Oxygen is the third most abundant element in the universe. It comprises 21% of the air we breathe and represents 0.78% of your body weight. The highest concentration can be found in your blood at 35-45%.
The benefits of oxygen are countless! The role it plays in our bodies is extremely important. Indeed, without oxygen, no cell could survive for more than a few minutes because cells need energy to function properly. Below are 15 Reasons Why Oxygen Is Important:
15 Benefits Of Oxygen That Will Make You Plant More Trees
In fact, without oxygen life would be impossible because cellular respiration wouldn’t exist and that means there would be no ATP production. That said, let’s take a look at 15 reasons why it is important.
1. Oxygen Enables Cellular Respiration
You breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide. When you eat, your body turns glucose into carbon dioxide and water when your cells metabolize the food via aerobic cellular respiration using oxygen to produce ATP which can then be used for energy throughout your body.
2. Oxygen Is Necessary For Metabolism
Metabolism is basically a process in which the body breaks down substances to release energy that it can then use for other things like healing, building muscle and other biological processes. Without oxygen, the cells wouldn’t be able to produce ATP (which stands for adenosine triphosphate) which is an important enzyme that carries energy within cells.
Without ATP your body could not function properly and this would lead to death shortly after suffocation or even before depending on how long you managed to hold your breath without receiving any oxygen at all.
3. Oxygen Is Used To Diagnose Medical Conditions
When a doctor diagnoses a medical condition, it’s usually done by looking for symptoms which often requires the patient to breathe into some kind of machine that measures respiratory rate and volume as well as levels of carbon dioxide and oxygen in the blood.
This allows doctors to see if there is something wrong with their lungs or if there are other factors involved such as heart problems or digestive issues that might be blocking proper airflow during respiration.
4. Oxygen Keeps Your Cells Healthy
Your mitochondria (the powerhouse of all cells) uses ATP molecules to power cellular processes throughout your body via chemical reactions that involve electron transport chains where electrons are passed along down a series of proteins until they reach oxygen which is one of the final acceptors.
Cells that don’t receive enough oxygen will start to lose function and this can lead to a variety of health problems including fatigue, shortness of breath, rapid heartbeat and even death in the most extreme cases.
Related Video – Oxygen Cycle Explained
5. Oxygen Helps Diagnose Asthma In Children
Asthma is a condition that causes sufferers to have chronic trouble breathing. Often, an early diagnosis can be done by listening for abnormal sounds on chest x-rays or other breathing tests where doctors look for wheezing or whistling when air, predominantly oxygen, passes through narrowed airways which is caused by inflammation.
6. Oxygen Can Help Treat Asthma
In addition to diagnosing asthma, doctors will sometimes use oxygen as a treatment for the condition if their patient’s levels fall too low even though asthma is not caused by a lack of oxygen.
The standard way of doing this involves placing a mask over the mouth and nose so that high concentrations of pure oxygen can be delivered directly into the lungs where it can help open constricted airways and ease difficult breathing.
7. Oxygen Is Used In CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation)
This is a method that uses chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth breathing in order to help circulate oxygen through the body which can be helpful if a person’s heart stops beating properly.
When you inhale, oxygen enters your lungs and gets into your blood via tiny air sacs called alveoli where it is then transported throughout your body and circulated until it reaches vital organs such as your heart or brain where it helps generate energy.
8. Oxygen Is Used To Treat Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
Treatment for carbon monoxide poisoning involves saturating body tissues with pure oxygen by means of a medical ventilator (a machine that helps deliver breathing gases) until CO has been eliminated from the bloodstream.
9. Oxygen Can Cleanse The Blood
Cleansing your blood refers to removing toxins from the body which are often a byproduct of metabolic processes or environmental substances that enter the body through ingestion or inhalation.
If you do it right, oxygen therapy can be helpful for this purpose but only if care is taken not to go overboard since too much pure O2 can end up damaging your lungs and other internal organs especially if your blood is very acidic (a common problem among most Westerners).
10. Oxygen Can Treat Cancer
There have been many studies with results showing that patients who have been given oxygen therapy as an adjuvant treatment alongside surgery and chemotherapy saw better outcomes with their cancers than others who received only conventional treatments.
11. Oxygen Soothes Sunburns And Other Types Of Burns
When you have a serious burn all of the cells in your body need to generate large amounts of ATP in order to heal quickly so anything that helps bump up the body’s access to extra oxygen is going to speed up the recovery process.
12. Oxygen Can Slow Down The Aging Process
As you age your body’s cells will become more and more damaged which makes it harder for them to perform their tasks leading to a cascade of problems that affect both your mind and body.
Adding O2 to the equation can help slow down this process by helping rejuvenate cellular function as well as improving immune system health by increasing blood alkalinity.
13. Oxygen Can “Cleanse” The Veins And Arteries
This isn’t a literal cleaning in the sense that you’d use a wet rag and soap to get rid of dirt but it is a cleansing process nonetheless. In the case of arteries and veins, this refers to removing calcium deposits that have built up over the years along with plaque and cholesterol.
14. Oxygen Can Strengthen The Immune System
When oxygen levels are high, cells reproduce more effectively which means that when you’re sick with any kind of infection, you’ll be able to recover much faster because every time a cell divides it becomes slightly more resistant to disease.
15. Oxygen Helps Fight Headaches
An oxygen enriched environment can help reduce headaches because brain cells need a high amount of this element to function properly.
This is why people with chronic migraines often feel better when they get their blood completely replaced by pure O2 in order to flush out some of the toxins that accumulate every time they have one of these headaches.
Why Oxygen Is Important – Conclusion
Now that you have read it all, we know what you must be feeling. Oxygen is an element necessary for life support. Isn’t it good to know that there are many benefits of oxygen, helping you understand why it’s vital to keep your environment safe?
References
- https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zvrrd2p/articles/zth9ng8
- http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Biology/oxyrole.html
- https://oxygensolutions.com.au/asthma-and-oxygen-therapy/#:~:text=Nebulizers%20are%20usually%20used%20to,the%20respiratory%20system%20as%20well.
Passionate about literature, books, and weaving words into phrases, I’m pursuing an academic career in English Literature and Linguistics and have been working as a content writer since 2016. Writing, to me, is the smoothest way to explain things to others and share knowledge with them. On this platform, I aim to utilize my passion for writing in the best possible manner, using it as a medium to share whatever knowledge I have with the readers.
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