Pure oxygen for breathing: benefits and harms. Why does a person need oxygen and what breathing is considered correct?

Watching even modern foreign films about the work of emergency doctors and paramedics, we repeatedly see the picture - a Chance collar is put on the patient and the next step is given oxygen to breathe. This picture is long gone.

The modern protocol for providing care to patients with respiratory disorders involves oxygen therapy only when saturation is significantly reduced. Below 92%. And it is carried out only to the extent necessary to maintain saturation of 92%.

Why?

Our body is designed in such a way that it requires oxygen to function, but back in 1955 it was found out...

Changes that occur in lung tissue when exposed to various oxygen concentrations have been noted both in vivo and in vitro. The first signs of changes in the structure of alveolar cells became noticeable after 3-6 hours of inhalation of high oxygen concentrations. With continued exposure to oxygen, lung damage progresses and animals die from asphyxia (P. Grodnot, J. Chôme, 1955).

The toxic effect of oxygen primarily manifests itself in the respiratory organs (M.A. Pogodin, A.E. Ovchinnikov, 1992; G.L. Morgulis et al., 1992; M.Iwata, K.Takagi, T.Satake, 1986; O. Matsurbara, T. Takemura, 1986; L. Nici, R. Dowin, 1991; K. L. Weir, P. W Johnston, 1993).

The use of high concentrations of oxygen can also trigger a number of pathological mechanisms. Firstly, this is the formation of aggressive free radicals and activation of the process of lipid peroxidation, accompanied by the destruction of the lipid layer of cell walls. This process is especially dangerous in the alveoli, since they are exposed to the highest concentrations of oxygen. With prolonged exposure, 100% oxygen can cause lung damage such as acute respiratory distress syndrome. It is possible that the lipid peroxidation mechanism is involved in damage to other organs, such as the brain.

What happens when we start inhaling oxygen to a person?

The concentration of oxygen during inhalation increases, as a result, oxygen begins to firstly affect the mucous membrane of the trachea and bronchi, reducing the production of mucus, and also drying it out. Humidification here works little and not as desired, because oxygen passing through water converts part of it into hydrogen peroxide. There is not a lot of it, but it is quite enough to influence the mucous membrane of the trachea and bronchi. As a result of this exposure, mucus production decreases and the tracheobronchial tree begins to dry out. Then, oxygen enters the alveoli, where it directly affects the surfactant contained on their surface.

Oxidative degradation of the surfactant begins. The surfactant forms a certain surface tension inside the alveoli, which allows it to keep its shape and not collapse. If there is little surfactant, and when oxygen is inhaled, the rate of its degradation becomes much higher than the rate of its production by the alveolar epithelium, the alveolus loses its shape and collapses. As a result, an increase in the concentration of oxygen levels during inspiration leads to respiratory failure. It should be noted that this process is not quick, and there are situations when oxygen inhalation can save the patient’s life, but only for a fairly short period of time. Long-term inhalations of even not very high concentrations of oxygen definitely lead to partial atelictation of the lungs and significantly worsen the processes of sputum discharge.

Thus, as a result of oxygen inhalation, you can get the exact opposite effect - a deterioration in the patient’s condition.

What to do in this situation?

The answer lies on the surface - to normalize gas exchange in the lungs not by changing the oxygen concentration, but by normalizing parameters

ventilation. Those. we need to force the alveoli and bronchi to work so that 21% of oxygen in the surrounding air is enough for the body to function normally. Non-invasive ventilation helps with this. However, one must always take into account that selecting ventilation parameters during hypoxia is a rather labor-intensive process. In addition to tidal volumes, respiratory rate, rate of change in pressure during inhalation and exhalation, we have to operate with many other parameters - blood pressure, pressure in the pulmonary artery, index of resistance of the vessels of the small and large circle. Often it is necessary to use drug therapy, because the lungs are not only an organ of gas exchange, but also a kind of filter that determines the speed of blood flow in both the pulmonary and systemic circulation. It’s probably not worth describing the process itself and the pathological mechanisms involved in it here, because it will take more than one hundred pages; it’s probably better to describe what the patient gets as a result.

