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Not enough oxygen

Where is oxygen found and produced ?

In our body

We are 60% oxygen (2/3 of our body is composed of water, which is 8/9ths oxygen).  Of  all the elements the body needs, only oxygen is in such constant demand that its absence brings death in minutes. 

About 90% of the body’s energy is created using oxygen.   One of the main ingredients of cellular energy production

In our air

Pre-1900 Oxygen levels in our air were 32%.

Some cities are now as low as 10-15%. The world’s oxygen is produced from 2 main sources:

  • The sun shining on new forest growth
  • Sunlight on ocean plankton – The clear-cutting of the rain-forest and ocean pollution has seriously depleted our oxygen supply.

The importance of oxygen in our body

Oxygen OXIDIZES substances

 Mildly reactive oxygen begins an OXIDATION process (a series of chemical reactions), which produces a whole family of its much more reactive offspring, called “Active” Oxygen or Reactive Oxygen Species(ROS). These ROS take part in extremely complex OXIDATION reactions, to control various functions in the body. 

Life’s Oxygen Paradox -“Meet Dr. ROS Jeckyll and Mr ROS Hyde” 

Oxygen performs hundreds of essential tasks

Circulation, respiration and digestion need oxygen.  However, the focus here is on oxygen’s role in: (a) metabolism and (b) detoxification.

METABOLISM

For cellular energy production

 ROS “Burn” our food to produce cellular energy. One of the crucial uses of the energy produced is to maintain our protective immune system. Oxygen is attracted to Natural Essential Fats (Omega-3 and Omega-6) in cell membranes.  Natural, undamaged polyunsaturated fats are in short supply in today’s diet, but when consumed they become constituents of cell walls. The many double-carbon bonds in natural, undamaged polyunsaturated fats contain inherent clouds of electrons, which attract oxygen to the cells. This is why Omega-3-rich linseed oil (aka. flax oil) was used prior to petroleum based paints – it attracted oxygen by providing many oxidation sites (allowing oil to harden). The electron cloud vibrations can also be increased by a resonant effect in the presence of sunshine (sun energy), thereby attracting even more oxygen to the cells. When insufficient oxygen is available, Cells change from EFFICIENT oxygen metabolism to INEFFICIENT glucose fermentation.  When surrounding oxygen levels drop to 40% of normal healthy levels, cells start producing energy inefficiently by fermenting glucose, a process which does not need oxygen. Cells become cancerous when they change from aerobic respiration to anaerobic fermentation to produce energy. Over 50 years ago, Dr. Otto Warburg won the Nobel Prize for establishing that the current diseases plaguing mankind are associated with poor oxygen transportation to cells. In particular, he determined that a deficiency of oxygen will result in a cell becoming cancerous i.e. a cancer cell is an aerobic cell turned anaerobic. Fermenting cells consume large amounts of glucose to produce only enough energy to be able to survive and reproduce (An increasingly popular theory correlates cancer with microbes and a low oxygen environment. Many micro-organisms thrive in an acidic, low-oxygen environment. The theory is that a certain cancer microbe develops in low-oxygen conditions, and then “hijacks” a weakened cell and commandeers its glucose supply. The microbe’s acidic waste excreted into the cell’s cytoplasm would also diminish the oxygen supply to the cell’s energy-making mitochondria, which require sources of both oxygen and glucose to produce energy aerobically). Glucose Fermentation Produces Lactic Acid and mostly Carbon Monoxide.  Production of excessive lactic acid and carbon monoxide (instead of easily disposable carbon dioxide) has detrimental consequences:
  • Cancer Growth Rate Increases – Acidity surrounding cells can trigger T-cells to release Enzyme Growth Factors (EGFs). Stimulated by EGFs, the anaerobic cell begins to replicate wildly.
  • Toxic Buildup – An increase in carbon monoxide, which is absorbed by hemoglobin many times better than oxygen, ties up and so prevents, hemoglobin from picking up fresh oxygen. Toxins, normally “burnt up”by oxidation, will build up in the blood, lymph, organs and body fat;
  • Diminished Nerve Function – Excess lactic acid in the system will clog the nerve pathways, eventually causing calcification and degeneration;
  • Cancer cells devitalize surrounding cells – toxic, acidic products of cancer cells affect normal functioning of surrounding cells, promoting their shift from respiratory to fermentative mechanisms. The extent of damage depends on the health of the surrounding cells

(b) DETOXIFICATION

 ROS Enable the blood to be purified – of cellular waste, microbes and toxins, clearing the way for greater oxygen delivery to the cells, to be used for cellular ENERGY production.

 Oxygen combines with waste and toxins, so they can be carried out of the body

The majority of parasites use anaerobic metabolisms when inhabiting a host. Anaerobic bacteria, which don’t need oxygen to survive, are beneficial in healthy intestines to break down waste matter. However, if they take up residence in other locations, as lower oxygen levels make it more habitable for them, they can cause disease. “Feeling at home” in low-level oxygen locations, they excrete toxins, create various uncomfortable symptoms, and also cause you to be under-nourished as they “eat” your food! Allowed to accumulate in the bloodstream, these “invaders” can cause damage to arteries with subsequent plaque build-up, which obstructs delivery of nutrients and oxygen for cellular energy production, and even more crucially – blocks blood flow to the heart.

Nine Life Choices for Vibrant Health

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Attend to Diet, Lifestyle & Emotional State