OXYGENATION AND HEALING by Lawrence Wilson, MD © November 2014, The Center For Development Oxygenating the body sufficiently is extremely helpful for everyone’s health. This article discusses oxygen in detail and how to use it to improve one’s health. This article also discusses two important warnings about oxygen: 1.It is very yin, in macrobiotic terminology. This means that too much of it is not good, and becomes harmful for the body. For this reason, one must exercise care with all oxygen therapies, particularly baths with hydrogen peroxide or ozone. Too much exposure to water and too much oxygen therapy is a particularly yin experience that eventually harms the body and can shorten your life. Please limit baths of all kinds to twice a week, and limit oxygen therapy such as rectal ozone to several times weekly. 2. Exposure to ozone, hydrogen peroxide or pure oxygen always causes a type of euphoria or “high”. This is easily mistaken for better health, and easily becomes addictive. However, it is not better health, but rather is a yin high, not unlike that which occurs due to some drugs and alcohol. Please beware. OXYGEN ESSENTIAL FOR ALL ANIMAL LIFE ON EARTH Oxygen is absolutely essential for animal life. Plants, interestingly, “breathe in” carbon dioxide, which human beings breathe out, and plants “breathe out” or excrete oxygen. In this way, animal life and plant life work together, each helping preserving the other. Greenhouse gas concerns are insane. Because plants must have carbon dioxide to “breathe”, the recent obsession with carbon dioxide as a “dangerous greenhouse gas” is scientifically unsound and quite insane. We must have plenty of that gas to preserve all plant life on planet earth. Any attempt to reduce it is futile, first of all, and secondly, there is no reason to reduce it as long as the earth can support plant life adequately, which it is doing just fine. Most plant life, by the way, is in the oceans and lakes, not the land. It consists of plankton, algae, seaweeds that grow up to 6 feet each day, and other marine plant life. This life is not threatened by mankind very much at all, and is growing quite well. In contrast, trees such as in the rainforest of the Amazon jungle provide relatively little oxygen on planet earth compared to the ocean plants. THE ROLE OF OXYGEN IN OUR BODIES Unlike plant life, our bodies are designed to “burn” oxygen in each body cell to produce energy with which we perform all bodily activities from digestion and elimination to thinking and movement. This is the essential role of oxygen in the body. If one gets low on oxygen, which is the case with almost everyone today thanks to pollution and not breathing deeply enough, one becomes tired, first of all, and cellular energy production decreases. This slowly causes the body to decay and opens one up to many types of illnesses, both physical and emotional. One of the main ones is cancer. In fact, entire textbooks are written about the great benefits of oxygen and oxygen therapies for many health conditions such as cancer, infections, strokes, cardiac rehabilitation, burns, and much more. OTHER CAUTIONS WITH OXYGEN I mentioned earlier in this article that: 1. Oxygen is very yin. For this reason, too much oxygen is not good for us. Too much yin makes a person weak, spacey, floaty, depressed and eventually wanting to die. 2. Oxygen therapy often cause a euphoric feeling. This is not a sign of health, but it can feel like it. In fact, it is a type of drug ‘high’ that can easily become addictive, and is not healthful. In addition, other cautions with oxygen therapy are: 3. Oxygen is flammable. Oxygen is a very flammable gas, so one must be careful with it around open flames, cigarettes, gas stoves, etc. Always handle oxygen and ozone with care. 4. Other. Minor problems are that breathing pure oxygen can inhibit normal respiration. Breathing too much ozone is irritating to the lungs. Thus we need just the right amount of oxygen – not too much and not too little. CAUSES FOR LOW OXYGEN IN OUR BODIES The main causes are: 1. Planet earth is too low in oxygen. This will be debated by some, but many doctors believe that all human beings could use more oxygen than the planet provides. This has nothing to do with global warming or driving cars. It is simply the way the planet’s ecosystem works at this time. 2. The air in cities and other polluted environments often contains less oxygen. This is due to a) more oxygen-burning cars and factories, and 2) fewer trees and other plant life if the area is mainly paved over and covered with buildings, as in most cities. This, by the way, is may be reason why crime, drug addiction and disease are often more common in cities. They are just not as healthful places, as a general rule, due in part to lower oxygen levels. 3. Habits of shallow breathing and/or holding one’s breath. These are very common habits among millions of people around the world. Stress, fear, anxiety, and worry cause not only shallow breathing, but a habit of literally not breathing as much, or holding the breath. 4. Young women’s lifestyles. Fashion-conscious young women often breathe very poorly. Reasons for this include: A. Tight pants and blouses always restrict breathing. Always wear loose clothing that allows you to breathe deeply and freely. B. Some do not want their stomach to move in and out when they breathe, so they breathe only with the upper part of the lungs, which is not sufficient. Always breathe with the belly, as babies usually do. C. The use of high-heeled shoes, tight belts and perhaps other fashionable clothing items may not promote healthful deep breathing. 5. A sedentary lifestyle. Those with the worst breathing habits are often those people who do not do any exercise. Exercise helps greatly to bring more oxygen to the body cells. Exercise need not be exhausting. Only mild and gentle exercise are recommended with a nutritional balancing program. The reason is that vigorous exercise uses up too much energy that is needed for healing. Also, today most people are so exhausted that vigorous exercise further tires them out and can be dangerous in some cases. So we prefer walking and other gentle exercise only. 6. Poor posture. The habit of stooping over and rounding the shoulders too much squeezes the chest and prevents the chest from filling with air when you breathe in. This is a prominent cause of poor breathing, or shallow breathing in some people. There are many reasons for bad posture, from nutritional imbalances such as copper imbalance that can cause scoliosis and kyphosis, to one’s height, one’s home and work environments, sitting in car seats or other furniture that worsens posture, obesity, and more. 7. Working in lower oxygen environments. These may include closed office buildings with no windows that open, breathing recycled air in theatres, concert halls, or anywhere, or working around machinery that uses up oxygen such as furnaces, gas stoves and others. Many people work in stuffy offices, for example, and do not understand why they feel so tired and even dizzy or ill at the end of the day. Buildings should have windows that open wide to allow plenty of fresh air into the building. However, this is not the way most buildings are built today in an effort to reduce heating and cooling costs, sadly. 8. Lung and bronchial problems. These are very common, and often reduce a person’s lung capacity. Chronic bronchitis, too much mucus due to food sensitivities, asthma, bronchiectasis, COPD, bacterial, viral, parasitic and fungal infections in the lungs, and many other mild to severe conditions affect the lungs and bronchial tubes in millions of people. These are caused to some degree by pollution, but not all, by any means. 9. Anemia. Anemia means that the red blood cells that carry oxygen to the tissues are either deficient in number, or are damaged in some way. While many do not realize it, mild anemia is quite common, especially among young adult menstruating women, vegetarians, and those with chronic illnesses. A major cause of anemia today is copper toxicity. Few doctors are aware of this cause, so they give millions of young women and vegetarians iron when the problem is a copper imbalance. Other causes are lead toxicity, vitamin deficiencies (B12, B6, etc.), and other nutritional imbalances. Most people with anemia are not even aware of being anemic. However, their bodies do not transport enough oxygen to the cells, and this contributes to fatigue and much poorer overall health. For more on anemias, read Anemia on this website. 10. Other illnesses. Any illness that impairs circulation, hydration or respiration such as muscle weakness, arteriosclerosis, Reynaud’s syndrome, dehydration from any cause, sympathetic dominance, and others can reduce oxygenation of the body. Other blood diseases besides anemia may also affect oxygen transport throughout the body. Adrenal exhaustion can cause poorer breathing habits. Older people often do not breathe well due to fatigue, poor posture, osteoporosis affecting the spine and posture, and perhaps other reasons. 