As a rule, as a result of prolonged oxygen inhalation, a person literally “sticks” to the oxygen concentrator. We described why above. But what’s even worse is that during treatment with an oxygen inhaler, for the patient to be more or less comfortable, higher and higher concentrations of oxygen are required. Moreover, the need to increase the oxygen supply is constantly growing. There is a feeling that a person can no longer live without oxygen. All this leads to the fact that a person loses the opportunity to serve himself.

What happens when we start replacing the oxygen concentrator with non-invasive ventilation? The situation is changing dramatically. After all, non-invasive ventilation is needed only occasionally - a maximum of 5-7 times a day, and as a rule, patients get by with 2-3 sessions of 20-40 minutes each. This significantly rehabilitates patients socially. Exercise tolerance increases. Shortness of breath goes away. A person can take care of himself and live not tied to a device. And most importantly, we do not burn out the surfactant and do not dry out the mucous membrane.

A person tends to get sick. As a rule, it is respiratory diseases that cause a sharp deterioration in the condition of patients. If this happens, then the number of non-invasive ventilation sessions during the day must be increased. Patients themselves, sometimes even better than the doctor, determine when they need to breathe on the machine again.

Medicine knew back in the 1940s that oxygen can be absorbed into the human blood not only through the lungs. Like any gas, oxygen easily passes through any tissue of the body.

The movement of gas occurs in the direction of lower pressure. The speed of gas movement depends on the pressure difference, gas concentration and the degree of resistance of body tissues to gas movement. The proportion of oxygen in the atmosphere is 20.94%, in the venous vessels of the lungs - 16-18%. This difference is enough for breathing and oxygenating the blood.

Oxygen also passes through the skin! It is believed that 2% of the oxygen volume enters the blood through the skin (more during heavy physical activity). The development of oxygen cosmetics is based on the skin's ability to transmit oxygen. But when using oxygen of high (higher than in air) concentration, the rate of entry of this gas into the body increases sharply, since the difference in concentrations and pressures increases significantly. After all, medical oxygen contains 99.5 - 99.9% oxygen, and the proportion of oxygen in venous blood remains the same - 16-18%.

Gas molecules, when moving, carry with them medicinal substances, food components, etc., and therefore, the effect of any medications and the digestibility of food while taking an oxygen cocktail is noticeably increased.

In the 1940s and 50s, studies were conducted with the introduction of oxygen into the stomach using a tube. Of course, this was only possible in a clinical setting, but even the introduction of 50-100 ml of oxygen had a therapeutic effect (250 ml of foam contains 200-350 ml of oxygen). At the same time, studies were carried out with the introduction of oxygen into the body in all sorts of other ways: through the lungs, subcutaneously, inside the joint, in the form of oxygen baths.

An oxygen cocktail is the so-called enteral route of introducing oxygen into the body at normal atmospheric pressure.

As technical means improved, methods were developed for introducing oxygen under high pressure (in hyperbaric chambers), as well as very effective techniques using low oxygen concentrations and low atmospheric pressure (also in hyperbaric chambers) for training.

Oxygen is introduced into the oxygen cocktail and into the body under pressure, but compared to a pressure chamber, the increase in this pressure relative to atmospheric pressure is insignificant. In high concentrations, oxygen is easily absorbed into the blood and lymph, entering the venous vessels of the stomach and intestines.

With all types of oxygen therapy, regardless of the methods of gas administration, the main increase in its concentration and, first of all, pressure occurs in the tissues of the body, and not in the blood, which gives a therapeutic and prophylactic effect, therefore, in arterial blood, an increase in the volume fraction can be by only 1-2%, pressure increases by 4-15%, and in tissues it is much higher (SCD RAMS 2008-2009).

The peculiarity of the oxygen cocktail is that as a result of its use, the oxygen content in the blood increases not only in the form associated with hemoglobin, but also in the form of a solution in the plasma.

The author of the oxygen cocktail technique is Academician of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences (1957) N.N. Sirotinin (Kyiv) made a discovery, proving that with the help of oxygen foam saturated with medical oxygen, it is possible to introduce an amount of gas sufficient for a therapeutic and prophylactic effect. In 1963, a report on this technique was first made at a meeting of the oxygen committee of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, in 1968 publications appeared, and in 1970 the USSR Ministry of Health registered a medical technique (the Ministry of Health commission was headed by the famous scientist Professor B.E. Votchal).

