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

What's that I smell?

[ChuckleBug]

This is setting off my bullshit detector big time. There has been so much nonsense lately about "pentawater," and homeopathic solutions that contain no active agent but supposedly retain a "memory" of it, not to mention the bottled water that's supposed to be charged up with extra oxygen (Dissolved O2 in water will just lay in your stomach and do nothing). Until they can come up with some chemical details and studies, I'm not ready to buy this.

The super-cheezy presentation doesn't really help, either.

This was one of Canter & Siegel's 1994 scams

[Creosote]

Remember the first Usenet spammers, Canter and Siegel? Once they gained national notoriety and launched an Internet advertising business, their first client was a company that marketed "a health product, super-oxygenated water".

Gallery of water-related pseudoscience

[PIPBoy3000]

There's a fairly extensive list of water-related pseudo science listed here, as well as a specific page on ionized water.

I ran across it today when researching the product. I have a coworker whose daughter suffers from ulcerative colitis and I'm always on the lookout for odd breakthroughs. I think the emphasis for this one is on "odd".

Re:the active ingredient may not be bull-shit

[Muhammar]

Bleach. Quite normal Chlorox bleach but less alkaline, less salty and more diluted. As alkalinity of common chlorine bleach is what keeps bleach stable and alkaline desinfectant is undesireable, they had to come up with way to stabilize bleach at neutral pH.

Most of the "scientific" explanation of their technology is a nice example of salesman gobledygook:

"Microcyn(TM) technology is a pH-neutral, super-oxidized water that contains "oxidizing species" generated by the electrolysis of sodium chloride and water. During this patented multi-chamber electrolysis process, these molecules are pulled apart and ions are formed. While this process in the past would typically produce an effective, yet unstable product, the revolutionary Microcyn(TM) technology enhances this process by selectively retaining specific species to produce super-oxidized water that has an extended shelf life. The ions retained by the Microcyn(TM) technology are the basis for innovative wound management products."

Basicaly, they found a useful formulation of a common bleach. Since using bleach for wound disinfection is not patentable, they have to dress it up as a magic technology.

If you look up the background of the management and advisory board, they have a lot of people from surgery and wound infection involved, so I think they maybe have something useful. Also, they are moving ahead with a cancer drug candidate - my guess is that they have licenced this drug in. Maybe they are just one of these virtual companies with a management/scientist ratio >10:1.