O, Too!

I've always thought the concept of the "oxygen bar" and "oxygenated water" were the silliest things ever to come out of the "alternative medicine" field (which is no mean feat, given how many silly things there are in the alternative medicine field to choose from) and I recall not long ago seeing a sign on Broadway here in Saratoga for some kind of "oxygen therapy" and convulsing with laughter (I love this town, but it has its nuttiness). But as LiveScience reminds us, despite the fact that we need it to breathe, too much oxygen is actually very bad:

The notion that we need extra oxygen is ludicrous. The human body has adapted quite well to this lower atmosphere of ours that is roughly 21 percent oxygen, 78 percent nitrogen and 1 percent trace gases. Blood cells, on exiting the lungs, are nearly saturated with about 97 percent oxygen bound molecularly to hemoglobin. Getting more oxygen serves no purpose. In fact, it's a bad thing.

Deep in the lungs, tiny and fragile sacs called alveoli are the site where inhaled oxygen enters the bloodstream and carbon dioxide leaves to be exhaled. With a surplus of oxygen in the lungs, the carbon dioxide can't leave the body. Worse, the build up of oxygen in the lungs can collapse the alveoli and cause permanent lung damage. Adults with emphysema, chronic asthma or chronic bronchitis, in particular, will stop breathing if they inhale pure oxygen for too long. Premature babies, given extra oxygen because their lungs aren't sufficiently mature to transfer oxygen into the blood, can go blind if the concentration gets too high, a malady called retinopathy of prematurity; that's likely what happened to Stevie Wonder.

Also, oxygen may be what ultimately kills you, rusting your body from the inside in a process called oxidation and free-radical production. Breathing pure oxygen creates an abundance of free radicals.

I've always thought this whole "alternative medicine" nonsense is just a knee-jerk reaction to the not-entirely-unfounded cynicism engendered by the current state of the health and medicine profession. But even given the ills that occasionally afflict mainstream modern medicine (I do like alliteration), it is still far more scientifically sound and efficacious than the generally unproven or downright spurious claims of the alternative folks. Sure, alternative medicine is cute and funny when it's just about proving the old adage "a fool and his money are soon parted," but when it starts becoming physically harmful, then it becomes less amusing.