A study of the effect of oxygen foam on the body was carried out by his students - Professor N.S. Zanozdra and V.P. Needed at the Kiev Research Institute of Clinical Medicine. These studies were continued in post-Soviet times.

An oxygen cocktail contains 0.7 - 1.3 ml of oxygen per 1 ml of foam. The property of foam saturation with oxygen depends on the quality of the foaming agent - the substance that creates foam in contact with oxygen, and on the rate of oxygen supply (including the quality of the oxygen atomizer). Thus, 200 ml of foam contains from 150 to 260 ml of oxygen. It is known that the minimum therapeutic dose of the drug “Oxygen” is 50 - 100 ml, i.e. one serving of foam contains from 1 to 5 therapeutic doses.

True, if you prepare the foam not in a closed container, but in an open one, and even use a mixer, then most of the oxygen will go into the air. The same thing will happen if you take the foam not immediately after it has been produced, but after some time (similar to how tea poured into a cup cools down).

Medical oxygen is a medicine and any oxygen when administered orally is a medicine. Evidence of this is the fact that oxygen, as a medicine, is included in the State Pharmacopoeia of Ukraine, the Russian Federation and the whole world. The properties of oxygen as a medicine, including in an oxygen cocktail, are described in all editions of the famous reference book by Professor M.D. Mashkovsky "Medicines".

The purposes of using the medicine “Oxygen” as part of a cocktail are as follows:

1) eliminating oxygen starvation (hypoxia);

2) stimulation of one’s own antioxidant systems;

3) destruction of helminths (worms);

4) use for the treatment of chronic gastritis, peptic ulcer (direct healing effect on the gastric mucosa);

5) general improvement in well-being and increased performance (by the way, this phenomenon is observed by parents of children who regularly take oxygen cocktails);

6) reducing the incidence of colds;

7) inclusion in complex therapy for obesity (large portions of foam stretch the stomach and reflexively reduce appetite). That is, the therapeutic effect depends not only on the saturation of the blood with oxygen, but also on the direct, reflex action, and primarily on the gastrointestinal tract, where the increased oxygen content has the greatest effect.

There are methodological recommendations from the Russian Ministry of Health (1985-1988) on reducing the incidence of ARVI and other “cold” infections, as well as studies by Dr. S.F. Cheryachukina (2009), which show that the likelihood of a child missing classes in kindergarten is reduced by approximately 3 times, compared with children who do not take an oxygen cocktail.

Children love the taste of an oxygen cocktail. This is a game for a child! We have more than 40 years of experience in organizing children's health in kindergartens. To put it in simple everyday language, a self-respecting kindergarten, school, and even more so a children's sanatorium must have an established production of an oxygen cocktail, since children get tired less and learn better due to this.

There is no substitute for an oxygen cocktail! Its effect cannot be compensated for by walks, vitamins, etc. There is another important fact: the positive effects of an oxygen cocktail are enhanced if physical exercise is carried out after taking it. The fact that oxygen in an oxygen cocktail has a therapeutic and prophylactic effect is believed by the Academy of Medical Sciences of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and other countries (Research Institute of Nutrition of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Scientific Center for Children's Health of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Research Institute of Hygiene for Children and Adolescents of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Research Institute of the Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine, the Ministry of Health of Belarus), which is well known and sanitary doctors, since the therapeutic and prophylactic effect is reflected in sanitary laws (Sanpins).

Various vitamin and mineral complexes and preparations of so-called biogenic stimulants (ginseng, eleutherococcus) go well with the oxygen cocktail.

In the production of oxygen cocktails, medical oxygen has always been used, guaranteed to be purified from more than 1000 harmful air impurities known to science, as well as from microorganisms, fungi, and radioactive substances.

But... attention! Since 2005, evidence has become increasingly common of using oxygen directly from the air to produce a cocktail (schools, preschool educational institutions). In this case, an oxygen concentration of up to 55 - 95% is achieved (and in manufacturers’ advertisements the figures are 95%); At the same time, some harmful impurities from the air are concentrated.

