Why Current Air Composition (20% O2, 80% N2) is Poisonous to Us

Consider a simple experiment that you can easily reproduce. If any person starts to breathe very heavy (deep and fast breathing), in a few minutes the person will feel dizzy, lose consciousness or faint. If heaving breathing is continued using, for example, an exhaust and suction pump, as it was done on dogs, we die in a matter of minutes. Hence, too much air can easily kill any of us. In fact, most chronically sick people die in conditions of severe hyperventilation.

This was not the case millions of years ago, at the time, when prototypes of our lungs were evolving and air composition was very different. Our remote predecessors did not and could not die due to over-breathing. Why? Their air had less than 1% O2 and up to 7-12% CO2. It is very different from what we have now: about 20% O2 and almost no CO2 (about 0.03% only). What would be the differences in effects on the human body?

In health we have about 6-7% CO2 and only about 2% O2 in the cells of the brain, kidneys, liver and other vital organs. When we breathe heavy, we remove too much CO2 from our body. This causes constrictions of arteries and arterioles (small blood vessels) and reduced perfusion and oxygenation of the brain (why we pass out) and the heart (why we can die). In fact, this is exactly what is going on with people who have numerous chronic diseases, like cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and many others. Hence, it is abnormally low level of CO2 in cells that reduces body oxygenation and produces many other negative effects leading to gradual death of the person.

Now imagine a primitive creature living millions years ago when air had 7-12% CO2 and less than 1% O2. (The primitive air had large CO2 concentrations due to activities of volcanoes and low O2 concentrations due to still undeveloped green life that just started to produce O2 due to the process of photosynthesis.)

This primitive creature could breathe exceptionally heavy, but it would be impossible to decrease CO2 in the body below 7% because the inspired air had over 7% CO2. The crucial nutrient (CO2) was present everywhere: in air, water, and all cells and fluids. Hence, blood vessels would not constrict and, in fact, the creature would get more oxygen for body cells since air had very low O2 content. Hence, in the past, over-breathing provided air-breathing creatures with more oxygen, but now the more we breathe (at rest), the less oxygen gets inside the cells.

Hence, air was not poisonous in the past. What about now? How many people over-breathe these days? Well over 90%, as numerous studies showed. Hence, even relatively healthy people have big breathing or breathe more than 6 l/min (the physiological norm). Moreover, all available medical research indicates that all patients with heart disease, diabetes, asthma, depression, chronic fatigue, and many, possibly, all chronic conditions breathe at least 2-3 times more than the medical norm. This causes low body oxygenation, poor blood supply to all vital organs, and many other abnormalities. Hence, too much air is a real poison causing many diseases.

Why do I say “causing”? If these sick people naturally restore their body oxygenation (by slowing down their breath), their symptoms will disappear and no medication will be required. Hence, it is their heavy breathing 24/7 that makes development of diseases possible. Note, that we can breathe 3-4 times heavier than the norm and be totally certain that our breathing is light and easy. These are clinical observations of about 200 Russian family physicians, who practice the Buteyko self-oxygenation therapy for patients with variety of concerns. 

You can easily check your breathing and body oxygenation using a simple stress-free DIY test described on pages of my website normalbreathing.com.