British Journal of Sports Medicine 2006;40:740-741
LEADER
Athletic performance
"Oxygenated" water and athletic performance
Correspondence to:
Dr Piantadosi
Box 3315, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA; piant001@mc.duke.edu
Ergogenic claims for oxygenated water cannot be taken seriously
Keywords: oxygen delivery; oxygen consumption; exercise; skeletal muscle; ergogenic aids
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
A decade or so ago, the idea arose that athletes might gain a competitive edge by drinking water that contained extra dissolved oxygen (O2). The notion stems from observations that O2 breathing during exercise enhances athletic performance,1,2 but the connection of O2 breathing during exercise with drinking "hyperoxygenated" water before exercise conflates physics and physiology in a struthonian visit to placebo land. Fuelled by bottled-water mavens, who collect testimonials for oxygenated waters, claims abound of ergogenic benefits of water advertised to hold up to 40 times more O2 than plain water.
The issue of hydration aside, such claims have a flimsy rationale and no rigorous experimental support. On close inspection, three scientific problems immediately arise. Firstly, for all practical purposes, supplemental O2 improves performance only during exercise, not before or between bouts.3 With normal lungs, breathing of even pure O2 at sea level increases maximal O2 uptake
University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA; wayne.askew@health.utah.edu
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