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Biotech Science

Hyper-Oxygenated Water Speeds Up Healing 72

Posted by timothy from the plus-you-can-breathe-it dept.
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.'"
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Hyper-Oxygenated Water Speeds Up Healing More

Hyper-Oxygenated Water Speeds Up Healing

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  • H202 (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 16, 2005 @07:22PM (#12548997)
    People have been using H2O2 on wounds for YEARS!

    • Re:H202 (Score:5, Informative)

      by mattdev121 ( 727783 ) on Monday May 16, 2005 @07:29PM (#12549071) Homepage
      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.

      • it may sound close to water, dont drink it.
      • If you happen to have a bucket of blood, it's kinda cool to put a lot of H2O2 in it and watch. There'll be a violent reaction and the blood will turn into a big white foaming mass. :-)

        I read this is because the H2O2 turns into water + oxygen due to enzymes in the blood. I guess that's exactly why it works well to clean wounds too.
      • H2O2 is more commonly known as Hydrogen Peroxide, and IS commonly used as an antiseptic.

        http://www.nurseminerva.co.uk/wound.htm#q1 [nurseminerva.co.uk]
        "The problem with hydrogen peroxide and some other traditional debriding agents is that they also damage the healthy cells (keratinocytes and fibroblasts) that are needed for wound healing and inhibit their necessary migration into the damaged area (Tatnall, Leigh, and Gibson, 1990; Tatnall, Leigh, and Gibson, 1991; O'Toole, Goel, and Woodley, 1996)."
    • ... making wounds in one's heart (Re: Blondes!) ;-)

      Paul B.

    • Re:H202 (Score:3, Funny)

      by Transcendent ( 204992 )
      H2O2? That's for girls...

      I use H2OSO4... 5x the oxigination power of normal water. It's a great antiseptic and gargle!
      • And, for God's sake, do not try this at home.

        (in case dumbasses think it would be a cool trick to impress the girls in their gen-chem lab.)

        -d
        • Depends on the molarity.

          Your stomach is full of HCl, but it's not going to burn a hole through your jeans when you barf on them. It's still at a pretty low molarity (it would probably destroy a lot of gastric peptides before they did anything if the solution was stronger), just strong enough to help break down sugars, eat most bacteria, etc.

          Muriatic acid is HCl as well, which you can buy in 1-gal. bottles at Home Despot or Lowe's is pretty strong, much stronger than your gastric juices are. It's used main
          • Having inadvertently swallowed a couple of mouths full of pretty strong solution of sodium hypochlorite and water (half water, half Chlorox)

            Heh, same thing happened to me as a child.

            A glass of milk, and a stern warning to my grandmother to not leave my bathroom cup in the bathroom while she's disinfecting it with Clorox, and all was well.

      • Re:H202 (Score:1, Funny)

        by Irashtar ( 836973 )
        The patient's in the casket. The doctor is no more. For what he thought was H2O, Was H2SO4.
      • Did you mean H2SO4 for sulphuric acid?

        H2O*SO4 would be hydrated sulfion, and is something that would never form under "normal" conditions, if at all. /Nit pick //Bio-chem nerd
      • Mary had a little lamb
        But now it is no more
        For what she thought was H2O
        Was H2SO4
        • I heard it this way:

          Johnny was a scientist's son
          He was but is no more
          For what he thought was H2O
          was H2SO4

    • Re:H202 (Score:5, Funny)

      by bsdbigot ( 186157 ) on Monday May 16, 2005 @09:29PM (#12550142) Journal

      Two chemistry majors walk into a bar. The bartender says to the first, "What can I get for you?"

      "H2O."

      "And you," asks the bartender?

      "I'll have an H20, too."

      The second guy died.

      • Unless the 2nd guy ordered his H2O2 straight up, it is unlikely to kill him [nih.gov], but man, will it give you stomach gas!
        • About a year ago, the ~5 year old daughter of a friend of mine drank about 5 ounces of household-strength H2O2 (3%). She started throwing up blood within 5 minutes, and had to be taken to the hospital. The reason is that it oxidized (like it does everything), and thus destroyed the efficacy of, her stomach lining (mucus), which was the only thing protecting her stomach from the hydrochloric acid in it.

          Anyway, like I said, much more than gas, it will give one.
    • Bull! BULL I say! I know you're trying to pull a fast one...

      H2O2 is clearly related to Dihydrogen Monoxide [dhmo.org], which means it must be related.

      It's even got the same symbols and stuff!

      Hydrogen is toxic... we all saw what happened to the Hindinberg!!!! HYDROGEN bombs!
    • People have been using H2O2 on wounds for YEARS!

      People seem to be having a lot of fun on this thread, but just in case anyone is confused:

      The article speaks of "super-oxygenated water", which means water with a great deal of oxygen dissolved in it. H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide) is a totally different chemical with totally different properties.

      I suspect the parent was joking. (AC, sorry if I spoiled your joke...)

      • People seem to be having a lot of fun on this thread, but just in case anyone is confused:

        The article speaks of "super-oxygenated water", which means water with a great deal of oxygen dissolved in it. H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide) is a totally different chemical with totally different properties.

        I suspect the parent was joking. (AC, sorry if I spoiled your joke...)

        You should be rated +1 Joke Spoiler

  • Interesting (Score:5, Informative)

    by Nasarius ( 593729 ) on Monday May 16, 2005 @07:27PM (#12549056)
    Nice if true, but there's been a lot of kookery [pentawater.com] 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 [oculusis.com], even though it's still in testing. They're also extremely vague about how it works [oculusis.com], and apparently it also cures cancer [oculusis.com]. Suspicious.