One of these harmful impurities is the inert gas argon, the third most abundant component of air after nitrogen and oxygen: its concentration, equal to 0.93% vol. in ordinary air, increases to 4-5% when receiving the mixture directly from air. This substance causes effects that are opposite to the goals we set when using medical oxygen using the correct method. Argon causes oxygen starvation! Experiments on animals have shown the toxic effect of argon, including on animal embryos; a Ph.D. thesis was even defended on this topic. The result is a mixture similar to gas for oxygen-argon welding. Such a mixture falls short not only of grade 1 technical oxygen (with an oxygen content of 99.7%), but even of grade 2 (with an oxygen content of 99.5%).

Such an oxygen mixture (as we see, with a fairly high oxygen content) is often used to treat chronic pulmonary patients, since it is difficult and expensive to provide a large amount of medical oxygen. This prolongs their life and even preserves their ability to work. Another area of ​​application of medical oxygen is resuscitation, where oxygen is part of the gas mixture for anesthesia. In these cases we are talking about the use of oxygen for medical reasons! And if there is no medical oxygen, then everything is justified to save the patient’s life, but not always: in case of hypoxia, the use of such oxygen does not save the patient. Such activities can only be carried out by doctors, and have nothing to do with the nutritional use of oxygen.

Separate monographs can be written about the negative effect of each of the components of the mixture that is obtained at the outlet of the oxygen concentrator during direct production from the air. This mixture contains neon, hydrogen and helium, the combined effect of which in elevated concentrations on the body is difficult to predict, and when using devices with ultraviolet irradiation, it has not been studied at all, but there are side effects.

The air in any room always contains carbon dioxide CO2, and in very small concentrations toxic carbon monoxide CO. Moreover, the concentration of carbon monoxide in a room directly depends on the location of this room: near highways and large industrial facilities, the concentration of carbon monoxide will, of course, be higher. But at the outlet of the oxygen concentrator, the concentration of carbon monoxide may also increase.

Absolutely the same situation occurs with the concentration of ozone, a toxic gas that is necessarily present in the air near highways: exceeding its maximum permissible concentration over 0.1 mg/m3 causes chronic poisoning (a concentration of 0.1% is lethal).

To date, there is no sufficiently convincing scientific data on the number of microbes and viruses in a concentrated mixture of air, however, with a high degree of probability, their presence can be predicted.

In no civilized country in the world where the production of oxygen concentrators has been established, these devices are not used to produce an oxygen cocktail for kindergarten children. According to the requirements of Roszdravnadzor of the Russian Federation, oxygen concentrators are intended only for administering oxygen through the lungs and only by doctors to patients, otherwise the validity of the registration certificate is lost (it is mandatory!) and their use is illegal.

Near a working concentrator, the oxygen content in the atmospheric air drops below the sanitary norm of 19.5% to 17 - 18%, which is dangerous even for the personnel operating the device. It is even considered illegal to use an oxygen concentrator to treat one patient when another patient is in the same room next to him: while one patient is breathing oxygen from the concentrator, the other may experience uncontrolled oxygen starvation (which is hidden!).

Other manufacturers use hard ultraviolet radiation in their devices, which is not an oxygen cocktail at all, and since there is no high concentration oxygen, there is no oxygen cocktail. Such radiation is used, for example, in MIT-S devices. They produce ozone from the kindergarten air. This gas must be administered in strictly controlled concentrations. The very introduction of atmospheric air into the stomach is contrary to the Law, and most importantly, the child’s body is not designed to introduce large quantities of air into the stomach - involuntary swallowing of air in children is called aerophagia and is treated by pediatricians, as it slows down the child’s development, there are chemical carcinogens in the air (causing cancer) and microbial (pili bacteria, multiplying in the stomach, greatly increases the risk of cancer), toxic substances and gases, allergens, fungi, viruses and bacteria that cause infectious diseases.

For example, the Russian Federation has banned the import of sweets (which contain benzopyrene), and there is always benzopyrene in the air - a strong carcinogen.

But the use of hard UV radiation does not in any way eliminate all the shortcomings of the mixture obtained from atmospheric air. This mixture is still inferior in quality even to technical oxygen. One of the conditions for using ozone for therapeutic purposes - ozone therapy - is strict control of the concentration of this toxic gas. Such control can only be carried out by doctors in collaboration with specially trained technical personnel.

