Double-header at AC Hub: Songs and oxygen
One afternoon at the AC Hub, students sat around a machine, listened to live music and inhaled flavoured gas. It was not a vape, nor any other drug — it was pure oxygen.
“When we’re stressed or anxious about something, exams for instance, our body goes into a fight or flight mode,” said Dave McNamara, founder of Element Oxygen Bars, during his visit on the evening of Oct. 18. “In order to produce adrenaline, the body uses oxygen … take into account improper hydration, bad posture, and poor breathing techniques, the symptoms of low oxygen seep into our blood.”
The symptoms supposedly include anxiety, headaches, and “brain fog.”
His business aims to counter that. The product is pure oxygen, condensed into liquid form, flavoured with chemicals, then returned to gas for breathing through a tube.
Over 70 students tried McNamara’s oxygen, which was provided for free as he was paid by the Algonquin Students’ Association. People inhaled for a few minutes each, and many seemed pleased. Others said they felt no different.
Writing for Healthline in 2019, Dr. Deborah Weatherspoon said that when using oxygen bars, “you may experience an improvement in the effects of stress. The positive effects reported by people who frequent oxygen bars may be psychological — known as the placebo effect — or perhaps there are benefits that haven’t yet been studied. The benefits of oxygen bars haven’t really been studied and neither have the risks.”
She also said: “A healthy person’s normal blood oxygen is between 96 and 99 per cent saturated with oxygen when breathing normal air, which makes some experts question what value extra oxygen could have.”
McNamara, on the other hand, said that 96 to 97 per cent is the “not feeling great” level, and his machines aim to produce 99 per cent.
But he added: “I’m not a doctor, so I can’t speak to any kind of miracle happening.”
He takes his own oxygen twice a day: in the morning (“with my coffee”) and around 3 p.m.
He visited the Pembroke campus that morning, and the Perth campus the previous day.
Meanwhile, the other end of the AC Hub hosted student musician Natalia Martinez. She started off with piano, then sang nine songs to recorded backing tracks.
Martinez, an international student from Mexico City, performed in both English and Spanish. Her setlist included Valerie, Fly Me to the Moon and a Spanish version of The Girl from Ipanema. She was chosen for this event after performing in the Wolves Den Patio Singer-Songwriter series in the spring term. She was also paid by the SA.
Martinez has a degree in music from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, having been classically trained on the piano. After coming to Algonquin to study child and youth care, she took up singing and popular music. She works as a piano tutor for children, and hopes to conduct music therapy after graduating.
Martinez and McNamara could both return to events at the AC Hub.
“With the majority of our colleges, we have a two-times-a-year schedule,” McNamara said. “I haven’t been confirmed [to return to Algonquin], the feedback has been excellent.”
He usually visits campuses around exam times.
Martinez, meanwhile, said that she might get hired for a Day of the Dead celebration in November, but hasn’t received confirmation either.
