Sam Dean | The Roanoke Times

Scott Mitchell works on the bar in his soon-to-open oxygen bar and eatery in downtown Roanoke.

Sniffing oxygen through a plastic hose helped to relieve Scott Mitchell's hangover.

He inhaled bursts of the gas at a bar while vacationing in Las Vegas two years ago.

"It made me feel a lot better," he said. "You feel kind of sluggish [with a hangover]. It gave me a little bit more energy."

Mitchell and his business partner, Randy Sturgill, are bringing this concept to Roanoke, even though the medical community largely does not support its claimed benefits.

The oxygen bar will be located on Market Street in downtown, in the former location of Quiznos Subs and, most recently, the Healthy Treats Bakery & Cafe. They plan to open the bar, which is unnamed for now, next month.

Oxygen rejuvenates, energizes and relieves tension, proponents claim, and oxygen bars have been growing since the late 1990s. Many landed on the West Coast, though they have expanded into large cities, becoming trendy additions to health clubs, restaurants and bars.

Customers pay to inhale oxygen bursts for a set period of time, typically through hoses that fit their nostrils. Some oxygen bars, including the one planned for Roanoke, offer the gas with different aromas, such as strawberry and vanilla.

Sturgill and Mitchell haven't yet decided which aromas they will sell and what they will charge. Their bar and restaurant will house three oxygen stations, with disposable nostril tubes. Customers will pay for five- to 10-minute time slots of 90 percent oxygen bursts, Sturgill said.

They're investing about $50,000 in the enterprise to renovate the space and buy the necessary equipment. They're consulting Airheads, a manufacturer of oxygen bar supplies, for prices, Mitchell said.

There is more to the business than gas. They'll also serve lunch, dinner and alcohol. The lunch offerings will include panini sandwiches, wraps and salads. For dinner, there will be at least eight entree choices, such as pasta and hamburgers.

Sturgill and Mitchell realize they're spearheading a relatively new and progressive concept locally.

"I think it's a neat idea to do something different," said Mitchell, who also owns Seasons & Occasions, a catering company.

"Maybe it will fit in" with downtown, Sturgill said recently, standing among construction equipment at the bar's future space.

Still, there is no medical evidence to validate the benefits of inhaling oxygen at a bar.

If you breathe normally, this kind of inhalation "is not going to help you go beyond what you're doing," said Sam Giordano, a registered respiratory therapist and executive director of the American Association for Respiratory Care in Texas.

Also, oxygen is considered a drug that a doctor should prescribe.

Most bars, however, say they use oxygen for recreational use, rather than making medical claims for it, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Consumer magazine. At the Roanoke bar, Mitchell said the oxygen used is not medical grade.

But people who suffer from respiratory illnesses should stay away from these kinds of bars, medical experts say. For those with influenza, inhaling oxygen at high levels could cause breathing to stop, said Mary Kane, a retired educator for respiratory care from Goode.

"From a medical perspective, there's not a doctor who's going to tell you to go to one," she said.

On the other hand, evidence does not reveal that oxygen inhaled at low levels is dangerous to a healthy person, according to the FDA.

Kane agreed that the 90 percent oxygen that will be sold at the downtown Roanoke bar "is safer," if the person inhaling it does not already have trouble breathing.