When an air mixture is irradiated with hard UV radiation, nitrogen oxides are formed. Particularly toxic of them is nitrogen dioxide NO2. It is formed from the interaction of oxygen and nitrogen in the air mixture. This is an insidious substance! Penetrating into the stomach and lungs, nitrogen dioxide forms nitric and nitrous acids, which destroy tissue. At the same time, in a purely quantitative aspect, since oxygen is consumed for the formation of nitrogen dioxide and its other oxides, the content of the latter in the air again drops, reaching 20.5-20.6%, which is not good.

Thus, it is clear that in MIT-S devices, in no case should an air mixture be used for therapeutic purposes, as well as technical or even “food” oxygen, which may contain nitrogen. The requirements are even more stringent than for oxygen in an oxygen cocktail. Medical purposes for ozone therapy dictate the use of only a medical drug! To do this, you need to connect a source of medical oxygen and no harmful nitrogen oxides will be produced, and all harmful impurities and microorganisms in the air will not be produced, but medical ozone will be produced and its use will be more effective than a regular oxygen cocktail, but when prescribed by a doctor. These provisions are contained in the Methodological Recommendations for the use of ozone therapy of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation (2004-2007). And this is what all ozone therapists and physiotherapists in the world think! (including at the Research Institute of Ozone Therapy in Kharkov).

There is another toxic nitrogen oxide - N2O, “laughing gas”, which has a narcotic effect on the body. It is also extremely harmful to health! Some entrepreneurs are also already expressing a desire to use it.

The reason that living room air is used to produce an oxygen cocktail (and more) is simple. It is, first of all, economic: untreated atmospheric air costs nothing. The entrepreneur does not invest any funds in its “production”. And this is in conditions when the law allows the use of oxygen cocktails and ozone therapy only in medical institutions, using only medical oxygen for procedures and cocktail production! It is easy to distinguish between medical and food oxygen - its use does not require power supply and it can only be stored in small, compact containers (transport oxygen cylinders are not used!) and nothing else.

And no legal documents or certificates are drawn up for atmospheric air (and this is corruption), since this is contrary to the Law on the Circulation of Medicines, while medical oxygen must have a registration certificate for a medicine, food oxygen must have a certificate for a food additive. Mess with them! But only a medicine, or a nutritional supplement, or a food product can be legally introduced into the body, and all of them must have documents confirming quality and safety, and gases must be based on an analysis protocol in an accredited laboratory (not just a document!).

There is another problem with the use of oxygen foam: the dose of the drug is set each time not by the doctor, but by the entrepreneur, who regulates the price for one serving of the drink at his own discretion.

And such an unscrupulous entrepreneur will supply a product that is obviously of poor quality to be introduced into the child’s stomach!

Now we turn to parents! You must be simply crazy to allow such a product containing harmful impurities, the effect of which is even difficult to describe, to be introduced into your child’s stomach! This is not about which oxygen is worse or better, but about a violation of the Legislation.

Doctor Cheryachukin S.F., Kyiv, Ph.D. Yakovlev A.B., Moscow.

Recently, news spread across the country: the state corporation Rusnano is investing 710 million rubles in the production of innovative medicines against age-related diseases. We are talking about the so-called “Skulachev ions” - a fundamental development of domestic scientists. It will help cope with cell aging, which is caused by oxygen.

"How so? – you will be surprised. “It’s impossible to live without oxygen, and you claim that it accelerates aging!” In fact, there is no contradiction here. The engine of aging is reactive oxygen species that are already formed inside our cells.

Energy source

Few people know that pure oxygen is dangerous. It is used in medicine in small doses, but if you breathe it for a long time, you can be poisoned. Laboratory mice and hamsters, for example, live in it for only a few days. The air we breathe contains slightly more than 20% oxygen.

Why do so many living beings, including humans, need small amounts of this dangerous gas? The fact is that O2 is a powerful oxidizing agent; almost no substance can resist it. And we all need energy to live. So, we (as well as all animals, fungi and even most bacteria) can obtain it by oxidizing certain nutrients. Literally burning them like wood in a fireplace.

This process occurs in every cell of our body, where there are special “energy stations” for it - mitochondria. This is where everything we eat ultimately ends up (digested and decomposed to the simplest molecules, of course). And it is inside the mitochondria that oxygen does the only thing it can do - oxidize.

