Oxygen Water Exposed: Separating Genuine Science from Dangerous Myths

People search for “oxygen water” for all kinds of reasons — athletes looking for an edge, people who feel constantly tired, curious consumers who’ve seen it in a store. The term itself is confusing because people apply it to several very different products. Some of them are legitimate. Some of them are useless. One of them — hydrogen peroxide diluted in water — is actively dangerous.

This article explains what oxygen water actually is. It also covers why water and oxygen connect so closely in the body, the different ways manufacturers make oxygen water (and why that matters), and what to look for when choosing a product.

Why Water and Oxygen Belong Together

Oxygen and water are the two things your body cannot go without. You can survive without food for roughly forty days. Without water, that window closes for about three days. Without oxygen, you have minutes.

The body is approximately 60% water. Virtually every physiological process — digestion, circulation, temperature regulation, nutrient transport, toxin removal — takes place in a water medium. Water cushions joints, protects organs, and carries oxygen through the bloodstream via liquid plasma and red blood cells.

That last point matters more than people realize. Once you breathe oxygen in, it doesn’t travel on its own. Instead, it depends on the fluid in your blood to move through your body and reach the cells that need it. Staying well hydrated isn’t just about preventing cramps or dry mouth — it’s also about giving oxygen the medium it needs to move efficiently.

Boiling water drives out much of its dissolved oxygen, which is one reason water tastes flat after you boil it. In fact, dissolved oxygen (O₂) is what gives fresh, cold water its clean taste. The more oxygen-depleted the water, the more lifeless it tastes and, more importantly, the less it contributes to cellular oxygen delivery.

The Hydration-Oxygen Connection in Practice

A 1985 study by Lawrence Armstrong, Dr. David Costill of Ball State University’s Human Performance Laboratory, and William Fink found that dehydration significantly impairs competitive running performance. Eight male runners tested over 1,500m, 5,000m, and 10,000m lost nearly 80 seconds over a 5k. Over 10k, they lost more than 2.5 minutes. The best predictor of each runner’s performance drop was simply the amount of body weight they had lost due to dehydration. Cramping follows when cells lose fluid and electrolytes. Furthermore, as people age, the sensation of thirst decreases, meaning many older adults live with chronic mild dehydration without realizing it.

The practical takeaway: adequate hydration isn’t just about water volume. In addition, oxygen-rich water may help the oxygen you take in reach your cells more efficiently, because oxygen depends on the fluid in your blood and tissues to travel where your body needs it.

What “Oxygen Water” Actually Means

People use the phrase loosely, and that looseness is where most of the confusion — and skepticism — comes from.

There’s a fair amount of mockery online directed at oxygen water products, and some of it is based on a real misunderstanding of chemistry. For example, one common objection holds that water already contains 88.8% oxygen by molecular weight, since H₂O bonds two hydrogen atoms to one oxygen atom. So isn’t “oxygenated water” just… water?

The answer is no — and understanding why requires a simple distinction.

The oxygen in a water molecule (H₂O) is chemically bonded to hydrogen. It is not free. Therefore, your body cannot use it as molecular oxygen (O₂). What matters for supplementation purposes is dissolved oxygen — O₂ molecules free from the hydrogen bonds of water itself. These molecules are bio-available to the body. This differs from the oxygen locked inside a water molecule (H₂O), which your body cannot access as molecular oxygen.

A second source of confusion comes from the phrase “liquid oxygen” itself. In industrial and scientific contexts, liquid oxygen is O₂ cooled to −183°C (−297°F). It is an industrial cryogen. Obviously, nothing of the sort belongs anywhere near your tongue. Instead, oxygen water products use the phrase loosely to describe something entirely different: a liquid supplement containing dissolved, bio-available O₂ molecules.

How Oxygen Water Gets Made — and Why the Method Matters

Not all oxygen water products are the same, and the differences aren’t trivial.

Bottled Carbonated Oxygen Water

Some products simply inject oxygen gas into water, the same way CO₂ is injected to make sparkling water. These products do contain dissolved oxygen. However, because the oxygen isn’t stabilized or bound to anything, much of it escapes the moment you open the bottle. As a result, you may absorb very little actual O₂.

Old-Technology Chlorite/Chloride Products

Many oxygen supplements on the market use what’s sometimes called the “old technology.” Specifically, the oxygen molecule bonds to a chemical salt, often a chlorite compound. These products don’t contain bio-available oxygen until a chemical reaction occurs, typically when the product comes into contact with stomach acid. Because of this, they must be diluted before you drink them — their pH can run as high as 13.7, which is caustic enough to damage skin and tissue. If a product’s label tells you to dilute it, that’s why.

Hydrogen Peroxide

Various DIY recipes online recommend diluting food-grade hydrogen peroxide in water. Hydrogen peroxide does technically increase blood oxygen levels through oxidation. However, research published on PubMed documents internal damage — including brain injury — in people who consumed it, even at lower concentrations. Moreover, a NIH case study specifically concluded that 35% hydrogen peroxide is potentially lethal when ingested. It requires strict caution and regulation. In addition, there are no published studies demonstrating health benefits. Avoid this approach.

Activated Stabilized Oxygen (ASO®) — The New Technology

OxygenSuperCharger™ uses a different process entirely. It starts with purified water and sodium chloride (sea salt). The process then runs a regulated electrical current through two proprietary composite metal electrodes in an electrolytic bath. This breaks the hydrogen-oxygen bond in water molecules, releasing hydrogen gas. As a result, the freed oxygen molecules stabilize in the electrolyte solution by bonding two O₂ molecules to minerals, forming a stable O4 molecule. Finally, large carbon filters remove most of the sea salt at the end of the process, leaving behind only minerals, trace minerals, and stabilized O₂.

