BREATHING DEVICE TFI - "SAMOZDRAV"

Breath and the role of the carbon dioxide content in the blood.

Breathing is one of the most important and most “instant” of all the vital functions of the body and yet the understanding of it, let alone the correction and therapeutic use of it, in complementary medicine is far from sufficient. The aim of this article is to shed light on some of the confusing issues about respiration.

It is known that blood supplies tissues by oxigen (O2) and removes from them carbon dioxide (CO2). A path by which blood is flowing from heart to tissues remind a tree; first go big vessel (artery), then it split up on microvessels (arterioles), finally arteriols split up on capillaries (in tissues), through which metabolical processes in cells are fulfilled. Then microvessels gather into vein and return to heart - big blood cycle. On the other hand there is second - small cycle - vein blood go to the lungs, there it give out CO2 and get O2. So breath is closely connected with cardiovascular system.

Have you ever thought why you feel the need to take a breath once every few seconds? Because the content of oxygen in your blood drops? No. Your blood in lungs is almost always 96-98% saturated with oxygen. Our breathing is regulated, first and foremost, by the content of CO2, not oxygen. Why do you need to breathe deeper when you are running, for example? When your muscles work, they burn glucose. This process produces carbon dioxide. It gets into the blood stream and an excess of it has to be removed from the body through the lungs.

When blood circulates through lungs, it contacts the oxygen inhaled. Molecules of oxygen bind to hemoglobin and are carried by the blood to all internal organs. There hemoglobin releases oxygen, and so our cells can use it. But guess what is necessary for oxygen to be released from hemoglobin (in capillaries) ? Carbon dioxide ! If there's not enough carbon dioxide in your blood, no matter how much oxygen your blood might contain, it will not be released to your cells and tissues (so called Bohr effect).

Second factor. With accordance with Vasodilator Theory carbon dioxide is a natural vasodilator, so the low level of CO2 in blood will have a direct effect on microvessels, constricting them and reducing the blood flow to the organs they supply. So with the shortage of CO2 normal metabolic regulations are impaired!

Vasodilator - substance which directly influences on smooth muscles fibres which are frame for arterioles and bronchioles (in lungs).

Third important factor - the acid-alkaline blood balance (pH index of 7.36) - is a constant of the body and is a necessary condition for normal metabolism. A low level of CO2 leads to respiratory alkalosis and, as a result, to disturbances in metabolism. All body systems and organs are involved in this process.

With overbreathing the level of pulmonary ventilation is in excess of that required by the rate of production of CO2 by the tissues. In other words overbreathing 'washes' CO2 out of body, microvessel are constricted and so becomes the tissues oxygen starvation ! But more, because of increased microvessel's resistance to blood's flow, blood pressure greatly arises (hypertension!), which is the source for various heart diseases !

There's very little CO2 in external air. Our body needs about 6.5% carbon dioxide in blood to function correctly. But air contains only 0.03% carbon dioxide. The remainder is produced in the body as a by-product of metabolism. Respiration is regulated to maintain 6.5% level of CO2 in the blood by respiratory center located in brain stem. The wrong mode of life or some diseases results in respiratory center functional shift, so the breath intensity grows, and the percentage of CO2 level in blood falls. Microvessels are induced to spasm. Internal organs don't get enough oxygen, so they experience oxygen starvation. That is the source for chronic diseases. Also because of increased peripheral resistanse of circulatory system the high blood pressure or hypertension arise.

The process of breathing - is not as simple as described in the section above. The attentive reader may retort - "All CO2 , generated by the organism, must be deleted. It cannot be accumulated in the body! What's the hyperventilation got to do with it ?"

The matter is that we exhale not pure CO2 but gas mixture (mainly with nitrogen). The percentage of CO2 in this mixture is right the factor, which influence on concentration of CO2 in blood. On the other hand this percentage fully depends on the intensity of breath, that is ventilation!

Let us build a very simple mathematical model of breath, it helps to understand the process.

Let us accept next designations: (our model is very simplified !)

Taking into account all said in previous sections and considering all values be normalized, we can write next equations:

Here is an explanation of these equations :

1. First equation is simple balance of produced-exhaled CO2.

2. Second - reflects the physiological influence of CO2 on microvessels.

3. Third - is control function of respiratory center(K1-ñoefficient)

Transform it to two equation:
Tonus = Inp / Vent
Vent = K1 * Pco2
And then to one:
Tonus = Inp / (K1 * Pco2)

Let us assume that control function is spoiled(this leads to disease!):
Vent = K2 * Pco2                 ( K2 > K1 )

Substitute K2 in equation instead of K1:
Tonus = Inp / (K2 * Pco2)

As we see, value of Tonus (aperture of microvessel) decreases - in other words spasm of microvessels have arose ! It is necessary to correct the function of respiratory center (to restore coefficient K2 to right value). It can be done only by special breath training , because medicine can not influence on the breathing center- it is one of the most complicated and protected functions of organism.