  • Oxygen-rich salt water. (Score:5, Informative)

    by jd ( 1658 ) <imipak@ y a hoo.com> on Monday May 16, 2005 @07:43PM (#12549274) Homepage Journal
    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.)

  • Thank god... (Score:5, Funny)

    by softspokenrevolution ( 644206 ) on Monday May 16, 2005 @07:46PM (#12549318) Journal
    Man, with all that anecdotal evidence I sure am convinced. Thank god we have news services like Wired to deliver these releases from companies, becaues that damned JAMA would never let this one out of the bag.
  • If this turns out to be a real thing, it'd be a good news for Emergency Medical Service personnel.

    Sterlization is one of the key steps to prevent infection to worsen one's injury. H2O2 etc. is great, but these are somewhat too acidic sometimes and too cumbersome to carry around.

    Imagine a case where you climb mountains in cold winters. You have cold foot injuries like trench foots. If one can carry around simple medical material to help sterlize, better yet, help it heal faster, it'd be very nice indeed.

    I
    • Actually no. Your pharmacy, doctor, and drug companies have no intention selling you anything that guarantees a fix. They want you to come back for the "treatments" and keep coming back... and paying and paying.

      • Drug companies perhaps; But if you really feel that is your doctor's primary concern you should probably start looking for a new one. (or see if he has some pills to remove that tinfoil hat.) Family doctors are in the business of being good doctors; and tending to the same patients throughout their lives, which is assured by the fact that they tend to care about their patients. if doctors are anything its certainly not hard up for more business.
    • ???

      Ever pour hydrogen peroxide on a big patch of road rash? I'd rather just use rubbing alcohol or listerine.

      For EMS, there is no time to worry about sterilization (except for burn patients). That's for the ER/ICU to deal with. Blood loss, shock and trauma stabilization are FAR more important than quick sterilization.

      You have cold foot injuries like trench foots.

      You can get trench foot anytime, by having your feet soaking wet for several hours. Even if it's 80 degrees outside. Doesn't have to be cold.

  • What's that I smell? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by ChuckleBug ( 5201 ) * on Monday May 16, 2005 @08:00PM (#12549487) Journal
    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 is BS. "Innovative Science, Disruptive Technologies" Yeah, right. No studies. Anecdotal evidence, and they also hype a cancer treatment.

  • But wait there's more... (Score:5, Funny)

    by pyrrhonist ( 701154 ) on Monday May 16, 2005 @08:20PM (#12549688)
    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.

    It's also a floorwax and a dessert topping!!!!

    • In other words, never trust a product that uses more then 4 buzzwords in one sentence:

      Oculus said the solution, called Microcyn, may prove effective in the fight against HYPE-FEAR, crossover viruses like HYPE flu and HYPE-FEAR, and HYPE-FEAR threats such as HYPE-FEAR.

      HYPE-FEAR
      HYPE-FEAR
      HYPE-FEAR
      HYPE-FEAR
      HYPE -FEAR
      HYPE-FEAR

  • if it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck (Score:4, Informative)

    by thenerdgod ( 122843 ) on Monday May 16, 2005 @08:30PM (#12549770) Homepage

    It's probably Quackery...

    I direct you here [chem1.com]

    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!

  • This was one of Canter & Siegel's 1994 scams (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Creosote ( 33182 ) on Monday May 16, 2005 @11:20PM (#12550888) Homepage
    Remember the first Usenet spammers [mailmsg.com], 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" [l-ware.com].
  • Here is the DiHydrogen Monoxide FAQ [dhmo.org] ... but I could not find one for DiHydrogen Dioxide which (as previousely noted) might be what they are calling "Super-oxygenated water" ...

  • 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 [fda.gov].

    And, the California Dept. of Pesticide Regulation [ca.gov] 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.

    • Sodium hypochlorite is household bleach. Dunno about that other one, but it sounds like hydrochloric acid.

    • Re:the active ingredient may not be bull-shit (Score:5, Informative)

      by wronskyMan ( 676763 ) on Tuesday May 17, 2005 @12:30AM (#12551290)
      for hypochlorous acid, it is

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

      (from PubChem [nih.gov]); 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.
      • hlorite 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.

        Nah, not if it's not too strong. It just tastes like shit. Similar for iodine pills. Do you die when you drink swimming pool water? Putting a small amount of chlorox in water is a field-expedient water sanitation method (sorry forgot the ratio). It is much better tasting (relatively) if you can let it outgas for 24 hrs.

        I thought maybe they were talking about wat

    • Re:the active ingredient may not be bull-shit (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      It's pH-buffered bleach. Whoopee.

    • Re:the active ingredient may not be bull-shit (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Muhammar ( 659468 ) on Tuesday May 17, 2005 @04:14AM (#12552245)
      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.
  • "Blood bath speeds up healing."

  • Isn't it sad that accelerating the healing time for the kinds of wounds that plague us all isn't good enough? The company has to chime in with its utility in fighting all kinds of things that happen to almost nobody, but which are very, very scary - because we watch too much TV.
  • is not H2O2, as i understand from the article, their solution is composed of some salty water which has lots of gaseous oxygen dissolved in it. This is not a chemical reaction, but a physical one. Just like dissolving CO2 in water to get coke.
  • It sure cured my ebola!

    My blood no longer spurts from various bodily opengings at random intervals!

  • ... but they don't mention the terrible risks [dhmo.org].

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