11. Smoking and other causes. Smoking damages the lungs, often severely, and leads to much worse oxygenation. Other causes may include impaired hydration, impaired circulation for any reason, and even just allowing the body to become too cold. This impairs circulation and breathing, and thus reduces oxygenation. OXYGENATION RELATED TO CIRCULATION AND HYDRATION An important principle of oxygenation is that the oxygen must not only be taken in, but needs to be carried around the body adequately. This requires excellent blood circulation. To increase circulation, some exercise is helpful, rebounding is helpful, and deep breathing increases circulation a little. The use of any sauna on a daily basis, or at least a few times weekly, is also very helpful for circulation. Excellent oxygenation of the tissues also requires very good hydration of the body. Most people do not drink enough water. We recommend 3 quarts of only spring water or carbon-filtered tap water if spring water is unavailable or too costly. Go to www.findaspring.com and you may be able to find a local spring to obtain spring water free of charge. Please avoid all reverse osmosis water, as it does not seem to hydrate the body as well. In the supermarket, this is often called drinking water or purified water. I would also avoid alkaline water and other designer waters. Please also avoid all alkaline water. It is much too yin and may have other toxic problems. For more on this topic, read Water For Drinking on this website. SAFE AND SIMPLE WAYS TO ENHANCE YOUR OXYGEN INTAKE 1. Breathe deeply each day. This is an important lifestyle factor in nutritional balancing science. It applies especially to young women, although many older people do not breathe well due to lung conditions, weakness, frailty and perhaps lack of exercise. To begin to change the habit of shallow breathing or holding one’s breath unconsciously, sit or lie down and become quiet. Then do the following breathing exercise: · Begin by moving your belly outward as you breathe. This will fill the abdomen with air. If you are not sure you are doing this correctly, lie down and place a book on your abdomen. When you breathe in, the book should rise up, and when you breathe out, the book should move downward. · Next breathe into the sides of your lower chest, pushing the sides of your ribs outward. This will fill the mid-chest with air. · Finally, lift up the upper chest and the pectoral area, which will fill the upper chest with air. · When you exhale, you can start again in the abdomen, pushing it in. Then push in the sides of your ribs, and finally push down the pectoral or upper chest area. This is sometimes called the three-part breath. If you practice this for 15 minutes a day, it will soon become a habit and your overall breathing will improve dramatically. There is no substitute for deep breathing, so please begin to do this exercise and learn to do it all or most of the time. Breathe in through your nose, if at all possible. This will help humidify the air, prevent your mouth from drying out, and might improve your oxygen intake as well. 2. Live and work in an oxygen-rich environment. This means to always have a window open a little for fresh air, try to avoid stuffy offices and unhealthful air, and if possible live in the country or at least have lots of green plants around you, as these make oxygen continuously. 3. Use an ozonator/ionizer machine in your bedroom and, if possible, at work. These rather unique air purifiers produce safe amounts of ozone, and have other benefits as well. When using this machine in your bedroom, keep the ozone control down to halfway or less. The machine converts some oxygen in the ambient air to ozone or O3. Then, provided there is a little ventilation such as an air duct nearby, the room air absorbs a little more oxygen from the surrounding outside air. So the machine essentially draws a little more oxygen into the house or bedroom. When you breathe in the mixture of room air and extra ozone, the ozone is quickly converted to oxygen in the lungs, increasing the oxygenation of the entire body. Some people fear that ozone is irritating to the lungs. Rarely someone reports sensitivity to ozone, or does not like the odor, which smells like a forest. If the ozone bothers you, just turn down the amount of ozone the machine produces. For much more information about the use of an ozonator/ionizer machine in your home, and where to get one, click here. 4. Drink ozonated water. This is not hard to do. In theory, any ozone generator could be used. Just put the output tube into a pitcher of water and allow it to bubble through for 15 to 20 minutes before drinking the water. A convenient way to do this is a device called the The Big Pitcher. It is a large plastic pitcher that fits over a base that is an ozone generator. You simply plug in the machine and fill the pitcher with drinking water. In 20 minutes you have a pitcher of ozonated drinking water. It is available at: www.oxygenorchard.com/. THERAPEUTIC USE OF OXYGEN This is a very large subject that I will only touch upon. Oxygen therapy and bio-oxidative therapies (the use of ozone, hydrogen peroxide and