Oxygen Bars and Breathing O2

[JDostal]

Okay, so has everyone heard of the Oxygen Bars that are getting popular? You can go into these bars and pay to breathe pure O2 for awhile...interesting idea. People claim that it cures all kinds of maladies...we'll leave that for a whole different debate but I am interested in this article that was written on these bars and how it relates to diving medicine:

http://www.scienceblog.com/community/article969.html

Is the damage that they mention in this article exactly like the "oxygen burn" (or whatever you'll call it) that we know about...the normal damage to lungs that you can have by breathing pure O2 for extended periods? Or is this something entirely new that we should take into consideration when administering o2 to ourselves or someone else?

Just kinda curious and wanting to open a discussion...

 

[The Iceni]

Hi Omicron,

I am sure these researchers have not described a new type of oxygen damage. What they appear to be describing is a reasonably accurate way of measuring the degree of pulmonary oxygen toxicity.

They say

But isoprostanes . . . do not provide an accurate measure of free radical reactions that occur in the presence of high oxygen concentrations. The isofurans overcome this limitation. High oxygen levels favor the chemical reactions that produce isofurans, making them useful indicators of free radical damage in high oxygen settings like hyperoxia-induced lung injury, as the investigators showed, and for other oxygen-associated disease states like retinopathy of prematurity.

This may have considerable benefits in hospital ITUs where the long term oxygen dose could be titrated against isofuran production, measured by a blood sample.

I am not sure this could be of use in recreational scuba.

:doctor:

 

[JDostal]

Thanks for the reply.


Human Phys. was never one of my strong points in college

 

[John Reinertson]

When we Scuba dive, especially with nitrox, we expose ourselves to higher levels of inspired oxygen, up to the equivalent of 140 percent oxygen at sea level. There are probably detectable degrees of antioxidant depletion in multiday multidive trips.

We therefore should be careful on these trips to replace those lost antioxidants with wines, fruity drinks, rum punch, and appropriate vacation delicacies.

Seriously, a balanced diet with attention to fruits and vegetables and other antioxidant containing foods is probably a wise idea, to hasten recovery of normal body chemistry after multiple dives.

John

 

[mddolson]

I heard of a local O2 bar.
I looked around and they were supplying disposible O2 canulas for the people to plug in and use.

I asked the owner what about Fire hazards, smokers etc.
He told me he got his O2 from a local diving supplier and it's safe(This is the funny part). I know the supplier and called him and we started laughing.

He supplies them with Nitrox (EAN 32)!

Apparently the patrons don't know the difference.

MIke D

 

[mddolson]

John Reinertson bubbled: We therefore should be careful on these trips to replace those lost antioxidants with wines, fruity drinks, rum punch, and appropriate vacation delicacies.


ISN"T this the reason for the vacation in the first place? LOL

It is certainly one of my prime objectives along with diving of course!

MIke D

 

[JDostal]

You gotta love trips where "unlimited Rum drinks" are included in the trip. We had this on our Blackbeard's trip - the only bad part was that the second you touched the rum (or beer) you were done diving for the day. And, by the time you were done with a full day of diving you were almost too tired to drink anything.

 

[The Iceni]

mddolson once bubbled...
He supplies them with Nitrox (EAN 32)!

Apparently the patrons don't know the difference.

MIke D

This is of very doubtful legality. Indeed a criminal offence here under the Trades Descriptions Act, unless of course he does not claim to be supplying pure oxygen.

I suppose "O2" does not legally mean pure oxygen.

I am not surprised his customers do not know the difference, Mike. Since about 98% of the oxygen carrried by the blood is bound to haemoglobin and arterial Hb is about 98% saturated in normal healthy subjects at surface pressure breathing air, the additional oxygen carried when breathing EAN32 or indeed 100% oxygen at surface pressures is negligible. (Hb is only fully saturated at 3 bar).

Mike, take a look at the haemoglobin dissociation curve attached. I am sorry the pressure units are in mmHg. 1 bar = 760 mmHg.

As readers can see haemoglobin is almost fully saturated when the ppO2 reaches 100mmHg (0.13bar) and the line then flattens off considerably. Granted a higher inspiratory ppO2 results in proportionately more being dissolved in simple solution but very little oxygen is carried in simple solution in any case (less than 2%). To my mind, it therefore seems a rather pointless exercise for individuals with healthy lungs to (pay to) breath high-dose oxygen.

Forgetting any risks, I fear any derived benefit must be due to the placebo effect (wishful thinking/sugar pills.) :bonk:

 

[JT2]

We have a local "Oxygen Bar" and when you walk in they give you your own nasal cannula and ask you what flavor you want. They do not have any containers of Nitrox or pure O2 on the premisis, and if you ask them how they are providing the so-called oxygen they will tell you that they have a big compressor on the roof that extracts the Oxygen from outside air through their "special" filtration system. This place was sued shortly after it opened for false advertisement, but I don't remember what the outcome was, they are still open though.

 

[The Iceni]

JT2 once bubbled...
. . . if you ask them how they are providing the so-called oxygen they will tell you that they have a big compressor on the roof that extracts the Oxygen from outside air through their "special" filtration system.

Hi JT2,

Oxygen concentrators are widely used in medicine to provide enriched air in the homes of patients with lung diseases. If I remember correctly they give up to 60% O2 and are far cheaper to use than cylnders and work using ceramic filters.

This could be their "special filtration system".

By the way, in my last post I said

Forgetting any risks, I fear any derived benefit must be due to the placebo effect (wishful thinking/sugar pills.)

Just in case this statement is misconstrued can I clarify that any "negligible" increase in dissolved oxygen does displace dissolved nitrogen - all of which is carried in simple solution and is very nasty indeed.

Good news for divers!
:doctor: