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CO2 (Carbon Dioxide): Health Effects, Uses and Benefits

Contrary to what might be expected from environmental concerns related to global warming, CO2 (carbon dioxide) health effects and benefits for the human body are innumerable. Life originated and had existed on Earth for millennia under conditions of a very high Carbon Dioxide content of the surrounding air. According to published studies, Carbon Dioxide content was up to about 7-12% in the air when the first creatures with lungs were evolving. Therefore, these creatures could experience all Carbon Dioxide health benefits that are listed below.

Note that huge Carbon Dioxide concentrations (20% and more) produce adverse effects in humans and pure Carbon Dioxide is a toxic gas. This web page is focused on typical or physiological CO2 levels in the lungs, which range from about 20 to 50 mm Hg or about 2.7 to 7.5%.

Having a normal level of CO2 in the lungs and arterial blood (40 mm Hg or about 5.3% at sea level) is imperative for normal health. Do modern people have normal Carbon Dioxide levels?? When reading the table below note that levels of Carbon Dioxide in the lungs are inversely proportional to minute ventilation rates; in other words, the more air one breaths, the lower the level of alveolar Carbon Dioxide.

Hypocapnia (CO2 deficiency) in the lungs and, in most cases, arterial blood is a normal finding for chronic diseases due to the prevalence of chronic hyperventilation among the sick.

Furthermore, as we discovered before, over 90% of modern people (so-called “normal subjects”) are also hyperventilators (see the link below to the Hyperventilation Table with over 20 medical research studies related to normal subjects). Hence, chronic hypocapnia is very common for the modern man.

Main CO2 health effects and uses in the human body

Follow the links for dozens of research references

– Vasodilation (expansion of arteries and arterioles). As physiological studies found, hypocapnia (low CO2 concentration in the arterial blood) constricts blood vessels and leads to decreased perfusion of all vital organs

– The Bohr effect was first described in 1904 by the Danish physiologist Christian Bohr (father of physicist Niels Bohr). This law can be found in modern medical textbooks on physiology. The Bohr effect states that arterial hypocapnia will cause reduced oxygen release in tissue capillaries.

– Cell Oxygen Levels are controlled by alveolar CO2 and breathing. Hyperventilation, regardless of the arterial CO2 changes, causes alveolar hypocapnia (CO2 deficiency), which leads to cell hypoxia (low cell-oxygen concentrations).

– Oxygen Transport, therefore, depends on breathing and these two effects (Vasoconstriction-Vasodilation and the Bohr effect) explain the influence of hypocapnia (low CO2 content in the blood and cells) on circulation and reduced O2 delivery.

– Free Radicals Generation takes place due to anaerobic cell respiration caused by cell hypoxia. Hence, antioxidant defenses of the human body are also regulated by CO2 and breathing, as these medical studies have found.

– Inflammatory Response, as well as chronic inflammation, are also regulated by breathing since hypoxia leads to or intensifies inflammation. Therefore, hyperventilation naturally promotes inflammatory health problems, and CO2 and Earthing (electrical grounding the human body) are the key anti-inflammatory agents.

– Nerve Stabilization is due to the calmative or sedative effects of carbon dioxide on nerve cells. Lack of CO2 in the brain leads to “spontaneous and asynchronous firing of neurons” (medical quote) “inviting” virtually all mental and psychological abnormalities ranging from panic attacks and seizures to sleeping problems, addictions, depression, and schizophrenia.

– Muscle relaxation or relaxation of muscle cells is normal at high CO2 levels, while hypocapnia causes muscular tension, poor posture and, sometimes, aggression and violence.

– Bronchodilation – dilation of airways: bronchi and bronchioles are dilated by carbon dioxide, and their constriction occurs due to hypocapnia.

– Blood pH regulation and regulation of other bodily fluids.

– CO2: Lung Damage Healer: Elevated carbon dioxide levels prevents injury and promotes healing of lung tissues.

– CO2: Skin and Tissue Healer.

– Synthesis of Glutamine in the Brain, CO2 fixation, and other chemical reactions: there are many other regulatory and facilitating effects related to uses of carbon dioxide.

– Regularity and Smoothness of Breathing are controlled by CO2. Lack of CO2 leads to “hypercapnic central apnea”, which is a popular scientific term used by many doctors and scientists to describe the origins of sleep apnea.

– Hypercapnia (or Hypercarbia): Is it a pathology or a sign of super health?

This myth (“Carbon Dioxide is a toxic, waste, and poisonous gas”) is one of the greatest modern superstitions. Thousands of medical studies have proven that reduced carbon dioxide levels in cells, tissues, organs, and fluids of the human organism cause numerous adverse effects. What are the origins of this myth? In the 1780s, French scientist Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier determined the composition of air. Read more … Any medical or physiological textbook, which discusses control or regulation of breathing in the human body, states that breathing is mainly controlled by carbon dioxide concentrations in the brain and arterial blood. Obviously, should Carbon Dioxide be poisonous, it would be normal to have it as little as possible, but the situation is opposite and the “poison” controls respiration, the fundamental function of the human body… When chronically hyperventilating, should I experience all these bad effects? The above Carbon Dioxide deficiency effects take place in all people. However, the degree of these problems and the symptoms (what is felt) are individual … Now we can answer the most fundamental questions related to health and genetics. Why and when are bad genes triggered? Why did we have such small rates of chronic diseases only 100 years ago? Genes and diseases: How we react to hyperventilation…

Carbon Dioxide: how the evolution of air (disappearance of CO2) promotes chronic disease

This YouTube video Evolution of Air (Low Carbon Dioxide Now) Causes Low Body O2 and Chronic Diseases” explains how changes in the air composition caused Carbon Dioxide-related health effects; most of all a dramatic shift in consequences of overbreathing.

Hyperventilation was beneficial for health a long time ago (it provided more O2 for body cells), but these days, overbreathing kills millions of people every year.

There is one web page that explains, with all numbers and details, why overbreathing was beneficial during the first part of the evolution of breathing creatures on the Earth, but now low CO2 in the air causes many health problems. The link to this page is provided as your bonus content right below here.

The web page Evolution of Air from the Section “Causes of Hyperventilation” discusses environmental changes in the air CO2 content throughout the progress of life on Earth and their effect on health.

Back to Effects of carbon dioxide on human health

* Illustrations by Victor Lunn-Rockliffe