This method of obtaining energy (it is called aerobic) is very beneficial. For example, some living beings are able to obtain energy without oxidation by oxygen. Only thanks to this gas, the same molecule produces several times more energy than without it!

Hidden catch

Of the 140 liters of oxygen that we inhale from the air per day, almost all of it is used to obtain energy. Almost - but not all. Approximately 1% is spent on the production of... poison. The fact is that during the beneficial activity of oxygen, dangerous substances are also formed, the so-called “reactive oxygen species”. These are free radicals and hydrogen peroxide.

Why did nature even decide to produce this poison? Some time ago, scientists found an explanation for this. Free radicals and hydrogen peroxide, with the help of a special enzyme protein, are formed on the outer surface of cells, with their help our body destroys bacteria that have entered the blood. Very reasonable, considering that the hydroxide radical rivals bleach in its toxicity.

However, not all the poison ends up outside the cells. It is also formed in those very “energy stations”, mitochondria. They also have their own DNA, which is damaged by reactive oxygen species. Then everything is clear: the work of energy plants goes wrong, DNA is damaged, aging begins...

Precarious balance

Fortunately, nature took care to neutralize reactive oxygen species. Over billions of years of oxygen-rich life, our cells have generally learned to keep O2 in check. Firstly, there should not be too much or too little of it - both of them provoke the formation of poison. Therefore, mitochondria are able to “expel” excess oxygen, as well as “breathe” so that it cannot form those same free radicals. Moreover, our body has substances in its arsenal that are good at fighting free radicals. For example, antioxidant enzymes that convert them into more harmless hydrogen peroxide and just oxygen. Other enzymes immediately take up the hydrogen peroxide, turning it into water.

All this multi-stage protection works well, but over time it begins to fail. At first, scientists thought that enzymes that protect against reactive oxygen species weaken over the years. It turned out, no, they are still vigorous and active, but according to the laws of physics, some free radicals still bypass multi-stage protection and begin to destroy DNA.

Is it possible to support your natural defenses against toxic radicals? Yes, you can. After all, the longer certain animals live on average, the better their defenses are honed. The more intense the metabolism of a particular species, the more effectively its representatives cope with free radicals. Accordingly, the first way to help yourself from the inside is to lead an active lifestyle, not allowing your metabolism to slow down with age.

We train youth

There are several other circumstances that help our cells cope with toxic oxygen derivatives. For example, a trip to the mountains (1500 m and above sea level). The higher you go, the less oxygen there is in the air, and the inhabitants of the plain, once in the mountains, begin to breathe more often, it is difficult for them to move - the body tries to compensate for the lack of oxygen. After two weeks of living in the mountains, our body begins to adapt. The level of hemoglobin (the blood protein that carries oxygen from the lungs to all tissues) increases, and cells learn to use O2 more economically. Perhaps, scientists say, this is one of the reasons that there are many centenarians among the highlanders of the Himalayas, Pamirs, Tibet, and the Caucasus. And even if you only get to the mountains for a vacation once a year, you'll get the same benefits, even if it's just for a month.

So, you can learn to inhale a lot of oxygen or, conversely, a little, there are a lot of breathing techniques of both directions. However, by and large, the body will still maintain the amount of oxygen entering the cell at a certain average level that is optimal for itself and its load. And that same 1% will go to the production of poison.

Therefore, scientists believe that it will be more effective to approach it from the other side. Leave the amount of O2 alone and strengthen cellular protection against its active forms. We need antioxidants, and ones that can penetrate inside the mitochondria and neutralize the poison there. This is exactly what Rusnano wants to produce. Perhaps in a few years, such antioxidants can be taken like the current vitamins A, E and C.

Rejuvenation drops

The list of modern antioxidants has long been not limited to the listed vitamins A, E and C. Among the newest discoveries are SkQ antioxidant ions, developed by a group of scientists led by a full member of the Academy of Sciences, honorary president of the Russian Society of Biochemists and Molecular Biologists, director of the Institute of Physical and Chemical Biology. . A. N. Belozersky Moscow State University, laureate of the USSR State Prize, founder and dean of the Faculty of Bioengineering and Bioinformatics of Moscow State University Vladimir Skulachev.

