O is for Oxygen!
Hello friends! Welcome to the third part of this series where we will be covering the WHOLENESS acronym.
Today we will be talking about the O in WHOLENESS, which stands for oxygen. Oxygen plays a huge role in your body. After only 4 minutes without oxygen, you begin to have permanent damage in the brain. Death occurs within 8 to 10 minutes without receiving oxygen. This gas is so vitally important to our bodies. But, do you realize that you could slowly be killing yourself due to lack of oxygen? Let me explain.
Most people have been taught in school about the respiratory system, which is the system that receives oxygen into the body, takes it into the bloodstream, and then releases carbon dioxide from the body. Oxygen is critical to our bodies, as it not only helps us grow and reproduce, but also is what turns our food into energy. Without oxygen, our cells cannot break food down. This is necessary, as the food has to be turned into the energy every cell in our body needs to do its job. The thing is, there are so many components to this system that can hinder the amount of oxygen your body is receiving and will cause you to slowly show signs of oxygen deprivation and eventually bigger health concerns.
Photo Credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Respiratory_system#/media/File:Respiratory_system_complete_en.svg
Let’s take posture for example. When you sit slouched, you are compressing your lungs. This means that when you breathe slouched, even if you take a deep breath you are not filling your lungs to their full capacity. When you slouch so much that you get that small hunchback, you are constantly not receiving enough oxygen to supply your body’s needs. This can lead to headaches, fatigue and other signs of lack of oxygen.
Photo Credit: Posture Pro
Another thing to consider is the amount of oxygen you are receiving while you sleep. Many people sleep with their mouths open without realizing. This not only can cause more mouth/throat infections, but also reduces the amount of oxygen you receive. You may think that breathing through your mouth absorbs more oxygen, but in reality, you receive 10-20% more oxygen when you breathe through your nose. Many mouth breathers have trouble breathing in through their nose due to sinus infections, or just because they are not used to breathing through their nose. If it is due to a sinus problem, then it is best to treat that first before forcing yourself to nose breathe. Otherwise it is counter productive. You can also buy the “breathe right” nose strips to put on at night and you can also try using those sinus rinse bottles if you feel that you may have some congestion that could prevent you from breathing right. The more you practice it, the more you will get used to it. You may feel you aren’t getting enough oxygen, but you are! So if you catch yourself breathing through your mouth, stop yourself and start breathing through your nose!
Something we should all take into consideration is the quality of the air we are breathing. This can be in our homes, but also our environments. If you are in the city, even if you go outside to get some fresh air, are you really getting that “fresh air?” With all the car exhaust and pollution, you cannot really get the benefits of good oxygen in your body and may actually get other health problems instead. If you have no choice but to be in the city, you can find a local park or plant more trees in your yard. This way, you can get cleaner air from that area. Ideally, you can live farther out from the city where your oxygen quality can be better. Frequently visiting forests, parks and such will definitely help you get quality oxygen!
Photo Credit: Conde Nast Traveler
Lastly, I want to talk about iron. Iron is something that goes hand in hand with oxygen. You may have heard of iron anemia and its symptoms before. Some of these symptoms include fatigue, headaches, dizziness, constant thirst or dehydration, paleness of skin and more. Why do these symptoms occur? Well, we have to look at how our body absorbs oxygen. Have you ever wondered why our blood cells are red? Well, that red substance is called hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is mostly made up of iron. Hemoglobin is what “catches” your oxygen and transports it all over the body to where it is needed. If you do not have enough iron, then your blood cells will become scarce and there will not be enough able to transport oxygen around your body, leading to all those symptoms and even death. This is why it is critical to receive enough iron through your food by eating legumes, nuts and your green vegetables. Ideally you should be getting it through your food, but there are also many good supplements out there to choose from.
Just as we desperately need oxygen for our bodies, we desperately need God to be able to live our lives to the fullest. Otherwise, we will slowly be dying in sin. It is important to take measures to get enough oxygen, but it is even more important to be getting enough one on one time with our Savior! Let’s make sure we get enough of both in our lives. God Bless!
- Victoria Flores, Health Coach & Medical Missionary
Links:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6379287/
https://www.premierspineinstitute.com/blog/how-poor-posture- impacts-your-body
https://oxygenadvantage.com/scence/nose-breathing-vs-mouth-breathing