Fit and healthy with an oxygen therapy?

	The expensive additional oxygen does not make you fit.

A new fitness idea is becoming popular in German health studios: concentrated oxygen. The providers supply air comprising 80 - 90% oxygen. Normal ambient air contains around 20% oxygen.

The concept comes from Japan and the USA, where such "oxygen bars" have existed for some time. The lungs of people in smoggy cities like Los Angeles or Tokyo may benefit a little from these oxygen showers. Many experts believe that this has no practical benefit for people in German cities. After all, the problem with our air is not that it has too little oxygen but that it contains too many pollutants. Even in case of ozone and smog alarms the oxygen concentration in the air is still more than adequate for our lungs.

What happens when we breathe?

Human beings’ lungs have developed so that they are used to the 20% oxygen in the ambient air. All respiratory functions are adjusted to this situation. We draw the air into our lungs through our nose or mouth. Breathing through the nose has the advantage that the nose contains small hairs, called cilia that filter out dust and germs. In addition, air breathed in through the nose is brought to body temperature. Actual breathing, the exchange of gases, takes place in the so-called alveoli. These are small bubble-like extensions at the end of the lung branches. Here the oxygen molecules migrate through the extremely thin walls of the veins.

In the blood they are then absorbed by the haemoglobin. This carries the gas with the blood system throughout the entire body to the organs. The organs continuously consume energy, especially from sugar and fat. And, oxygen is vital for this energetic metabolism. This is where it is really consumed. Carbon dioxide is a "waste product" of this metabolism. This is transported back to the lungs with the blood so that it can leave the body. The carbon dioxide and the fresh oxygen more or less meet in the alveoli.

Decisive is that, under normal conditions, the haemoglobin is virtually saturated with oxygen. That means that there is no room for additional oxygen. Every further molecule from the oxygen generators...

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy

Oxygen absorption can really only be increased if you sit in a pressure chamber and inhale the gas under pressure. In this way the amount of oxygen that is dissolved in the blood which is not bonded to haemoglobin is increased. However, this so-called "hyperbaric oxygen therapy" is used as a medical therapy for specific illnesses such as sudden loss of hearing, problematic wounds and noise damage and not as a refreshing, rejuvenating treatment for healthy people.

Oxygen as medicine

Even under normal pressure conditions oxygen can be a medication. If the lungs are affected and normal breathing processes do not function on their own, concentrated oxygen can help. For instance, in intensive medicine patients are supplied with oxygen shortly after an operation. Oxygen is also an effective medicine for cases of severe asthma and smoke inhalation.

Multi-phase oxygen therapy

Throughout Germany there exist spa facilities that offer so-called “multi-phase oxygen therapy“. These are based on the teachings of Prof. Manfred von Ardenne. Like oxygen bars, the effects of these therapies are controversial. While it is possible to poison yourself with oxygen, the required concentrations (> 1 hour with an oxygen concentration > 60%) are certainly not reached in the oxygen bars.

And perhaps 18 minutes relaxation during the lunch break is simply good for some people. But, that probably does not have much to do with the oxygen.

by Angela Bode