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LET'S TALK SOME TRUTH ABOUT CARBON DIOXIDE

Guest post by: Rosemary MacGregor

Article Overview: Are you aware that regulated C02 is the way the body relaxes and that higher atmospheric levels of C02 are a stressed plant's way to recovery? Are we humans contributing to higher levels of atmospheric C02 by improper breathing or blowing out too quickly? Perhaps we are doing as much damage as cows and cars. What is the EPA's real reason for declaring C02 a threat to human health? Is this another way of micromanaging us as humans?

LET'S TALK SOME TRUTH ABOUT CARBON DIOXIDE

It's now official: The EPA has declared carbon dioxide to be a threat to human health. We've all been brainwashed into thinking Oxygen is good and Carbon Dioxide is bad. Just how true is this?

In this article I would like to raise some questions, answer them as best I know how, and really question this statement of harm caused by C02 to human, animal and plant health.

We inhale mostly O2 and we breathe out C02. No one really talks about this. Are we then polluters of the atmosphere as well, along with cows and cars?

Have you ever wondered why a doctor might tell a panic patient to breathe into a brown paper bag? If C02 is so bad for us why does it work in this circumstance? The higher C02 level in the blood allows oxygen to be released off the hemoglobin molecule into the blood stream.

Are you breathing correctly? You were taught to breathe slowly and deeply and this has made you feel more relaxed. C02 is the bodies' natural relaxer. It is virtually the only brain blood vessel relaxer (allowing more blood rich oxygen to reach the brain).

Do you know what your C02 level is? Is this important?

Do you know your 0xygen saturation level?

You may have heard that inhaling slowly is good?

How do you exhale? Quickly or slowly?

Yoga breathing is supposed to be good for you. Are Yoga practitioners good breathers?

Did you know that acid-base balance is more a factor of proper breathing than the food you eat?

Breathing is natural. You can't tell by looking at someone whether they are hyperventilating or not? Hyperventilation means you are blowing out C02 too

quickly.

Plants are built out of mostly Carbon compounds and water. Where do these

come from?

Some animal models are C02 designed. Why?

I will conclude this article by suggesting that in teaching people to breathe more slowly and especially out more slowly, this might allow humans to decrease the amount of C02 in the atmosphere and generate a more healthy and relaxed population? Or would it?

Many of the above issues may be mythical along with the whole issue about atmospheric C02. There are numerous teachers of breathing offering their kind services and yet they know nothing of Carbon Dioxide. I will start out by saying that the only way to know if you are breathing in a healthy way for your body is to know intimately your level of Carbon Dioxide in the expelled breath.

The panic patient is often told by their doctor to breathe into a paper bag. Why? Because their blood level of C02 is too low. When they breathe into the bag they are exhaling C02 and then re-breathing this same C02 from the bag. What happens then is their blood level of C02 is raised to the textbook normal figure of 40mmHg and at that magic level, 02 is released off the hemoglobin molecule to be available in the blood stream to their organs and tissues. This will alleviate their panic attack which is due to a low level of C02 in the blood.

Carbon dioxide relaxes you. When your blood level rises above 40mmHg you will become even more relaxed. Your blood vessels dilate, especially in the periphery, heart and brain. Sounds like this would be good for the person with cold hands and feet, someone with a history of heart problems or stroke and headaches. As little as 30 seconds of hyperventilation (blowing out C02 too quickly) can cause the brain blood vessels to constrict up to 60%. This would certainly affect your ability to think, to reason and may even trigger a migraine or tension headache. The brain is very dependent upon C02 level for learning and relaxation.

