Water and oxygen
Water is essential for the existence of life on earth and in almost all situations we are surrounded by water in some form. Water is also the only ordinary substance that can exist in the three phases of matter; gas, fluid and solid. Furthermore, water has a number of special physical properties, for example it can prevent the bottoms of lakes etc from freezing and, in the spring and autumn seasons lake water will reach even temperatures throughout the entire water column.
Our bodies contain 45% – 75% water, depending on age, sex and percentage of body fat. Children contain the most water at approximately 75% and this amount decreases with age so that an adult man is made up of approx. 60%. Adult women, who on the average have more subcutaneous fat and are made up of approximately 55% water.
There are many common illnesses (of the kidneys, stomach/intestines, or brain-epilepsy, migraine) which are characterised by changes in the way in which water is transported or by changes in its distribution in our bodies.
Oxygen is vital in order for life to exist in the majority of living organisms, for example, approx. 2/3 of our body mass is made up of oxygen. All the energy required for any organism is generated by the oxidation of nutrients. In man, oxygen is transported from the lungs and out to the cells in our bodies by the circulation of blood, wherein haemoglobin carries the oxygen. Oxygen is transported to the Mitochondria which utilise the oxygen to obtain energy from nutrients. Nutrients, (fat, sugars and protein) are also transported from the intestines to the cells. It is here, in the cells, that the nutrients are oxidised and supply energy which in the first instance is utilised to create adenosine tri-phosphate (ATP) which acts as the organism’s general carrier of energy, without which, the cells would die. The brain is particularly sensitive to the lack of oxygen and can die within just a few minutes if the supply of oxygen (O2) at normal temperature is cut off. The same thing applies in a heart attack, if a blood vessel that supplies blood to a certain part of the heart, becomes partially blocked, then not enough oxygen will get through (angina). If the blood vessel becomes totally blocked then that particular part of the heart muscle will die (infarct).
Cells are the smallest structural units to sustain life. All physiological functions take place within the cell. These activities are dependent upon minute structures within the cell (for example, Mitochondria).
Cells require a constant supply of oxygen in order to live. So it is vital for them to react if the slightest change takes place in the oxygen supply. Oxygen is the most important element to maintain life within the cell and the cells obtain oxygen from their surroundings.
Cell cultures are kept alive in a medium that supports growth in controlled temperatures in an incubator (typical would be a temperature of 37 degrees C, 5% CO2). Oxygen levels in water-based growth media are usually established purely by diffusion from the surroundings. Alternatively, one can use a machine that bubbles a stream of oxygen gas into the medium, but there is always the associated problem of froth. Regardless of the method used there are limits to the amount of oxygen that can be dissolved in the liquid medium.
Our super oxygenated-water contains considerably more dissolved oxygen than it is otherwise possible to trap or dissolve in water under normal conditions.