Back in the 70s of the twentieth century, he brilliantly proved the theory that mitochondria are the “power plants” of cells. For this purpose, positively charged particles (“Skulachev ions”) were invented, which can penetrate into mitochondria. Now Academician Skulachev and his students have “attached” to these ions an antioxidant substance that can “deal with” toxic oxygen compounds.

At the first stage, these will not be “anti-aging pills”, but drugs for the treatment of specific diseases. First in line are eye drops to treat some age-related vision problems. Such drugs have already given absolutely fantastic results when tested on animals. Depending on the species, new antioxidants may reduce early mortality, increase average lifespan, and extend maximum age—tempting prospects!

Oxygen is actively used for breathing. And this is its main function. It is also necessary for other processes that normalize the activity of the entire organism as a whole.

What is oxygen for?

Oxygen is the key to the successful performance of a number of functions, which include:
- increasing mental performance;
- increasing the body's resistance to stress and reducing nervous stress;
- maintaining a normal level of oxygen in the blood, thereby improving the nutrition of skin cells and organs;
- the functioning of internal organs is normalized, metabolism is accelerated;
- increasing immunity;
- weight loss - oxygen promotes active breakdown of fats;
- normalization of sleep - due to the saturation of cells with oxygen, the body relaxes, sleep becomes deeper and lasts longer;
- solving the problem of hypoxia (i.e. lack of oxygen).

Natural oxygen, according to scientists and doctors, is quite capable of coping with these tasks, but, unfortunately, in urban conditions, problems arise with a sufficient amount of oxygen.

Scientists say that the amount of oxygen necessary to ensure normal life can only be found in forested areas, where its level is about 21%, and in suburban forests - about 22%. Other zones include seas and oceans. Plus, exhaust fumes also play a role in the city. Due to the lack of the proper amount of oxygen, people experience a permanent state of hypoxia, i.e. lack of oxygen. As a result, many report a significant deterioration in their health.

Scientists have determined that 200 years ago a person received up to 40% of natural oxygen from the air, and today this figure has decreased by 2 times - to 21%.

How to replace natural oxygen

Since a person clearly does not have enough natural oxygen, doctors recommend adding special oxygen therapy. There are no contraindications for such a procedure, but there will certainly be benefits. Sources of additional oxygen include oxygen cylinders and pillows, concentrators, cocktails, and oxygen-forming cocktails.

In addition, in order to receive the maximum possible amount of natural oxygen, you need to breathe properly. Usually people breastfeed, but this method is incorrect and unnatural for humans. This is due to the fact that when you inhale through the chest, air cannot completely fill the lungs and clear them. Doctors say that chest breathing also provokes improper functioning of the nervous system. Hence stress, depression and other types of disorders. To feel good and get as much oxygen from the air as possible, you need to breathe with your stomach.

Why is oxygen needed in the blood?

For normal functioning of the body, it is necessary that the blood is fully supplied with oxygen. Why is this so important?

In the blood flowing from the lungs, almost all the oxygen is chemically bound to hemoglobin rather than dissolved in the blood plasma. The presence of the respiratory pigment - hemoglobin in the blood allows it to transfer a significant amount of gases with a small volume of its own liquid. In addition, the implementation of chemical processes of binding and release of gases occurs without a sharp change in the physicochemical properties of the blood (concentration of hydrogen ions and osmotic pressure).

The oxygen capacity of the blood is determined by the amount of oxygen that hemoglobin can bind. The reaction between oxygen and hemoglobin is reversible. When hemoglobin is bound to oxygen, it becomes oxyhemoglobin. At altitudes up to 2000 m above sea level, arterial blood is 96–98% saturated with oxygen. During muscle rest, the oxygen content in the venous blood flowing to the lungs is 65–75% of the content that is in the arterial blood. With intense muscular work, this difference increases.

When oxyhemoglobin is converted into hemoglobin, the color of the blood changes: from scarlet-red it becomes dark purple and vice versa. The less oxyhemoglobin, the darker the blood. And when there is very little of it, the mucous membranes acquire a grayish-bluish color.