Our text books throughout our years of education have told us that Carbon Dioxide is bad and told us to get rid of as much as possible by breathing it

all out. This notion has led us to think Carbon Dioxide is a bad thing and we should get rid of it. It is more or less correct that we should breathe it out with each exhalation, but the benefits of keeping a certain blood level of Carbon Dioxide on board is critical to Oxygen (02) availability. The real truth about exhalation is we exhale not to get rid of carbon dioxide but to regulate the amount left in our bodies. Habitually bad breathing occurs when the way one breathes disrupts the proper regulation of C02 allocation. Unfortunately, most teachers of breathing are paying attention to the mechanics of breathing, where and how, or slow and deep, rather than rate of exhalation and the behavior and emotions associated with breathing. How do you breathe while you are thinking, feeling or doing? How fast are you exhaling? Do you engage in the bad habit of breath-holding while exerting?

The only way to know if you are breathing correctly is to measure the end tidal C02 level using a computerized capnograph that measures C02 level on an on-going breath by breath basis. It takes only a few seconds to obtain an average exhaled C02 level (PC02). People with Anxiety usually have levels of PC02 around 25 to 35mmHg and those with Panic around 20-25mmHg. They will usually report cold hands and feet. This is the next best

indicator that I have found to the existence of hyperventilation in an individual sans the use of a capnograph. It is important to know if your

C02 level is below the normal of 40mmHg as it may explain many of your untoward symptoms. Interestingly, as much as 65% of ambulance calls originate from hyperventilation.

What about your oxygen level? Do you need to know that as well? Oxygen level is measured by an instrument called an oximeter. A reading of 99% on an oximeter means you are hyperventilating and a reading of 80% might mean you have COPD, are at altitude with low atmospheric oxygen or are having some serious problems. For sure it means you are not getting enough 02. Your hemoglobin is holding on to the 0xygen in your system and it is not available to your organs and tissues. Ultimately, one needs to know that the availability of 0xygen is dependent upon C02 level, which is dependent upon how quickly you are breathing it out.

Well, if you are not getting enough oxygen, how about going to an oxygen bar? The response will only be momentary as you will return to your normal

low level of CO2 and consequently lack of oxygen availability as soon as you return to your unconscious habit of over-breathing. This will occur almost immediately, as O2 does not relax you.

For many years teachers of breathing have extolled the benefits of slow, deep breathing. While it may be extremely beneficial to someone who is chest breathing, it may also not be leaving in the blood the needed level of Carbon Dioxide. I have measured many a slow deep belly breather and in most cases their CO2 is better than a chest breather. However, it is possible to breathe in slowly, blow out equally slowly and retain a low level of CO2. This would still be called hyperventilation or over-breathing. Yes, it can happen even with slow, deep breathing.

How do you breathe? Do you inhale quickly or slowly? Does it matter? Yes, it matters very much. When you are calm and relaxed and not expending energy, as in meditation, inhaling slowly is not problematic. When you are hiking up Mt. Everest, or even a hill back home, you may want to get the next mouthful (supply) of oxygen as quickly as possible. Let your body be your guide in terms of rate of inhalation.

Exhalation is a different matter. There are many ways to exhale: a sigh or rapid exhale (also a hyperventilation), an even exhale-to-inhale (as in most

Yoga movements), breath-holding followed by a rapid exhale, an average rapid chest exhalation and so on. So what? Does it make a difference? Yes, but how significant is it? Actually, it may mean the difference between getting enough oxygen on a consistent basis or not. Notice how nearly everybody will instinctively tell someone who is stressed, "Just take a deep breath and breathe out slowly". Why? Because it is calming and intuitively we seem to know that. Why is it calming? Because blowing out slower raises the blood level of PCO2, thus unloading more oxygen off hemoglobin for performance and repairs of the body. CO2 is the bodies' natural relaxer of smooth and cardiac muscle. This means the blood vessels dilate and receive more blood flow and oxygen. Brain blood flow is mediated possibly entirely by one's blood level of CO2. The heart is directly affected by C02 level but also mediated at times by other body chemicals such as ACTH, adrenalin, cortisone, etc.

