Oxygen: Importance and Why We Need it.

Oxygen is vital to every living thing as oxygenation generates different sets of reactions throughout the body. This is done as oxygen interacts with chemicals, nutrients, vitamins and minerals providing our body with energy levels.

The air around us, at sea level, contains about 21%, so this means that time we breathe in, we are inhaling 21% oxygen and this is the amount of this gas that our body receives.

Of this 21% oxygen, our bodies use 20% to generate energy and the remainder is waste and carbon dioxide which is exhaled.

Unlike food and water, our bodies cannot store oxygen and this means we have to breathe constantly to replenish the oxygen we need.

Oxygen is the main ingredient for many biochemical processes related to cell metabolism and nutrient supply.

As oxygen is inhaled into the alveoli it is picked up by the blood from the surrounding air sacs and carried back to the heart and around the body.

As the oxygen is absorbed into the blood, carbon dioxide is removed by the blood as a waste product, and returned to the lungs and exhaled from the body.

A good oxygenation not only keeps us alive, but promotes our general overall health.

Our bodies can survive without a series of things. We can overcome several weeks without food, and several days without water, but we can only stay alive for a few minutes without oxygen.

If we are not receiving an adequate amount of oxygen our cells suffer and begin a major decline and we do not receive oxygen at all our cells will die without the possibility of regeneration and we will die.

One of the most common symptoms of lack of oxygen, is feeling lethargic, dizzy, or the need to yawn constantly. This lack of oxygen causes a loss of concentration, learning problems and general discomfort.

Another important function of our respiratory system is to keep our blood levels normal Ph, balanced.  If our blood´s Ph is either too acid or to alkaline, the cells die. The brain is very sensitive to inadequate levels of acidity or alkalinity. As a result of either extreme, the brain functions stop, including those that control breathing.

   Lack of oxygen can eventually result in clinical death and biological death .

There is also a relationship between the amount of oxygen that the body handles and how much protein is burnt by our digestive systems. The better our oxygenation, the better our digestive system works.

Normally the human heart pumps an average of 70 times per minute. We breathe through our lungs about 14 times per minute.

Composition of air inhaled and exhaled: (Ambient air is composed of approximately 21% oxygen, 78% nitrogen and the remainder is made up of various other gases in much smaller quantities).

• Inhaled Air is: 21% oxygen, 0.04% carbon dioxide, 78% nitrogen, and so on.

•  Exhaled Air is: 16% oxygen, 4% carbon dioxide, 80% nitrogen, 4% other.