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Oxygen Matters |
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Oxygen As A Nutrient By John Heinerman, Ph.D.  Let's set the record straight once and for all: Oxygen IS the most VITAL nutrient the body needs. It needs a CONSTANT supply of oxygen and can NEVER do without it! You can put this simple but powerful truth to the test as has been formerly suggested: See how long you can hold your breath before passing out; you can go for days without water, weeks without food, but only a few minutes without air! Yet in spite of the obvious fact that oxygen is absolutely essential to the sustaining of human life, nearly all nutritionists refuse to recognize it as a valuable nutrient. Two pieces of evidences are presented, one from orthodox science and the from the alternative health side, to make my point here. Principles of Nutrition by Eva D. Wilson, Katherine H Fish and Pilar A. Garcia, has been a standard textbook in college and university nutrition classes for some years. The 4th edition York: John Wiley & Sons, 1979), while a bit dated in some of its information, still pretty much typifies the attitude that is prevalent: regarding what the proper nutrients ought to be. The science of nutrition is this science of nourishing the body. To function, the body needs certain chemical substances, for which the general term is nutrients. Some of the nutrients cannot be synthesized by the body - at least not in amounts sufficient to satisfy the need for them; others the body can produce. Food is the source of the nutrients the body cannot synthesize (except for vitamin D) and the source of the chemical elements to produce the others. Nutrition deals with THESE nutrients...Foods provide six major classes of nutrients: carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, minerals, vitamins, and water, each serving specific functions of the body. Some of THESE nutrients supply energy. All of them build and maintain cells and tissues and regulate the body processes. As useful and instructive as the foregoing excerpts may by there is no reference made anywhere to oxygen - non whatsoever! Foods are the only emphasis given as being the primary source for the essenual nutrients listed. But what about air? Isn't oxygen (and the other gases mixed with it) just as necessary and purposeful? One would expect such narrowly defined thinking from the orthodox crowd; but what about those from the alternative health side? Since they seem to be quite open-minded on other non-orthodox health matters, one would think they might include oxygen as a needful nutrient. James F. Balch, M.D. (a practicing urologist) and his wife Phyllis A. Balch (a licensed alternative nutritionist) wrote a book thirteen years ago entitled Prescription For Nutritional Healing (Garden City Park, NY: Avery Publishing Group, Inc., 1990). Both it and the 2nd edition (issued in 1997) have sold approximately 3 million copies mostly through health food stores and nutrition center. They cover many aspects of nutrition that traditional nutitionists would never think (or even dare) to cover in any of their own writings. You would, therefore, expect to find amidst the clutter of fiber, herbs, bee propolis, co-enzyme Q10, desiccated liver, fish oil, maitake mushrooms, and wheat germ oil, that grace the pages of their voluminous work that some mention (even briefly) of oxygen would be made in their general discussion of basic nutrients. This husband-and-wife wife team are to be congratulated on writing an easy-to-understand book with clear directions to follow, that has revolutionized the world of nutrition in general. Yet, for all of their commendable efforts, they, too, failed miserably to consider oxygen as a necessary nutrient, because nowhere in their sizable book does it ever appear! The apparent lack of virtually all nutritionists to properly recognize as a proper nutrient that it is, goes back to how they were taught by their predecessors, and the matter is is continually perpetuated because none of them seem to know any better. But after the privileged invitation from R- Garden, Inc., the exclusive distributors of Vitamin O, to preside over not one but two separate scientific studies of this remarkable product in the last 2 1/2 years, I arn convinced beyond a doubt that OXYGEN IS A NUTRIENT. and needs to be recognized as such by the nutritional community at large. By the very reasons of how they interpret their own science of nutrition, nutritionists should regard oxygen as a valid nutrient. Were they to do so, oxygen would be treated just as any other officially recognized nutrient is:
A study of those internal systems that salvage oxygen for reuse or eliminate it as part of by-product waste would, likewise, be initiated. If the science of nutrition is, indeed, the science of nourishing the body, then, pray tell, what does oxygen do? It's certainly more than just another atmospheric element through which birds and planes fly. It is, after all, the essence of our very existences. For oxygen nourishes us in ways we know and in ways we know not of (as yet). In a popular rock song of the early 1970's, the singer says that all he needs is the air that he breathes and to love his lover. The admission in a love song that respiration comes before romance is a potent testimony to the fact that breathing is our most urgent need. The trillions of cells in the body require a continuous supply of oxygen to carry out their many vital functions. We cannot live without oxygen for even a few minutes, as we can without food or water. As our cells use oxygen, furthermore, they give off carbon dioxide, a waste product the body must get rid of on a regular basis. The major function of the respiratory system is to fulfill these needs, that is to supply the body with oxygen and dispose of carbon dioxide. To accomplish this, at least four distinct processes, collectively called respiration, must occur: 1. Pulmonary ventilation. Air must be moved in and out of the lungs so that the gases in the air sacs (alveoli) of the lungs are continuously changed and refreshed. This movement is commonly called ventilation or breathing. 