getting-enough-oxygen

Are You Getting Enough Oxygen?

getting-enough-oxygen

Oxygen is life. It’s so critical nature programmed your body to take it in automatically with every breath. You don’t have to think about it.

But I think about oxygen a lot. It’s so fundamental to life I’m considering naming the med spa that I’m adding to my Wellness Center “Oxygen.”

Oxygen is essential for living well and living younger. With plenty of oxygen, your body pulses with energy. Every cell vibrates with life. You’re able to do all the things that make your life fun, enjoyable and worth living.

But chances are you’re not getting enough oxygen. Let me explain.

Modern causes of low oxygen levels

We’ve evolved over millions of years in an atmosphere with a set amount of oxygen that was constant. But in our modern world it’s not always possible to get enough.

We’ve cut down trees, cities have fewer parks, and there are fewer plants to produce oxygen. Add in pollution around major cities and the result is as much as a 30% cut in oxygen.

But even if you live out in the country with pure air, you may not be taking in enough oxygen. You see, most people are deconditioned and don’t have enough lungpower. The less we use our lungs, the more they shrink.

All of that can add up to an oxygen deficit.

What happens when you don’t get enough oxygen?

Every cell in your body is designed to burn oxygen. It’s the basic fuel for cell metabolism. Cut back on oxygen and all of those cellular processes slow down. You start to become tired or short of breath. Your cells lose the energy they need to repair DNA. Your immune system slows down. Your risk of illness and disease goes up.

Oxygen deprivation is associated with all kinds of chronic diseases, including cancer. Your brain doesn’t work as well, your heart is not as strong, and circulation slows down.

Getting more oxygen can reverse those conditions. Studies show oxygen therapy can:

  • relieve painful migraine and cluster headaches1
  • help treat diabetic foot, skin grafts, burns and neurological diseases2
  • regenerate brain cells after strokes and seizures3
  • reduce inflammation and oxidative stress4
  • mobilize sleeping stem cells5

With so many benefits to getting more oxygen, you might be tempted to start loading up on oxygenated sports drinks. Clever marketers are making a fortune adding oxygen to tap water.

Don’t waste your money.

As soon as you open the bottle the added oxygen escapes into the air.6 And taking one deep breath would give you more oxygen than a whole bottle of that water.

Simple things I recommend to increase your body’s oxygen intake every day.

  1. Practice Deep Breathing. Even for the sick and elderly, this is an easy way to get the healing benefits of oxygen. It can be done sitting or lying down. Just place your hands on your belly and feel it expand as you inhale. Then expand your breath into the sides of your lower chest pushing your side ribs out. Finally, lift your upper chest and let it fill with air. Exhale in the same order, from your abdomen to your ribs to your upper chest. Start with 5 minutes a day and work up to 15 minutes. In no time at all, you’ll be boosting your oxygen throughout the day without even thinking.
  2. Open the Windows. You can’t get a good supply of oxygen from stale air. Whether it’s your home or office, crack a window to let fresh air circulate. But if you live in an area with lots of smog and fumes, you may want to consider a good air filtration system instead.
  3. House Plants. Another way to boost your room’s oxygen is to keep lots of potted green plants. They take in carbon dioxide and pump out fresh oxygen. Good choices are English ivy, spider plants, and heartleaf philodendron. NASA uses them in the Space Station not just to produce oxygen but to filter out toxins in the air like benzene and formaldehyde.
  4. Take Ginkgo Biloba. Ginkgo helps treat problems related to blood circulation. When blood can’t reach the limbs, your arms and legs don’t get enough oxygen. It can lead to pain and weakness. Ginkgo biloba increases the amount of oxygen that reaches the extremities. Studies show it helps increase the distance patients with poor circulation can walk without pain.7 Take 100 mg three times a day.
  5. Boost Oxygen Levels With PACE My PACE system is designed to give you more oxygen where you need it. You see, you might be getting enough oxygen in your blood but is it getting to your tissues and cells?

About 98.5% of the oxygen in your blood is attached to hemoglobin molecules. While you’re resting, hemoglobin pushes only 20 to 25% of that oxygen to your tissues. The rest stays in the bloodstream. It takes exercise to get hemoglobin to release oxygen to the tissues where you need it.

Cardio and aerobics can’t do the job. It requires high intensity exertion.

PACE pumps oxygen-rich blood to your vital organs by up to 18 times more than light exercise such as walking.8 PACE gives you:

  • 400% more oxygen to your lungs
  • 1733% more oxygen to your muscles
  • Nearly double the oxygen to your brain
  • 331% more oxygen from your heart

To Your Good Health,

Al Sears, MD

Al Sears, MD

1. Bennett MH, French C, Schnabel A, Wasiak J, Kranke P. “Normobaric and hyperbaric oxygen therapy for migraine and cluster headache.” Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2008, Issue 3. Art. No.: CD005219.
2. Mychaskiw G, “Hyperbaric oxygen therapy and neurologic disease: the time has come.” Undersea Hyperb Med. 2010;37(2):xi–xiii.
3. Mu J, Krafft PR, Zhang JH. “Hyperbaric oxygen therapy promotes neurogenesis: where do we stand?” Med Gas Res. 2011 Jun 27;1(1):14. PMID: 22146131
4. Rossignol DA, “Hyperbaric oxygen treatment for inflammatory bowel disease: a systematic review and analysis.” Med Gas Res. 2012 Mar 15;2(1):6. PMID: 22417628
5. Thom SR et al, “Stem cell mobilization by hyperbaric oxygen.”Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol. 2006 Apr;290(4):H1378-86. Epub 2005 Nov 18. PMID:16299259
6. CA Piantadosi, “Oxygenated water and athletic performance.” Br J Sports Med. Sep 2006; 40(9): 740–741. Published online Jul 19, 2006. PMCID: PMC2564385
7. Schneider B, “Ginkgo biloba extract in peripheral arterial diseases. Meta-analysis of controlled clinical studies.” Arzneimittelforschung 1992 Apr;42(4):428-36.
8. Adapted from: von Ardenne, M. Oxygen Multistep Therapy. Thieme. 1990. p. 144