The benefits and side effects of oxygen inhalation

Many patients have problems with breathing, which can cause discomfort to the patients to a great extent. In severe cases, it can even threaten the patients' lives. Therefore, in the hospital, doctors will give patients oxygen according to their conditions. Although oxygen inhalation can greatly relieve angina pectoris, prevent sudden death of coronary heart disease, and treat diabetes, emphysema and other diseases, excessive oxygen inhalation will also have many side effects on the human body.

1. Benefits of oxygen inhalation

1. Oxygen inhalation can relieve angina pectoris and prevent myocardial infarction:

Angina pectoris is caused by acute myocardial hypoxia. If the myocardium continues to be hypoxic for more than 30 minutes, it may cause myocardial infarction, which is a major risk factor for sudden death of the patient. Regular oxygen inhalation for health care or when an illness occurs can prevent or relieve the occurrence of angina pectoris and myocardial infarction, and buy time for treatment.

2. Oxygen inhalation can prevent sudden death coronary heart disease:

The cause of sudden death coronary heart disease is unique and difficult to guard against. Before the onset of the disease, there is often persistent mild cerebral congestion, shortness of breath, abnormal emotions or disordered heart rate. If oxygen therapy can be used at this time, it can achieve twice the result with half the effort.

3. Oxygen inhalation is a good treatment for asthma:

Asthma is caused by the weakening of the ventilation function between the alveoli and the outside world due to bronchial spasm and other conditions. Oxygen inhalation can increase the oxygen concentration in the alveoli and help relieve asthma.

4. Oxygen inhalation can effectively treat emphysema, cor pulmonale, and chronic bronchitis:

All the medical records listed were caused by severe hypoxia. Oxygen inhalation can alleviate the patient's hypoxia symptoms and significantly increase blood oxygen saturation, which is more effective than drug treatment alone.

5. Oxygen inhalation has an auxiliary therapeutic effect on diabetes:

Studies have shown that diabetes is related to hypoxia in the body. The capillary pressure in diabetic patients is significantly lower, which causes tissue cells to not receive sufficient oxygen, leading to disorders of cell function and sugar metabolism. Therefore, oxygen therapy for diabetic patients has attracted more and more attention from the medical community.

6. Oxygen inhalation can play a health-care role for healthy people:

Due to the increasingly serious air pollution and the common use of air conditioners, regular oxygen inhalation can clean your respiratory system, improve the function of internal organs, enhance the body's comprehensive immunity, and prevent various diseases.

2. Hazards of oxygen inhalation

It should be understood that if you do not follow the doctor's advice and blindly inhale oxygen without limit, high-concentration "oxygen therapy" may cause complications, which will inhibit breathing and cause oxygen poisoning, discomfort and pain behind the sternum, which will worsen during inhalation, causing coughing, difficulty breathing, etc. Under normal circumstances, healthy people generally do not suffer from hypoxia, and the oxygen delivered to human tissues always exceeds the oxygen consumption of the tissues. The atmosphere contains about 20% oxygen, and this value is relatively constant. Air pollution only adds some impurity particles and does not affect the oxygen concentration in the air. It is sufficient to meet people's needs even in densely populated areas. In addition, the human body cannot store oxygen, and the human hemoglobin's oxygen-carrying capacity is limited. Therefore, oxygen inhalation cannot increase arterial blood oxygen and improve the brain's oxygen output. Oxygen can only act as a placebo. There is no reliable evidence to prove that oxygen inhalation has any significant health benefits. It should be emphasized that oxygen inhalation does not improve intelligence, it is only a "fuel" during the oxidative metabolism of the nutrient sugar. The brain is the organ with the highest oxygen consumption in the body. When intense mental work is done, the amount of oxygen in the brain will increase, but it is very limited and can be met by increasing blood flow through autonomous regulation.

Healthy people do not need to breathe oxygen under normal circumstances. They just need to do more oxygen-consuming exercises, such as swimming, running, etc., to strengthen their heart function.