Low oxygen levels will rob you of your eye sight, short term memory, and your energy. Eventually low oxygen levels will weaken your heart muscle.
Heart Failure IS -> Progressive weakening of your heart muscle! (Read that sentence again. It is that important.)
The world is facing an epidemic of heart failure! This ONE health crisis will rob more productive work years from Americans than any other.
Hypoxemia occurs when levels of oxygen in the blood are lower than normal. If blood oxygen levels are too low, your body may not work properly. Blood carries oxygen to the cells throughout your body to keep them healthy. Hypoxemia can cause mild problems such as headaches and shortness of breath. 2 days ago Monitor your oxygen levels. In a pulse oximeter, the normal oxygen levels in the blood usually range from 95% to 100%. If your home SpO2 reading is below 90%, you need to. Low blood oxygen, known as hypoxemia, means that the level of oxygen in the blood has dropped below average, normal levels, due to one or more of many different causes. Under most circumstances, breathing room air, normal readings range from 95 to 100 percent. Levels above 90 percent are not considered low, so you probably are worrying unnecessarily.
Why should you be concerned about oxygen?
Oxygen isn’t typically something you worry about. If you are looking into “low oxygen levels”, you likely heard the term from your doctor. As the caregiver of a loved one, you
might become familiar with the importance of oxygen as a life saving requirement, but fail to realize how effective it can be in minimizing discomfort and maintaining quality-of-
life.
Everyone worries about high blood pressure, carrying extra weight and other issues routine blood work can reveal. It’s all part of the natural aging process and your growing
concern for your health. After all, you don’t ignore your bad health until it kills you if you know better, right?
Oxygen Level Of 65
Being over-weight increases your risk for many diseases, especially heart disease. So, you diet and attempt to get “regular exercise”. Maybe you join a gym, or consider
gastric bypass surgery. You do what it takes because health is important.
High blood pressure is called the silent killer, because it can be deadly without symptoms. Most people know that it’s important to get their blood pressure checked
regularly, just to be safe.
You’ve been told you should worry about your cholesterol levels. Everybody seems to know that reducing your bad cholesterol is important, so your doctor will likely offer
you a prescription to lower your cholesterol if it is elevated. Even if your cholesterol isn’t elevated, your doctor may prescribe Statin medication as a “precaution” when you
have other risk factors for heart disease. (That so called preventative medication might not be such a good idea.
There are plenty of risk factors to worry about. Why add oxygen to the list?
If your doctor is expressing concern about your blood oxygen levels, you should be concerned, too.
You may be inclined to argue with your doctor if he/she would like to see you using oxygen 24 hours a day. It’s fair to say that round-the-clock oxygen therapy is inconvenient and irritating.
It’s also difficult to understand why it is necessary.
What is there to be concerned about?
Consequences of Low Blood Oxygen Level:
• damage eye sight
• deteriorate short term memory
• weaken muscle (your heart is a muscle)
• increase pain
• reduced clarity/focus
• loss of your natural charming disposition
• potentially create life threatening cranial nerve stimulation
Dust in the wind guitar pro. Since low-flow home-oxygen is completely safe and doesn’t cause side-effects you are better off to use it than to resist using it and suffer the consequences of low blood oxygen. It isn’t an easy to swallow pill, but it might just be more important than every pill in your pill box.
Oxygen is one prescription you don’t want to second guess.
If your doctor wants you on oxygen, you are crazy to argue.
Does your doctor monitor your blood oxygen levels routinely?
Not all doctors have oximeters (oxygen measuring devices) in their office. If they don’t have one, they have no way to routinely monitor your oxygen level during your physicals, check-ups and illness related appointments.
This isn’t at all unusual. Even if doctors have oximeters, they may not use them unless you have some sort of breathing complaint. It isn’t widely understood, even with doctors, that low oxygen is most often NOT accompanied by shortness-of-breath.
It isn’t at all uncommon for doctors and nurses to minimize the importance of oxygen therapy and to dismiss low oxygen readings if they only last a short period of time.
This approach is much like waiting for things to get worse.
Whether your doctor monitors your blood oxygen level or not, YOU SHOULD.
There is no doubt about it. Taking an active role in your health care can cause you more stress than putting blind trust in your doctor, but if your doctor doesn’t offer you thesolution you need, who will?