How do most experts on breathing breathe? Some are diaphragmatic, slow exhalers and probably are doing well when they are conscious of their breathing. How do most Yoga practitioners breathe? Interestingly, most advocate a very even breathing technique that synchs with their movements while doing Yoga. They have thus learned the "habit" of "even" breathing from their practice of yoga. Even breathing produces over-breathing. Many "experts" advocate the practice of inhaling, holding and then exhaling. This is not a good practice as it teaches the "habit" of breath-holding which is a commonly encountered bad habit already in the practice of breathing. Holding the breath leads to a catching-up practice of letting the breath out rapidly following the breath holding. Better to learn to breath a sine wave pattern, inhaling as needed and then immediately and as slowly as possible exhaling longer than the inhale. This will lead to a regular, healthy practice of breathing properly.

Do nurses, doctors and just normal people breathe well? For the most part, in using a capnograph, statistics garnered from medical professionals, are telling us that most people are not breathing well. Sixty percent of ambulance runs in the United States are a direct consequence of hyperventilation; thirty three percent of visits to a doctor's office are because of symptoms generated usually long-term by hyperventilation. Having had a biofeedback/stress management practice, teaching breathing for many years, and working as a nurse, I can say with some assurance that migraine people, those with anxiety, most cardiac patients, those with cold hands and feet, sleep apnea, pain, sleep problems, phobias, most pregnant women, asthmatics, stroke patients and yoga teachers are nearly all hyperventilating or over-breathing. We have found the best breathers are normal healthy babies and Tibetan lamas that chant san-scrit. These lamas spend hours per day chanting on a long exhalation. Their long exhalation becomes their "habit" of good breathing. This long exhalation keeps their C02 level elevated.

Carbon Dioxide plays one of the most significant roles in body health and well-being. Our text books tell us that the normal blood level arterial (PaCO2) of Carbon Dioxide should be 40mmHg. At this level the blood pH (H+ levels) will be normal at a pH of 7.4. Improper, over or under breathing, can cause these to change, causing the blood to become alkaline or acidic respectively. Eating to change blood pH is akin to the race between the tortoise and hare. You can change pH on a breath by breath basis whereas food takes hours to digest and get absorbed.

increased PCO2 and reduced pH cause a release of Oxygen and nitric oxide, a potent vasodilator, resulting in increased blood vessel diameter, more volume flow and thus more oxygen to the cells. The whole process is far more complicated, but for a basic understanding for those who teach breathing and medical personal who use an oximeter, this is sufficient.

In reality it is difficult to talk about the positive effects of the proper level of CO2 in the arterial blood as we are talking about the normal and healthy individual. The list of effects of lower levels of CO2 in the blood is incredibly long and gets longer and longer with more and more serious consequences as arterial CO2 levels drop even more. In summary, higher levels (40mmHg) lead to normalization of the brain and bodies' functions, to relaxation and to better blood flow throughout the body, especially the brain, the heart and the periphery.

Interestingly, the benefits provided to plants by atmospheric CO2 enrichment seem to overcome environmental stresses that can severely restrict plant growth and development. On the other hand, in the presence of harmful air pollutants, the percentage growth enhancement produced by atmospheric CO2 enrichment is typically even greater than it is in non-polluted air. As air temperatures rise higher and higher, so too do the relative benefits of elevated CO2 concentrations rise higher and higher. At the point where plants normally succumb to thermal death, in fact, the presence of high CO2 levels often helps them to survive, where normally they would wither and die.

Yes, plants are built out of mostly Carbon compounds and water. Where do these come from? All of this derives from CO2 in the atmosphere. This is why tropical rainforests show increased growth when the CO2 levels rise, and why hydroponics works.

Plants and trees to do better in higher surrounding levels of CO2, especially plants in stress. Might this be true for humans as well? Higher C02 levels in one's surroundings and in the blood in humans would lead to a more relaxed individual, with dilated blood vessels, sending more Oxygen to all parts of the body, just like the anxiety or panic patient breathing into a brown paper bag. Might this EPA directive be just one more way to not act in the best interests of humanity, but allow for a "sicker" individual and population, less able to reason (with less blood flow to their brain) and survive (mass stress) and thus ultimately filling the pockets of more drug companies?