The most important reason for the change in the blood reaction to the alkaline side is the content of carbon dioxide in it, which, in turn, depends on the presence of carbon dioxide in the blood. Therefore, the more carbon dioxide in the blood, the more carbon dioxide, and therefore, the stronger the shift in the acid-base balance of the blood to the acidic side, which better contributes to the saturation of the blood with oxygen and facilitating its release to the tissues. At the same time, carbon dioxide and its concentration in the blood most strongly of all the above factors affect the saturation of oxygen in the blood and its release to tissues. But blood pressure is especially strongly affected by muscle work, or increased activity of the organ, leading to an increase in temperature, significant formation of carbon dioxide, naturally, to a greater shift to the acidic side, and a decrease in oxygen tension. It is in these cases that the greatest oxygen saturation of the blood and the entire body as a whole occurs. The level of oxygen saturation in the blood is an individual constant of a person, depending on many factors, the main ones of which are the total surface of the alveolar membranes, the thickness and properties of the membrane itself, the quality of hemoglobin, and the mental state of the person. Let's explore these concepts in more detail.

1. The total surface of the alveolar membranes, through which gases diffuse, varies from 30 square meters when exhaling to 100 when taking a deep breath.

2. The thickness and properties of the alveolar membrane depend on the presence of mucus on it, secreted from the body through the lungs, and the properties of the membrane itself depend on its elasticity, which, alas, is lost with age and is determined by how a person eats.

3. Although the heme (iron-containing) groups in hemoglobin are the same for everyone, the globin (protein) groups are different, which affects the ability of hemoglobin to bind oxygen. Hemoglobin has the greatest binding ability during intrauterine life. Further, this property is lost if it is not specifically trained.

4. Due to the fact that there are nerve endings in the walls of the alveoli, various nerve impulses caused by emotions, etc., can significantly affect the permeability of the alveolar membranes. For example, when a person is depressed, he breathes heavily, and when he is cheerful, the air itself flows into the lungs.

Therefore, the level of oxygen saturation in the blood is different for each person and depends on age, type of breathing, cleanliness of the body and emotional stability of the person. And even depending on the above factors in the same person, it fluctuates significantly, amounting to 25–65 mm of oxygen per minute.

The exchange of oxygen between blood and tissues is similar to the exchange between alveolar air and blood. Since there is a continuous consumption of oxygen in the tissues, its tension drops. As a result, oxygen passes from the tissue fluid into the cells, where it is consumed. Oxygen-depleted tissue fluid, in contact with the wall of the capillary containing blood, leads to the diffusion of oxygen from the blood into the tissue fluid. The higher the tissue metabolism, the lower the oxygen tension in the tissue. And the greater this difference (between blood and tissue), the greater the amount of oxygen that can enter the tissues from the blood at the same oxygen tension in capillary blood.

The process of carbon dioxide removal resembles the reverse process of oxygen absorption. Carbon dioxide formed in tissues during oxidative processes diffuses into the interstitial fluid, where its tension is lower, and from there it diffuses through the capillary wall into the blood, where its tension is even lower than in the interstitial fluid.

Passing through the walls of tissue capillaries, carbon dioxide partly directly dissolves in the blood plasma as a gas that is highly soluble in water, and partly binds with various bases to form bicarbonates. These salts are then decomposed in the pulmonary capillaries, releasing free carbon dioxide, which in turn is rapidly broken down by the enzyme carbonic anhydrase into water and carbon dioxide. Further, due to the difference in the partial pressure of carbon dioxide between the alveolar air and its content in the blood, it passes into the lungs, from where it is expelled. The main amount of carbon dioxide is transferred with the participation of hemoglobin, which, after reacting with carbon dioxide, forms bicarbonates, and only a small part of the carbon dioxide is transferred by plasma.

It was previously stated that the main factor regulating breathing is the concentration of carbon dioxide in the blood. An increase in CO 2 in the blood flowing to the brain increases the excitability of both the respiratory and pneumotoxic centers. An increase in the activity of the first of them leads to increased contractions of the respiratory muscles, and the second leads to increased breathing. When the CO 2 content returns to normal, stimulation of these centers stops and the frequency and depth of breathing return to normal levels. This mechanism also works in the opposite direction. If a person voluntarily takes a series of deep breaths and exhalations, the CO 2 content in the alveolar air and blood will decrease so much that after he stops breathing deeply, respiratory movements will stop altogether until the level of CO 2 in the blood reaches normal again. Therefore, the body, striving for balance, maintains the partial pressure of CO 2 at a constant level already in the alveolar air.

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