsequent profit margin) and yet utilize
existing, expensive capital equipment(i.e. bottling facilities).
Responding
to the call that "more oxygen is better", oxygen-enriched
drinking water represents one of those "niche' markets. A wide
range of participants, both domestically and in both Asia and Europe,
have developed various methods for bonding oxygen of various types into
water.
This
expanding, "oxygen-enrichment" market includes both small
format bottling as well as so-called "concentrates" which
rely on selected catalytic reactions when ingested to release oxygen
from the body's cells into a more bio-available format.
Added
to this expanding market are a growing number of research, development
and marketing efforts designed to understand and subsequently exploit
the "memory" and "structured" aspects of water by
utilizing electromagnetic energies imprinted therein by various means.
This
incursion by the "oxygen-enriched" and "structured water"
communities into the (quantum)physical nature of water is a serious
departure from the conventional chemical characterization of water and
necessitates an entirely new set of investigative techniques, measurement
devices and marketing acumen.
Chemical
characteristics of water are far more definitive than its physical characteristics
and this more definitive(chemical) understanding has naturally led to
a wide variety of water treatment, filtration and purification techniques
to "return water to its original (chemical) state.
Unfortunately,
the incursion of this visionary group into the subtle energy aspect
of water and its possible, therapeutic effect on bodily/cellular functions
has raised some serious questions:
- is
this subtle energy phenomena that can be observed when dealing with
the physical attributes of water one which can be attributed to quantifiable
science(repeatable and measurable EM phenomena) or
- are
these effects more akin to so-called "psychic" phenomena
such as radionics, placebo effects or simply the results of strong
suggestive conditions?
- is
this new area of physical phenomena sufficiently well-defined and
characterized so as to ensure safety as well as reliably imparting
known therapeutic effects in its various modalities?
- is
the level of oxygen placed into the water significantly higher than
would be obtained through normal breathing processes?
The
issue posed by the first item listed above is usually associated with
areas of complementary or alternative medical treatment professionals,
where subtle energy sciences run the gamut of research topics such as:
sound and acoustic therapies; light and color therapies; the interaction
of electromagnetic fields with living systems; geo-cosmic phenomena
and geomagnetic effects on living systems; the effects of torsion fields,
inert gas technologies and geometric structuring of space on life forms;
DNA restructuring with bio-electromagnetic fields, and so forth and
so on.
Unfortunately,
point (2) above never seems to be clinically addressed by these alternative
medical groups and so the issues of effectiveness and safety continue
to drift along with no peer support from conventional science or the
orthodox medical community.
Additionally,
much of any "research" in these areas has taken a left-hand
turn into the study of the paranormal and metaphysical, rather than
a study of the hard physical sciences per se.
Any
serious, marketable products developed in this area of altered water-based
beverages must remain focused on an evaluation and interpretation of
the physical sciences associated with this issue of structured water
energies and altered states of drinking water rather than become a victim
of New Age thinking and the divergence from hard science which invariably
results from any coalescence with that New Age viewpoint.
As
it turns out, most of the serious, non-New Age contingents in the "altered
water" industry have focused primarily on simplistic forms of enriching
various types of water with oxygen and limiting their public discussion
of the quantum physics aspects(if any) of subtle energies in EM-altered
water.
At
this writing, there is no serious or credible competitive efforts to
define, either qualitatively or quantitatively, the effects of such
quantum energies on either body energy levels or cellular physiologies.
Most efforts to date appear to be that of simple collation of available,
relevant information, questionable testimonials or limited and relatively
simplistic testing efforts.
It
is expected that a wide range of "altered water states", each
representing a unique biochemical modality, can be defined, developed
and merchandised by bottling companies, using the ready-made beverage/water
marketplace emerging both domestically and internationally
It
is also of paramount importance that as such altered water formulae
and beverages are defined and developed such that the advertising, promotion
and use of these products are in compliance with such Federal and State
regulations that govern claims(if made) regarding any therapeutic results
that are quantified by this effort.
Recent
FDA actions regarding "nutritional" product claims should
give us pause to consider the extent of efforts which will be required
in this to ensure compliance with guidelines which govern both the beverage
products as well as any collateral materials used by bottlers, distributors
or other purveyors of products.
An
immense market exists for simple and inexpensive beverages which will
meet a growing need for both general health as well as therapeutic,
cellular and immune system repair.