Doctors are making educated guesses and doing the best they can. Luckily they also have the benefit of a well educated team with many years of combined experience. Good health care requires team work. It can be tempting to allow your doctor to lead the team but NO ONE is more motivated and invested in finding solutions to your suffering than YOU are.
It’s important for you to be aware that your participation is the key to positive results.
Certainly, if your health care team doesn’t successfully uncover the cause of your suffering and eliminate it or otherwise address it, you are the only one who will suffer the consequence. Ultimately, you pay the price for oversights and mistakes.
Unfortunately, low blood oxygen causes devastating consequences.
If your doctor is advocating for oxygen therapy, you are fortunate. Most doctors overlook the harm low oxygen levels are causing and shrug off the importance of monitoring and meeting oxygen needs.
Good quality-of-life is your goal. The damage caused by low oxygen levels prevents you from functioning the way you normally would. How much joy would you lose if your
eyesight slowly deteriorated?
As you age, you tend to think you are just getting old and out of shape. The progressive muscle weakening caused by low oxygen levels effects your heart muscle. When your
heart muscle is weakened by low oxygen levels your whole world changes, but it doesn’t typically happen all of a sudden.
When you suffer a heart attack part of your heart muscle dies. With congestive heart failure things [more often than not] happen very slowly. The progressive weakening of your heart muscle is gradual. For years your doctor will tell you “your heart is fine”.
Once you know you are living with congestive heart failure, you should understand that oxygen is the key to protecting your weakened heart muscle and to strengthening it.
Low oxygen is a BIG deal.
If your low oxygen levels are caused by lung disease, it’s important to remember that keeping your blood oxygen level above 92% is important to protect your heart.
If your low oxygen levels are caused by heart disease, it’s important to remember that failing to address low oxygen levels will further weaken your heart muscle.
So how low is too low?
7 Facts to Remember About Blood Oxygen Saturation Levels
1. When oxygen saturation levels fall below 92%, the pressure of the oxygen in your blood is too low to penetrate the walls of the red blood cells. It is a matter of gas laws.
2. Your insurance company may not pay for oxygen unless your levels fall to 88% oxygen saturation. This has nothing to do with what is best for you, it is just the point at which your insurance is willing to pay.
3. Every time your oxygen level falls below 92% saturation the cells of your body are oxygen starved.
4. When you fail to meet your oxygen needs, every organ in your body suffers the consequences.
5. Low oxygen levels may be present only at certain times.
- when retaining excessive fluid
- when airways are reacting to irritants
- with respiratory illness
- sleep apnea
- about 3:00am when you wake gasping for air
- with activity when your heart muscle has become weak, though isn’t technically “congestive heart failure”…. yet
6. Recurring low oxygen levels are harmful and should be treated with supplemental oxygen.
7. The problem is that your doctor may not witness your oxygen levels at 88%, and if he doesn’t see that reading on an oxygen meter (oximeter), then most insurance companies will not pay for it, and therefore doctors don’t order it.
Low oxygen levels are definitely something to worry about!
If you feel you may be experiencing low oxygen levels be sure to ask your doctor to check your pulse oximetry reading. Download bluestacks 4 mac.
Symptoms of low oxygen are:
- shortness of breath/ difficulty breathing/ dyspnea
- extreme fatigue
- chest tightness
- mental confusion
- tingling fingers
- water retention (especially feet/ ankles)
- chronic cough
If you are experiencing blood oxygen saturation levels below 92% now, waiting for your doctor to witness it below 88% and order oxygen is equal to sitting around waiting to get worse.
Are you concerned?
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On April 19, Nagpur-based Simran Nashine logged into her Twitter account to seek help for 41-year-old Girish Kesai, a COVID-19 patient. His oxygen saturation levels had dropped to 82%.
It had been well over 24 hours since his health had started deteriorating, and the wait for a hospital bed with an oxygen facility was only increasing. Fortunately, within the next few hours, Girish was able to receive admission. In those critical hours between his oxygen levels dropping and him finally being admitted to the hospital, his life depended on an oxygen concentrator.
This machine filters oxygen from the atmosphere and helps patients access it through a mask or cannula.
“The machine helped maintain his oxygen levels and prevent his health from deteriorating faster. It bought us time to scramble for an oxygen bed for further treatment. Without the concentrator, it would have been difficult to sustain for long,” Simran tells The Better India.