Dachshunds were bred for higher blood levels of CO2 so they can go down into holes in the ground in search of ferrets. On the humorous side, they also like to sleep all night at the foot of one's bed under the covers.

Because breathing chemistry is so tied to continually changing circumstances, feelings, thoughts and actions, the demand for 02 is constantly changing as well. Fear, anger and stress habitually lead to over-breathing and breath-holding. Awareness is the only key we have to staying "as best we can" on target with proper breathing. With awareness, we need the knowledge of what to do, and then how to change our habitual breathing response to that situation in that moment. This requires an on-going tuning-in and this is rather impossible unless we are sitting in a cave with nothing else to do and no one to disturb our consciousness. We will never totally master this as we are human and are constantly affected by and dealing with life challenges. We can try to make it a "habit" however, the habit of being relaxed. Breathing is an incredibly complicated issue, mediated by need, habits (good and bad), by stress, by emotions, by training (yoga), by TV programs, by climate, allergies and so on. It is not a simple issue. Therefore, being aware and continually improving on that awareness is truly a life journey. You do not learn it and then not pay further attention. It truly is a life-long practice and awareness. It is more likely that you have unlearned very early the good breathing you were born with if you were an normal baby and average kid. In the United States most children by three years old are over-breathing.

However, to be healthier, more relaxed human beings, breathing rate and location (slow, deep), are mechanical issues that are not nearly as important as consciousness about yourself, what you are thinking, feeling and doing at a particular moment and how you are breathing at that moment. Slowing your exhalation to raise end tidal C02 is the most important aspect of breathing and what all persons should learn and practice to be better breathers.

Maybe I could add that to save the planet everyone should slow down their exhalation rate of C02. Of course, there might be arguments over the fact we have slowed our exhalation too much and since we have been planting more trees, they are now suffering from lack of C02. More babies would solve that problem. What would happen if we eliminated a large percentage of the population? Would there be enough C02 to grow the trees? There would be fewer cars, cows and people?

It is my belief that breathing is the primary avenue to a higher consciousness and the more we can be aware, the more conscious we are. And it very well might be an avenue to slowing C02 in the atmosphere over time. But, then we are being told to plant more trees and we have all learned that the more trees we plant the more C02 will be used by the plants for photosynthesis. It seems we need a balance between people, trees and cows.

I find all this negative dialogue about C02 to be suspicious from the perspective of.breathing. Most humans (around 65%) are hyperventilating all the time and hyperventilation, by definition means blowing out C02 too quickly. So, in conclusion, I know that this article will not change the breathing practices of 99.9% of this planet's people. Therefore as we plant more trees, they will be happier and healthier. Cows are now being replaced by cotton and the Copenhagen derivatives will continues to bicker "You do it", "no", "you do it". "I am right, you are wrong." Remember not to leave out all the variables.

In summary, remember for your own sake what Carbon Dioxide does for the body? First and most important, it regulates the distribution of Oxygen in the body. Second, it is the bodies' relaxer. CO2 is the bodies' way of dilating the arteries, especially those in the brain, the heart and the periphery (hands and feet). Thirty seconds of unaware over-breathing can cause the brains blood vessels to constrict up to 60%. In most cases, people who have cold hands and feet are hyperventilators and are giving off too much C02 with exhalation. Those with angina can affect the same result as taking nitroglycerine by exhaling correctly with as little as two or more exhalations done slowly. I worked in a cardiology office and that cardiologist would refer all nitroglycerine patients to me to learn breathing. In Holland, legislation requires that all cardiac rehabilitation centers offer breathing training to cardiac patients. This has resulted in a documented savings of 45% savings over a 5 year period for heart attack patients and feelings of control and confidence. Amen!

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Article Tags: carbon dioxide, EPA, good health, oxygen, photosynthesis, relaxation



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