I am looking for approximately 20 to 25 volunteers in the Tucson area for a blind test of Oral IV, a “rapid rehydration ultra concentrate,” and several other methods of rehydrating the human body.
These methods may include various popular sports drinks as well as “Supplement Charge,” a substance with a remarkably similar description to that of Oral IV. To wit, both include these phrases in their advertising:
– Increases oxygen uptake at the cellular level
– Raises osmotic pressure level of cells to keep them strong
– Increases body enzyme production
– Enhance uptake of vitamins, macro minerals, proteins and other essential nutrients from natural food sources or dietary supplements
Other claims are similar, yet worded differently. Both descriptions also reference ions or ionic charges, crystalloid electrolytes, and other identical or nearly-identical phrases. Furthermore, both are intended to be mixed in small amounts with water. Supplement Charge, however, is much cheaper, at approximately $15 for enough fluid to “treat” 30 16-ounce bottles of water, while Oral IV is sold at the same price per package, although each package will only “treat” 4 16-ounce bottles of water.
If you are interested in helping me with this study, know that it will involve mild physical exercise and a urine test. I don’t yet have a timeline, but will be discussing this with those who email [email protected] about the test.
http://www.skepticblog.org/2009/01/05/water-snakeoil/
The author is Dr Steven Novella from Yale, get him interested.
http://www.theness.com/neurologicablog
Andrew, if it’s feasible, will you include Cera Products rehydration fluids/powders in your test. I’ve recently watched a video on it, seems like a pretty cool product.
Saw this via Morrison Industries the other day: http://specialcircumstancesinc.blogspot.com/2013/06/tactical-snake-oil-part-2-chemical.html
Aaaannnd, I should have scrolled down farther and I would have seen that you’ve already addressed that link. Apologies.
i will help!
Hrmmmm… After talking with you tonight, I dropped by to see this post. Interesting. From a bio-scientists perspective, lemme comment on each point:
– Increases oxygen uptake at the cellular level
Bogus. Hemoglobin does this quite nicely, thank you and there is no way to alter O2 binding by hemoglobin in this fashion. Its already a pretty optimized system through 500million years of evolution.
– Raises osmotic pressure level of cells to keep them strong
Bogus. I don’t even know where to start with this nonsense. What does it mean? Raising osmotic pressure levels of cells is possible when you have a cell wall, like plants or bacteria, but since eukaryotic cells (what we have in us) don’t have cell walls, I fail to see the meaning of this statement. What does “strong” mean with respect to a cell?
– Increases body enzyme production
O RLY? Sez who? Which enzymes? To what end? Some enzymes are bad you know. I don’t want all of my enzymes upregulated… Just sayin’.
– Enhance uptake of vitamins, macro minerals, proteins and other essential nutrients from natural food sources or dietary supplements
Bogus. By what mechanism? Does it make plasma membranes more fluid? Does it enhance the activity of transporters, anti porters, clathrin coated endocytosis?
Anyone saying things like this without science to back them up are no better than Dr. Oz, hucking his endorsement for $$s.
Looking forward to hearing about the methodology and the results!
-RJP
Be sure to include the WHO oral rehydration solution, which is the standard medical procedure and costs next to nothing.