2. External respiration. Gas exchange (oxygen loading and carbon dioxide unloading) occurs between the blood and air at the lung alveoli. 3. Transport of respiratory gases. Oxygen and carbon dioxide must be transported between the lungs and the cells on the body. This is accomplished by the cardiovascular system, which uses blood as the transporting fluid. 4. Internal respiration. At the systemic capillaries, gases are exchanged between the blood and the tissue cells. (The use of oxygen and the production of carbon dioxide by tissue cells, called cellular respiration, is the CORNERSTONE of all energy-producing chemical reactions in the body.) The lungs are the chief organs (other than through the skin) through which we obtain nearly all of our necessary oxygen. Since the heart is tilted slightly to the left of the median plane of the thorax, the two lungs differ slightly in shape and size. The left lung is somewhat smaller than the right, and the cardiac notch - a concavity in the left lung's medial aspect - is molded to and accommodates the heart. The lungs consist largely of air tubes and spaces. The balance of the lung tissue or its stroma is a framework of connective tissue containing numerous elastic fibers. As a result, the lungs are light, soft, spongy, elastic organs that each weigh only about 1.25 pounds. The elasticity of healthy lungs helps to reduce the effort of breathing. Each lung, if viewed sideways, appears as an overspreading, multiple-branched tree. Paralleling the 23 orders of air tubes in both lungs are divisions and sub-divisions of primary bronchi emanating from where the trachea or windpipe divides itself at the bottom of the neck. Around, in between and alongside these course numerous sized veins, range large pulmonary arteries to threadlike pulmonary capillaries. Because of its complex branching pattern, the conducting network in the lungs is often referred to in modern anatomy as the bronchial tree or respiratory tree. The constant entrance and departure of blood plasma into and away from the lungs are the mechanisms by which nutritive oxygen is delivered throughout the different body systems and carbon dioxide waste gas routinely eliminate. It is, therefore, through the collective means of respiration and the complex network of the bronchial tree that wonderful and sustaining oxygen is conducted into the body and depleted waste gases exited therefrom. Think of oxygen as a single currency before it's inhaled. But once taken inside the lungs' banking system and diverted to a number of different exchanges, it becomes converted into other forms of chemical currencies, which makes it more spendable. This way it can be more easily used and appropriated wherever needed, even down to the tiniest of tiny cells. But just as problems routinely occur in the world's financial systems, so do some biological ones happen with the lungs' own bank to slow or decrease the in-flow of oxygen and the out-go of carbon dioxide. The respiratory system is particularly vulnerable to infectious diseases because it is open to airborne pathogens. Some of these may be less aggressive than others, but all tend to produce physical discomforts and pulmonary restrictions on the amount of oxygen we should normally be getting. As a side irony, I should perhaps mention here that during the exact time this article was being composed in December 2002, this author was recovering from the effects of a nasty cold. Some airborne cold viruses entered my nasal cavity, then proceeded up into my sinuses, down my throat, and finally into my lungs. This unfortunate nose-to-lungs progression, besides slowing down my work abilities and making me feel generally miserable all over, also had a very noticeable effect on my regular consumption of atmospheric oxygen. As a result, I felt short-winded and out-of-breath sometimes. Knowing full well from the scientific studies over which I had previously presided with regard to Vitamin O (especially the second one involving the blood gas analyses of its oxygen content), that this remarkable product could restore me to health again, I chose to spray generous amounts of the liquid into my mouth, down my throat, and even up into my nose. I was prepared for positive results, but astonished at just how quickly everything seemed to work to make me well again. John Heinerman, PhD is a medical anthropologist whose research has taken him to 33 countries, where he has worked with folk healers as well as top doctors and scientists. Widely known for his lectures throughout North America, Dr Heinerman has appeared on television and radio and written hundreds of articles in the area of folk medicine, herbs, and traditional healing for The Herbalist, Folk Medicine Journal, and Vegetarian Times. He is also the author of over 58 books, including several best-sellers. | More Oxygen Matters | Oxygen Matters | | Return Home | About Us | Order Center | Vitalizer Plus | Vitamin O | LSalivarius | QuadraZymePlus | PHP Link | |
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