Air is more than oxygen – science shows it!
There is no question: oxygen is indispensable. Humans can only survive for a few minutes without air. But air is not just air. Especially not in times of increasing pollution. We take a scientific look at the subject.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), air pollution is one of the biggest health risks today. More than 88 percent of premature deaths in low and middle-income countries are thus caused by air pollution. However, this pollution is not only due to emissions from industry and households. Deforestation has also contributed to a shortage of breathable air. Nine out of ten people breathe polluted air. According to the WHO, around 7 million people die every year as a result of air pollution. One third of deaths from strokes, COPD, lung cancer and heart disease are already attributable to it.
Oxygen: The hard facts…
All metabolic processes of the cells and their energy production are dependent on oxygen (O2) in humans. But we do not breathe air, but atmosphere, in which the water content is added to the air. Medical science still neglects the proportion of water in the atmosphere because it is too low (0.01 percent). On average, humans breathe 12,000 – 15,000 liters of atmosphere (air) per 24 hours a day. Of this, around 3,150 liters of oxygen and 0.150 liters of water (at a relative humidity of 60 percent and a temperature of 20 degrees Celsius). In large cities and industrial conurbations, the air atmosphere is heavily polluted with fine dust and toxins.
…and what role water plays
Water in the atmosphere loses its energetic function because it binds to toxins and fine dust. As a result, the mucous membranes of the nose dry out and slowly lose their natural filtering function. The bronchial tubes are also affected and can no longer fulfill their defensive function. They begin to become slimy and people can no longer cough up the fine dust. Ultimately, the gas exchange in the lungs is reduced, the blood no longer receives enough oxygen and, on the other hand, the blood can no longer dispose of the CO2 sufficiently. This is the cause for the development of all sorts of diseases in today’s world. The cause is not the lack of oxygen in the atmosphere, but its transport via the lungs into the blood. And the water in the atmosphere we live in is primarily responsible for this: as a catalyst in the alveoli.
Nobel Prize for Medicine 2019 for oxygen research!
By the way, the 2019 Nobel Prize for Medicine also dealt with oxygen research. This was awarded to three cell researchers from the USA and Great Britain who investigated how cells recognize and adapt to oxygen quantities. The Karolinska Institute thus honors a research area with enormous potential and emphasizes how important oxygen is for the whole of life and human well-being.
Because oxygen is indispensable for most life processes. The oxygen sensor of the cells plays a major role in metabolism, including sports, adaptation to high altitudes or even in the development of cancer. The three scientists William G. Kaelin Jr. (Harvard University) and Gregg Semenza (Johns Hopkins University) from the USA as well as Sir Peter Ratcliffe (Oxford University), who were awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine, have discovered how cells measure oxygen qualitatively on the one hand and also react for example to unphysiological quantities on the other hand – and which mechanisms or sensors are responsible for this.
“We are very pleased about the decision of the Karolinska Institute to honor the findings of the three scientists with the Nobel Prize 2019,” explains founder of SPIROYAL by Airnergy Guido Bierther. According to the expert, the award is a signal for the importance of this field of research. “The findings of these three honored scientists have great significance today: they help to help patients with oxygen deprivation. And they benefit people with other ailments.”
Extra tip: If you would like to learn more about the air, of which we take in around 10,000 liters every day with around 20,000 breaths, but 75% of which we exhale unused, download the information brochure “Der kleine Atmos”. It describes in an easily understandable way and in detail what we breathe incessantly and what keeps us alive from the first to the last breath. This brochure, which describes how with the energy of the healthy forest air, health and well-being is “refuelled”, is available for free Download on www.LebendigeLuft.de.