Why
Some Oxygenation Processes Work - While Others Fail
An
April 1998 report in Georgia Institute of Technology's Sports Medicine
Newsletter by Dr. Jim M. Brown claimed that
"a
gullible audience is falling for super-oxygenated water beverages"
and
"...
the claims for super-oxygenated water have never been subject to peer
review, publication in scientific journals and are a case of pure
fraud without a physiologic foundation".
Dr.
Brown also claimed that the original athletic study on oxygenated water
benefits, conducted in Texas on a women's track team, wa a flawed study.
This Texas study was trumpeted by the new oxygen industry as proof that
the process was beneficial.
Dr.
Brown commented on the Texas track team study:
"The
study's sample was small, the methods were suspect(no measure of whether
the water actually delivered oxygen to the blood) and the premise
itself had no scientific basis.
Nevertheless,
the author and the manufacturer(of the oxygen drink) concluded that
the oxygen-enhanced sports drink improved athletic performance and
off to market they went."
This
is a pretty heavy condemnation of a business area which has attracted
tens of millions of investor dollars, much in public companies who have
claimed exceptional (athletic) performance with incredibly high levels
of oxygen in functional water.
The
critiques don't stop there.
The
American Council on Exercise(ACE) commissioned a study of super-oxygenated
waters which promised higher energy, greater mental awareness and concentation
and other claims. The study reported in the Associated Press on October
8, 2001 and originally reported by Sports Medicine in its September
12, 2001 issue found
"...
that drinking superoxygenated water had no measurable effect on the
subjects' resting heart rate, blood pressure or blood lactate values".
The
study, led by Dr. John Porcari at the University of Wisconsin concluded
by stating that
"...at
this time, there is no scientific evidence or logical rationale to
suggest that drinking super oxygenated water can in any way increase
the amount of oxygen in the blood stream".
ACE
recommended that regular exercisers keep a constant supply of water
in the body to maintain performance since dehydration leads to muscle
fatigue and loss of coordination. ACE's website is at www.acefitness.org.
So, what went wrong with this expensive nutritional
experiment?
Well,
for openers, Dr. Brown is correct on one very important issue:
"...very
little oxygen can be forced into water under pressure...less than
that contained in a single breath".
Several
years ago, the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc nations began using a type
of oxygenated water where oxygen was forced into water under high pressure
and low temperatures and fed to athletes competing in the Olympics.
This
"oxygen cocktail" drink was given to athletes immediately
after its production and just prior to athletic competition and may
have raised energy levels on a short term basis to achieve a winning
edge in close competitions.
These
types of energizing drinks escaped detection since most Olympic athletic
testing was focussed on steriods and other drugs and not on drinking
water or its variant species.
In
any event, this process migrated to the US a few years later and became
the jumping off point for several large financial activities in "oxygenated"
water.
Initial
advertising activities for these products included full-page spreads
in beverage magazines, slowing quickly to a trickle of smaller ads and
and then down to nothing.
So,
what happened? Dr. Brown was correct in pointing out that the process
which was promoted in these large financial boondoggles was flawed and
the water would not retain much for any length of time if oxygen was
simply being pumped into the water at high pressures and low temperatures.
Upon opening, the oxygen excaped to the air and never had a chance of
entering the bloodstream.
If
the customer found no appreciable effect from the oxygenated beverage,
they never came back for more. That is what appeared to have happened
in this case.
Few
if any extended, in-vivo tests were conducted, perhaps because
the promoters knew that the results would not be complimentary. The
promotion thus rode on big, splashy advertisements and thus faded quickly.
So,
what went wrong?
If
you notice at the top of this page there are two separate ways to produce
oxygenated water beverages:
By
using a synthetic bonding process
By
using a natural bonding process
The
case study above employed a synthetic bonding process(low temperature
and high pressure)and failed to produce a product with any appreciable
retention of the oxygen.
A
natural bonding process is far more complicated than a big chiller and
air compressor. It is a complete analogy of how nature bonds oxygen
with water molecules.
Successful
Oxygen Bonding in Beverages
Synthetic
processes at best are an approximation to a natural process. This is
true in a wide range of scientific areas. One can never attain what
nature can do. Genetic engineering is one attempt to achieve that plateau
but still has quite a distance to span to get there.
The
oxygen bonding process is key to not only retention of the element for
long terms but also instrumental in ensuring that the oxygen will enter
the bloodstream, firmly attached to its "parent" water molecule(s).
SOME
IMPORTANT ASPECTS OF OXYGEN AND THE BODY
SUCCESSFULLY
BONDING OXYGEN IN WATER
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