ultraviolet blood irradiation), have been researched for years and are generally quite safe, simple and effective to help stop cancers and many other diseases. They are rarely used by conventional doctors because they are so easy and simple, I believe, and they do not enrich the coffers of the drug companies or the doctors. However, they are much better than drugs in most cases. As mentioned above, however, one can overdo on them, so use them wisely. Doctors can receive training in oxygen therapies from groups that sponsor seminars on bio-oxidative therapies. The many ways to artificially raise the oxygen level of the body include: A. Ozone therapy. This is one of the best methods because ozone is more yang, and thus safer to use in the body today. One can drink ozonated water, add ozone to a bath or hot tub, inject it rectally, or sit in an ozonated steam cabinet or sauna enclosure. Sitting in a hot tub loaded with ozone is one of the finest methods, although they all work. However, only do this twice weekly, as the bath water is quite yin. Ozone can even be mixed with a simple vitamin E cream or lotion and applied to the skin. Ozone can be used vaginally, as well, and even applied to the ears and eyes. Many companies sell ozone generators of various descriptions. Click here for a link to where to find an ozonator/ionizer air purifier for your bedroom. The pressurized ozone sauna. This is an experimental device at this time that combines a near infrared lamp sauna with ozone that is pumped into the sauna under pressure. This can be used as a substitute for the peroxide/ozone bath specifically to kill germs in the body, and especially for women’s sexually transmitted diseases or STDs. The advantages of the pressurized ozone sauna are: - it combines a sauna with an oxygen treatment, and this saves time. - it avoids the need for baths, which are cumbersome for some people and waste water. Disadvantages of the pressurized ozone sauna idea are: - producing the sauna to be airtight. This is proving to be difficult at this time to do in a cost-effective way. - the person must breathe the pressurized ozone. While it can be beneficial, some people find it very irritating to the lungs. - baths can be more enjoyable and relaxing than adding ozone to the sauna. So far, this idea is not working well. I will report in this article new developments regarding this method of introducing ozone into the body. B. Hydrogen peroxide therapy. One can simply take a bath and add 1 to 2 cups of 35% food grade hydrogen peroxide to the bath water. This can be purchased inexpensively on the internet at sites such as http://pureh2o2forhealth.com/ and others. A few health food stores may sell it as well. Bath water is yin, so two baths weekly is enough. For all baths, one can also absorb toxic chemicals that are found in almost all water supplies today, even the cleanest water. Therefore, peroxide baths are not recommended as much as using an ozonator/ionizer machine. However, if one wishes to increase oxygenation quickly, one could do a series of peroxide baths. These are also excellent to get rid of old STDs. For much more on this bath, please read Baths on this website. Other ways to use hydrogen peroxide to increase oxygenation. Some doctors offer intravenous drips of hydrogen peroxide. When done correctly, these are very helpful for cancer, especially. Some people also drink hydrogen peroxide, adding one drop of 35% food grade peroxide to a glass of water per day, and slowly increasing up to 10-20 drops over a period of days or weeks. I do not recommend this. It can be irritating, and it can burn the throat, esophagus and stomach, and is not recommended for this reason. It is also not needed if one uses an ozonator/ionizer air purifier. C. Oxygen gas therapies, which include Hyperbaric oxygen therapy and EWOT or Oxygen With Exercise Therapy. Hyperbaric oxygen is used in hospitals and burn centers to promote wound healing, post-operatively, stroke rehabilitation, and for other reasons. The equipment is costly, but the therapy is good. Hyperbaric oxygen means oxygen under pressure that is greater than usual atmospheric pressure. One sits in either a metallic or inflatable chamber during the therapy. The operator pumps oxygen into the chamber at several times atmospheric pressure, which forces more oxygen into the body through the lungs and skin. EWOT or exercise with oxygen therapy is a very simple therapy that some holistic doctors like. The patient sits on a stationary bicycle and pedals, or walks or runs on a treadmill while breathing pure oxygen through the nose. This can greatly increase oxygenation inexpensively and safely. D. Ultraviolet blood irradiation increases oxygen somewhat. This is an amazing therapy some