UNDERSTANDING THE ROLES OF OXYGEN AND CARBON DIOXIDE

UNDERSTANDING THE ROLES OF OXYGEN AND CARBON DIOXIDE
Date: 02/08/2008

Rapid breathing, sighing, rapid exhalation causes you to loose too much Carbon Dioxide and it is this loss that can make you ill. Carbon dioxide is a cohort of oxygen and without enough you will end up being oxygen deficient as well.

The presence of sufficient carbon dioxide in the body helps oxygen get released into the cells. Let me explain. When you breathe in air, oxygen enters your lungs where it attaches itself to iron forming the molecule hemoglobin. As hemoglobin, oxygen gets transported through your body. Now, oxygen is strongly attached to hemoglobin. If you were ever an anxiety (blood level of C02 around 25-30mmHg) or panic patient (blood level of C02 between 20-30mmHg) perhaps your doctor told you to breathe into a brown paper bag. What would you be breathing? You would be re-breathing your Carbon Dioxide that you had breathed out. So, you would be breathing mostly Carbon Dioxide. Why do this? Your blood level is saturated with Oxygen from over-breathing, and your arterial carbon dioxide level is too low. When you breathe a bag full of carbon dioxide you will raise your blood level of C02 to a higher level (40mmHg is normal) and now the Oxygen that is attached to the hemoglobin molecule can be EXCHNGED for C02.

Carbon Dioxide and Oxygen are symbiotic, co-dependent gases upon which our lives intimately depend. If oxygen level goes up as in over-breathing, Carbon Dioxide goes down by means of exhalation, oxygen will remain attached to iron as hemoglobin and be unavailable to the tissues. If C02 goes up through retention or slowed exhalation, then more oxygen will unload off hemoglobin and be available to your tissues in your arterial blood.

How can we know this? Can it be measured? Can we consciously learn to adjust this equation if need be? The answer to all three is, yes, we can become aware, we can measure it and we can consciously adjust the equation.

The only way to absolutely know if you are over-breathing or not is to measure your blood gases. There are two machines that can be used: an oximeter that measures oxygen level and a capnograph that measures Carbon Dioxide levels breath by breath. Using an oximeter by itself can be somewhat misleading unless you understand the ratios of Oxygen to Carbon Dioxide. Hospitals are now using Oximeters to know about someone`s breathing and unfortunately, very few have the background to interpret a correct reading. Many think an Oxygen saturation reading of 99% is good. Instead it means you are hyperventilating.

The correct machine to measure and infer information from is a capnograph. This machine is not as easy to build as the oximeter as it requires very delicate parts. A Dr. Peter Litchfield in Colorado has had a machine built for the lay person to use on their computer. This machine is very user friendly, the accompanying material is very informative, and Dr. Litchfield has developed classes for breathing certification as well. His approach is innovative and puts a very different slant on the whole subject of breathing awareness. The important thing is you can hook yourself up while sitting or lying or performing stationary exercises and monitor your breathing for any length of time. This is much like a 24 hour blood pressure monitor for really discovering if you have blood pressure. Most important, the capno-trainer averages CO2 level, rate of breathing, Heart Rate Variability and includes several programs for monitoring and guiding your breathing for training purposes.

When this machine was first introduced I was thrilled to discover it. I had researched many medical companies looking for a capnograph that could give feedback on C02 level breath by breath. I had taken two groups to climb to 20,000 feet in the Mt. Everest area doing breathing research and could not find such a machine. When the capno-trainer was introduced I made a most interesting discovery. I was shocked at how many "normal looking" individuals who showed no signs of respiratory distress were over-breathing. Yoga teachers were some of the worst breathers as most learn to "even-breathe".

As the issue of being able to consciously intervene to change your breathing I will for the purposes of this short paper on C02 and 02 tell you to deep breathe into the diaphragm and slow your exhale. There is much more to the learning of these practices. On my web site I have a two hour teaching session on "How to Teach Proper Breathing" that goes into this subject in detail.

Please visit my website for many more articles on the subject of breathing and other issues and for information on the Capno-trainer and how you can get one.


By Rosemary MacGregor RN, MS info@themangotreespa
506 2786 5300


Until you know your C02 level you will not know if you are breathing correctly. Most people are hyperventilating or over-breathing and don?t know it. You have to measure your C02 in your exhalation to know if you are over-breathing. There is no other way to know. Oxygen and C02 are true partners in the game of breathing.

http://www.theMangoTreeSpa.com