Air is not oxygen and oxygen is not air. What’s the difference then?
Well, the most important difference is that pure air is considered to be healthy, while pure oxygen will probably put you six feet under.
Let me explain.
If we were to breathe 100% pure oxygen -as some scuba divers do with professional safety equipement- we would probably first feel a little bit dizzy and disorientated, then feel irritation in the lungs and bronchus, followed by progressive damage in the nervous system, including nausea, humming in the ears and convulsions. Not a pretty picture.
Plus, pure oxygen oxidates membrane lipids, causing celular and tissue damage. Part of the effects from membrane oxidation are what we know as the natural aging process and, in some cases, diseases.
But wait! Didn’t we just say that oxygen is one of “the good guys”? That we absolutely need it and can’t live without it?
Yes, we did. And that is still entirely true.
So what is all this talk about aging and diseases?
Well, those are the other “less popular” efects of oxygen.
See, just like every other thing in life, oxygen has a good side to it and a bad side. A two-edged sword, as some people like to call it.
Pros and cons, my dear. Pros: it keeps you alive and going. Cons: it can turn into a free radical and cause tissue damage.
A free radical? What’s that?
Some Very Free Radicals
Close your eyes and picture one atom of oxygen: it has a nucleus in the center (which includes "protons" and "neutrons") and eight “electrons” in two spheres moving around the center nucleus, just like the Earth moves around the Sun.
In most atoms there is an even number of electrons in the outer spheres, creating an electrical balance between the electrons (minus electricity) and the nucleus (positive electricity).
However, when this atom of oxygen looses one electron, it then has an odd number of electrons in the outer ring. In this case, the atom is called a free radical.
Why “free radical”? Free, because the atom of oxygen releases or “frees” an electron. They are called radicals because they are very active and never stand still.
So, free radicals are atoms or molecules with at least one unpaired electron.
And since this free radical lacks an electron, it looks around at its neighbors to find the electron it needs. When it finds it… zap! It steals it. In so doing, free radicals produce a natural deteriorating of the tissue. This produces what we know as the natural aging process and, in some cases, diseases.
Now that you know all this, I bet you don’t want to have anything to do with 100% pure oxygen!
Now…pure air is quite a different thing.
When we talk about “pure air” we are actually talking about a gaseous substance that consists primarily in nitrogen (78%), oxygen (21%) and small amounts of other gases, such as carbon dioxide (CO2), argon (Ar), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), water vapor (H2O), and some other goodies.
So even though air includes oxygen, it is really so much more!
Considering that oxygen is one of the main sources of free radicals, you can understand how it is much safer to breathe “pure air” (with only 21% oxygen) than to breathe “pure oxygen” (with 100% oxygen).
