Oxygen: The Essential Element
Oxygen is the most important nutrient to the cells in your body and it plays an integral role in almost every body function. It is responsible for producing up to 90% of your body’s energy and it makes up approximately 96% of your body’s nutritional needs. You can live without food for 40 days, and without water for about seven days, but without oxygen, you only have a few minutes.
The human body is largely composed of oxygen. By mass, oxygen makes up 90% of the water molecule, and water makes up 65-75% of the human body. Our brain, which makes up 2% of our total mass, requires 20% of the body’s oxygen needs.
In our bodies, 80% of all our metabolic energy production is created by oxygen.
Our metabolic processes work to rid our bodies of waste and toxins. Even our abilities to think, feel, and act require oxygen-related energy production. Oxygen also plays a vital role in proper metabolic functions such as blood circulation, the assimilation of nutrients, digestion, and the elimination of cellular and metabolic wastes. Sufficient oxygen helps the body in its ability to rebuild itself and maintain a strong and healthy immune system.
Stress and Oxygen
In our modern day lives, we deal with stress from a variety of sources and there is no doubt as to the toll this can take on our bodies. We are now living in an environment where the air is more polluted than in previous eras, making oxygen extraction more difficult for our life-support. In an analysis of the air bubbles trapped in fossilized amber from the Jurassic Era, paleontologists have discovered that oxygen levels were significantly higher then than they are today.
All of this means that the cells in our bodies need to use more oxygen to deal with the multiple stressors affecting our bodies’ abilities to function.
There are five major causes of stress and how they affect the use of oxygen within our bodies:
- Toxic stress – If you live in a polluted environment, there is a constant need for cellular detoxification from chemical exposure.
- Emotional stress – This type of stress produces adrenaline and adrenaline-related hormones, requiring the body to draw on its oxygen reserves for their production and eventual oxidation.
- Physical trauma – This type of stress reduces circulation and oxygen supply.
- Infections – Infections use up oxygen to combat bacteria, fungi, and viruses.
- An acidic diet – This kind of diet produces an excessive number of hydrogen ions in the tissues that combine with and also use up oxygen. Acidity also stresses the body to balance itself and become more alkaline by taking calcium from our bones.
The Benefits of Oxygen Therapy
There are many benefits to breathing in oxygen-enriched air at an oxygen bar. These include:
- Heightened concentration, alertness, and memory
- Increase in energy (90% of our energy comes from oxygen, and only 10% from food and water)
- 50-70% increase of oxygen in each cell
- Quicker recovery after physical exertion
- Quicker recovery from fatigue
- Improvement in digestion and cell metabolism
- Relief of muscle stiffness
- Improvement in sleep patterns
- Oxidization of impurities in the body
- Improvement in endurance
- Reduced stress
* Please note that oxygen bars are only for recreational and entertainment purposes and are not to be used for the treatment of any medical condition or illness.