Critically, neither chlorine dioxide nor peroxide molecules form during this process. The result is a neutral pH product — approximately 7.4, which happens to be close to the body’s own blood pH — that is non-caustic, pleasant to take directly, and requires no dilution.

Because the process stabilizes and binds the oxygen within the liquid rather than simply dissolving it as a gas, it doesn’t escape when you open the bottle.

What Makes OxygenSuperCharger™ Different

OxygenSuperCharger™ builds on the ASO® (Activated Stabilized Oxygen) formula, which the manufacturer has produced since the 1990s using a proprietary electrolytic process. Several things distinguish it from competing products:

The original formula is 35% strength — 350,000 parts per million. In contrast, many competing products don’t disclose their oxygen concentration at all. In fact, one major competitor’s product measures less than 4% strength by comparison. The Ultra Strength OxygenSuperCharger2 formula is 25% stronger than the original.

The pH is approximately 7.4 — essentially neutral, and compatible with human biology. As a result, you can take it directly under the tongue (sublingually) without dilution, or add it to water and drink it immediately.

The ingredients are water, sodium chloride (sea salt), and stabilized oxygen molecules. Nothing else is needed to make the product, and nothing else is in it — no chlorite compounds, no peroxide, no chlorine.

How to Use It

We recommend taking OxygenSuperCharger™ sublingually. Simply place drops under your tongue and let them absorb directly into the bloodstream through the mucous membranes. This bypasses the digestive tract entirely and may allow faster absorption.

You can also add up to 30 drops to 8 ounces of pure water and drink it immediately. OxygenSuperCharger™ has actual bio-available oxygen in solution. That oxygen is reactive — it will begin neutralizing impurities in whatever liquid you add it to. In pure water, this isn’t a problem. However, in juice, coffee, or anything else, the bio-available oxygen will immediately start working to remove impurities from the liquid, so it will not be available to your body. Therefore, pure water consumed right away maximizes the oxygen you actually absorb.

A note on taste: the original formula product has a very slight saline taste from trace minerals that remain after the sea salt is filtered out. Sodium content per serving is less than 1% of the daily recommended value.

Why Oxygen-Rich Water Tastes Better

There’s a practical, observable side to dissolved oxygen that most people have experienced without knowing what caused it: oxygenated water tastes noticeably better than oxygen-depleted water.

This isn’t subjective. In fact, scientific and anecdotal sources consistently point to dissolved O₂ as a driver of water’s taste quality. One commonly cited example involves reboiling water in a kettle. Reheating leftover water produces flat, stale-tasting water because boiling drives out dissolved oxygen. As a result, Women’s Health Magazine and other sources have noted that filling the kettle fresh each time ensures “fully aerated and tasty water.” Wikipedia defines aerated water as distilled water with purified air added specifically to improve flavor.

Goldfish owners know this intuitively: every few days, you need to aerate the tank water by pouring it between containers, because fish breathe the dissolved oxygen in water. Let that oxygen level drop, and the fish suffocate.

The Industry Decision to Purposefully Reduce Oxygen Content in Water

The industrial angle is even more striking. According to Lenntech.com, a high dissolved oxygen level in community water supplies is desirable for taste. However, industries deliberately strip dissolved oxygen from the water they use in their processes. The reason: oxygen accelerates corrosion in pipes. Similarly, the U.S. EPA confirms that dissolved oxygen is highly reactive, which is precisely why industrial operators work to eliminate it. A Texas A&M Extension Service report on drinking water corrosion identifies dissolved oxygen as “a primary corrosive agent” in water systems. It also notes that oxygen removal is standard practice in boiler and industrial water treatment. Consequently, boiler operators typically aim for oxygen levels of 0.007 parts per million or less.

This has a direct consequence for processed food. Food manufacturers follow the same industrial logic — they remove oxygen from water to protect equipment and extend shelf life. As a result, manufacturers prepare, cook, and package processed foods using water they have deliberately stripped of dissolved oxygen. The result: processed foods arrive in your body with significantly less oxygen than whole, fresh foods. Since your body requires oxygen to metabolize and digest nutrients, a diet heavy in processed food places a greater demand on your body’s existing oxygen reserves just to handle digestion.

Therefore, if your diet includes a significant amount of processed food — and most modern diets do — adding OxygenSuperCharger™ to your water is one practical way to help restore the oxygen your body isn’t getting from what you eat. One note worth keeping in mind: boiling drives dissolved oxygen out of water. Similarly, adding OxygenSuperCharger™ to hot liquids will degrade its oxygen content. Use it in cold or room-temperature water for best results.

Honest Framing

OxygenSuperCharger™ is sold as a dietary supplement, not a drug. The FDA has not evaluated statements about it. It does not intend to treat, diagnose, cure, or prevent any disease or medical condition.

Nevertheless, researchers have conducted three clinical studies on the ASO® formula — covering sprint performance, VO₂ max, blood lactate, and blood oxygen saturation. A summary and links to those studies are on our Research page. The studies are small and preliminary. However, the researchers used real measurements on real subjects, and the results generally favored applications in athletic performance.

In addition, personal testimonials from customers over our 15+ years of sales suggest a range of uses people have found helpful — energy, mental clarity, recovery, high-altitude support, and general wellness. These reflect individual experience, not clinical claims.

Conclusion

The relationship between oxygen and water runs deeper than most people realize — from the taste of a fresh glass of water, to the way your muscles perform under stress, to the oxygen content of the food on your plate. Understanding that relationship is the first step. What you do with it is up to you.