doctors use for infections and other things. A small quantity of blood is extracted from a vein, and then irradiated with ultraviolet light. Then it is returned to the patient’s body. This can help with some infections and perhaps other conditions. It is not a long-term therapy, but can help in an emergency and is much safer than drug therapy. WARNINGS REGARDING 35% FOOD GRADE PEROXIDE: Ø Keep it cool. Exposure to heat or direct sunlight will build up pressure in the bottle and may cause the contents to explode. Ø Undiluted 35% peroxide will cause a temporary burn on the skin. Ø Do not allow it to touch mucus membranes or your eyes. Preferably wear gloves when handling it. Ø If peroxide gets on your skin or in eyes, flush with large quantities of water immediately. Ø DO NOT use straight 35% peroxide solution in or on the body. Ø DO NOT INGEST. As mentioned above, some people recommend drinking a few drops in a glass of water. I do not think this is safe. Ø Be careful of your clothing, furniture and everything else, as 35% peroxide will bleach and put holes in everything. OTHER USES FOR 35% FOOD GRADE PEROXIDE Hydrogen peroxide has many other uses, most related to killing of germs of all kinds. They include: 1) Food Uses: . a) Add a capful of 35% H2O2 to a bowl of water and soak fruits or vegetables for 10 minutes in solution to kill mold and bacteria. b) Upon opening a container of milk or cream, add ½ tsp and shake thoroughly. This can extend the expiration date of the milk up to 1 month. 2. Cleaning Uses: a) Add 1 oz per load to the washing machine on a cold cycle only for bacteria-free laundry. b) Spray on dishes, glasses and silverware for a cleaner appearance. c) Spray a little in the refrigerator to safely clean up mold and odors. d) Spray a little in the bathroom to clean up mold and odors in sinks, toilets, tubs, showers and elsewhere. e) Spray a little on floors to kill odors, bacteria and mold. 3) Household Uses: a) Spray 3% solution on indoor and outdoor plants to kill some bacteria and molds. b) Use a 10% solution to kill weeds. c) Use in pools, ponds and hot tubs to sanitize them without the use of chlorine, bromine or other harsh chemicals. Instructions are on the internet as to how much is needed. 4) Personal Use a) As a deodorant, I am told that an excellent method is to put some 3% peroxide in a spray bottle and spray it under the arms, letting it dry on the skin. Spray again during the day, if needed. This may be just as good as much more fancy, expensive deodorants sold in stores. b) For brushing teeth, dip toothbrush in a little peroxide. Then brush normally. This will whiten the teeth a little, kill all germs in the mouth, teeth and gums and leave your mouth very fresh. Do not be alarmed if the peroxide foams up and is a little irritating to the gums. This is normal. Peroxide can irritate the gums in some people, so use care. c) Soaking toothbrushes and other personal care products in peroxide will kill bacteria, viruses and other pathogens to avoid spreading illnesses. d) Spray a little on cuts, bruises scrapes, burns and bites. This will prevent infection and clean the wound harmlessly. It will sting a little, but this is normal. e) For pets: place one ounce of 3% solution in pet water dishes and baths to kill bacteria and keep water fresher. 5) When Traveling: a) Mix several drops in all drinking water to kill bacteria. b) It is a simple and safe remedy to bring when traveling for cuts, bruises, bites, scrapes, while camping or anywhere. OXYGEN CONCENTRATORS In the past, if one wished to breathe more oxygen, one had to buy bottles of purified oxygen. This is not only costly, but inconvenient, as the bottles are large and heavy. A more recent method of obtaining more oxygen, in addition to ozone generators and hydrogen peroxide, two substances that break down to release some oxygen, is the use of oxygen concentrators. These are machines that plug into the wall and are able to extract some oxygen from the room air and pump it through a small tube, which can be placed in a person’s nose, for example. These are used in hospitals, nursing homes, and other locations where oxygen is needed and oxygen bottles are cumbersome to use. CONCLUSION Bio-oxidative medicine is a holistic area of medical care that is growing because it is simple, inexpensive in most cases, and quite effective. It will certainly grow in the future for cancer therapy, especially. I hope everyone will focus on breathing more deeply, improving their lung function, circulation and hydration, avoiding smoking anything, and perhaps adding an ozonator/ionizer air purifier to the home to easily increase oxygen in the body. The use of ozone and other types of oxygen is also excellent for healing most conditions.