Is oxygen supplement helpful?
You must have seen people wearing oxygen tubes to the nostrils, breathing from an O2 tank. What is not very visible is that an increase in the O2 concentration from 21% to 80% in the air we breathe will raise the blood level of oxygen from 93-95 to maximum 98%. Bellow 92% we die, and above 98% it is never achieved. So, the actual increase is less than 5% oxygenation of the hemoglobin. What is less known is the fact that this increase hardly produces an increase in O2 perfusion at the level of the cell, where the O2 is needed. In order to cross the cell membrane into the cell, there is got to be a tidal concentration of CO2 coming back from the cells to the venous blood (Verigo-Bohr effect). Without this there is no O2 exchange! The only way to produce this CO2 there is by avoiding loosing it through overbreathing and secondly with light physical activity like walking. Never try to put out vigorous effort, for it takes time to rebuild the good health.
