Welcome to Bad Science on the Internet! Here, we highlight some of the crazy and sometime dangerous stuff people post online,  and then give you the facts.  

The bad science: Oxygen therapies like oxygen bars and oxygen “shots”

What do they claim? There are lots of claims, including improving general health and energy levels,  aiding alertness and concentration, detoxifying the body, boosting the immune system, and treating diseases like headaches, hangovers, and even cancer.

Are they trying to sell you something? Yes! Most oxygen bars will charge you about $1 per minute, while oxygen shots typically cost $5-$10 per shot.

Is any of this true? No, no, no, no, no, no, a thousand times no. Look, we all know that we need oxygen to live, but more is not better – with oxygen or really anything.

When you breathe, oxygen goes into your lungs and is picked up by the red blood cells in your blood. Specifically, it binds to the iron-containing hemoglobin within those cells. There is a lot of hemoglobin in your red blood cells, and this is what makes them (and your blood) red. In a “normal”, healthy person (and unless you are very sick, you are normal, despite what your mommy taught you), the hemogloblin in the blood is at 95-100% saturation at all times. Anything below 90% is a problem, and would require medical intervention. Since hemoglobin is what moves oxygen from your lungs to all the tissues of your body, this means that adding more oxygen into your lungs can not, and will not significantly increase the delivery of oxygen to the tissues and organs of your body. That’s right, that oxygen that you are paying money for just goes into your lungs and, finding no room on the hemoglobin express, goes right back out when you exhale. Given this, it’s not surprising that oxygen therapy has no effects.

Is any of this dangerous? Yes! Or at least it can be for an adult*. Extra oxygen in your lungs can cause damage. You’ve heard of antioxidants, right? You take these to reduce the damage created by pro-oxidants, and oxygen is most definitely a pro-oxidant (it’s right in the name!). Most oxygen bars offer 30-40% oxygen (compared to 20.9% in normal air). This probably isn’t dangerous if you breathe it occasionally (and at $1 a minute, that’s probably all you can afford!). However, higher concentration oxygen (like oxygen “shots” some of which are 100% oxygen) can cause damage to your lungs. You might feel pain after inhaling 100% oxygen for an extended period of time – that is from the damage you are causing your lungs.

There is one way in which oxygen can be even more dangerous. I mentioned above that you can’t get more oxygen to your tissues because your hemoglobin is already saturated. However, if you increase the pressure that the oxygen you breathe is under, you can force more into your blood and successfully deliver more oxygen to your tissues. The result is usually not good. The oxygen affects your brain. The initial effects are a euphoria-like “high” (wow, sounds great!), which is rapidly followed by confusion, convulsions, and death (not so great, right?). Luckily, breathing oxygen under pressure is not easy to do. Outside of industrial/scientific accidents, it requires a hyperbaric chamber or gross incompetence while SCUBA diving.

Now, there are places out there that will happily take your money and put you in a hyperbaric chamber with high oxygen levels, but it is not cheap (about $350 per treatment), so naturally it’s something celebrities like to do. It is marketed as an anti-aging treatment, but it is actually the exact opposite – all current science points to preventing oxidation in the body with antioxidants as being at least somewhat beneficial, and hyperbaric oxygen will increase oxidation in your body, counteracting any antioxidants you might have eaten or taken in a supplement. Some will point out that hyperbaric oxygen is FDA-approved, but it has a very specific uses – embolism treatment, carbon dioxide poisoning, treatment of some types of burns, reversing the effects of nitrogen narcosis, and a few other rare conditions. It will not reverse the effects of aging. Never trust celebrities with health advice.

What’s the bottom line?

Oxygen therapy is almost never a good idea unless specifically prescribed by a doctor. In all other cases it is not helping, and in some cases it can be damaging to the lungs or brain. We would all like to slow or reverse the aging process, but anyone selling you a treatment that claims to do this is lying to you. It’s just not possible with the current state of science. Spend your money on something else. Maybe use that extra cash to visit a national park? Or eat a responsible amount of gummy bears. Mmm… gummy bears.

* High oxygen levels can be very dangerous to newborns for reasons we won’t get into because if you are giving your newborn 100% oxygen shots you are a monster.