Hyper-Oxygenated Water Speeds Up Healing

Ninwa writes "Wired News is reporting on a new discovery by Occulus Innovative Sciences: Super-oxygenated water that significantly decreases healing time of wounds, burns, and diabetic ulcers. 'Oculus said the solution, called Microcyn, may prove effective in the fight against superbugs, crossover viruses like bird flu and Ebola, and bioterrorism threats such as anthrax.'"

Comments

Interesting

[Nasarius]

Nice if true, but there's been a lot of kookery about water.

The phrasing on the Oculusis website is a little suspicious, too.

provides a moist environment to help promote healing

It seems it's already for sale, even though it's still in testing. They're also extremely vague about how it works, and apparently it also cures cancer. Suspicious.

Re:Interesting

[passthecrackpipe]

well, i remain sceptical, but found a reference to the CEO at Forbes magazine - http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2005/0228/062_print.h tml and seems legit....

Re:H202

[mattdev121]

This is not a joke,

H2O2 is more commonly known as Hydrogen Peroxide, and IS commonly used as an antiseptic. It's one of the cheapest forms of disinfectant available and can be found at any local wal-mart or drug store.

Oxygen-rich salt water.

[jd]

Well, most people living on or near the coast have used something very similar, as far back as records go and probably a good bit beyond.

The idea of using osmotic pressure to treat wounds is as old as time itself, with salt being rubbed into wounds, very literally, as a means of treating them. The use of osmotic pressure is also commonly used in dialysis machines.

I believe that some forms of cancer/tumor therapy involves creating a severe enough osmotic pressure that the cells involved rupture. However, I couldn't tell you exactly which therapies these were.

I don't know whether you'd be able to make a targetted therapy - that would depend on the targetted cell either having a higher concentration or a different ratio of salts, so that you could create an environment in which healthy cells were fine but hostile cells were unable to survive. There's nothing in the article to suggest that this would be the case.

It is certainly NOT the case with something like ebola, which is a virus. Viruses are not cellular, they are simple RNA strands with a protein coating. What would you create the pressure against? There's no salt water mix in there and no semi-permeable membrane to fracture.

Salt is effective against viruses only insofar as that nothing would survive in the general vicinity (therefore there's nothing the virus can use to spread from) and the blood would be soaked into the salt. Antivirals are, as a general rule, nothing quite so simple.

(Having said that, RNA is a single molecule and single molecules can act as a dipole with a unique absorbtion frequency. It may be possible to develop treatments which "shatter" viruses by transmitting at the virus' absorbtion frequency, but we're talking about a very complex molecule which may not act as a simple dipole. As far as simple treatments go, that's about as simple as you're going to get. Salt packs won't cut it.)

is this just hydrogen peroxide?

[js7a]

"Hyper-oxygenated water" -- what a great name for H2O2 which releases oxygen when poured on wounds. Wikipedia article

if it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck

[thenerdgod]

It's probably Quackery...

I direct you here

Where it is amply explained that ionizing salt water can only create chlorinated water, or bleach, which, of course, ARE good antibacterials, but are also *gasp* oxidants. Why the SHOCK!

the active ingredient may not be bull-shit

[displague]

I read the Wired article and became hopeful. I wasn't as turned off by the market-ish site as other Slashdotters.

I followed up with an "oculus site:.gov" search and found that the FDA has classified Microcyn as a disinfectant.

And, the California Dept. of Pesticide Regulation lists the evaluation of Microcyn as follows,

209086 - (NO NUMBER ASSIGNED)
OCULUS INNOVATIVE SCIENCES, INC.
OCULUS MICROCYN DISINFECTANT (OMD)
USE: DISINFECTANT - FOR THE CONTROL OF VARIOUS ORGANISMS SUCH AS SALMONELLA TYPHI, ESCHERICHIA COLI, AND PSEUDOMONAS AERUGINOSA ON TUBS, DESKS, AND APPLIANCES
TYPE: SECTION 3 REGISTRATION -
ACTIVE INGREDIENT(S):
HYPOCHLOROUS ACID
SODIUM HYPOCHLORITE
CAS NUMBER(S): 7790-92-3, 7681-52-9

Maybe some /. chemists can explain the good of those ingredients.

Re:the active ingredient may not be bull-shit

[wronskyMan]

for hypochlorous acid, it is

An oxyacid of chlorine (HClO) containing monovalent chlorine that acts as an oxidizing or reducing agent.

(from PubChem); and sodium hypochlorite is just bleach; when dissolved the chlorite ions will form acidic solution; so HClO+NaOCl=bleach in water, which is a common disinfectant but would probably be a bad idea to drink.