Like Girish, millions of COVID-19 patients across India are struggling to breathe during the initial stages of infection. Hospitals and the medical infrastructure are overwhelmed, resulting in a lack of oxygen beds and ventilators. If the administration of oxygen is delayed, a patient’s health can deteriorate so fast that the results can be fatal.
Buying time in crucial hours
Aarti Nimkar, former president of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), Pune, says an oxygen concentrator can be a life-saver during cases in which a patient needs mild oxygen.
“Ideally, oxygen levels in the body should be above 95. However, in COVID-19, the disease causes lung fibrosis and affects breathing among patients. A feeling of breathlessness, shortage of breath, chest pain and other respiratory issues are common symptoms. In such cases, the patients need oxygen therapy at the soonest, as the levels may start dropping. Such patients need assistance to compensate for inadequate breathing capabilities,” she says, adding, “The device can help boost oxygen levels if they drop to 80-85.”
She adds that the devices are available in 5-10 litres per minute flow capacities, cost between Rs 25,000 and Rs 60,000, and should be used under the supervision of doctors. “The machine can buy crucial time for patients. They may rely on the device before the ambulance arrives and they are hospitalised,” Aarti adds.
Aarti says the device can help boost a patient’s oxygen levels from 85 to up to 90 or 95, and even maintain these parameters to some extent. “Increased levels reduce the struggle for the patient and risks of health complications caused due to shortage of oxygen,” she adds.
Gujarat-based Ami Joshi, director of Ashmi Healthcare Private Limited says that over a hundred patients have benefited from oxygen concentrators since the surge in cases during the second wave.
“The device is simple to use, as it does not have a manual regulator like oxygen tanks. It prevents excess discharge and can be handled by the patient as needed. The maintenance cost is low as it does not require refills. Only the water dehumidifier needs replacement as per the use. In some cases, two devices of 5 litres/per minute flow can be used for a single patient if required,” she says.
“The oxygen concentrator has also helped patients showing oxygen levels as low as 70,” Ami says, adding that each machine is available on rent at Rs 400 or sometimes lent for free to people who cannot afford it.
Explaining the functioning of the device Pune-based Sundeep Salvi, director of Chest Research Foundation (CRF), says, “The atmospheric air consists of about 21% oxygen, 78% nitrogen, and then other gases. The oxygen concentrator works by absorbing air from the surroundings and filtering out nitrogen and other gases. The oxygen is stored in a cylinder to be inhaled by the user.”
How it works
The machine operates on electricity and requires uninterrupted power supply with power-back ups.
The machine starts releasing oxygen at the push of a button.
The device filters nitrogen and increases the concentration of oxygen for inhalation.
It is recommended to use the concentrator only if the SPO2 (oxygen saturation) level drops below 95.
It is mandatory to have a doctor’s approval to use the device.
Use an oxygen mask or nasal cannula as recommended by the medical expert for inhalation.
Ensure the filters are cleaned and do not block the air entry. It may affect the performance of the device.
Patients with asthma, COPD and respiratory ailments can also use it if prescribed by the doctors.
Oxygen Level Below 90 Percent
‘Best during the recovery stage’
Sundeep cautions that an oxygen concentrator cannot be a replacement for oxygen or a ventilator. “It can only act as a cushion before the severity of the disease increases. Patients with moderate and severe health conditions will need higher doses of oxygen, and the device cannot meet those heavy requirements,” he explains.
“On many occasions, the severity increases dramatically. The oxygen levels in the patient drop suddenly. In such cases, the patient should be moved immediately to oxygen or ventilator beds. The oxygen concentrator will prove futile,” he adds.
Sundeep believes that oxygen concentrators can be more beneficial post-treatment. “The device can work as a support system during the recovery stage of the COVID-19, as here, smaller doses of oxygen are required. This way, bed occupancy at the hospital reduces, and the patient can continue the treatment at home. The vacated bed becomes available for another patient who is in more urgent need of oxygen or a ventilator,” he adds.
Sudha Khisti from Nagpur is one such COVID-19 patient recovering from the disease. “I was diagnosed on March 25 and remained hospitalised for almost 20 days. As I suffer from asthma, the doctor was concerned about my health and suggested I buy an oxygen concentrator,” she says.
The 68-year-old adds that moving out of the hospital reduced the chances of getting reinfected and her family members contracting COVID-19. “The device has proven to be a game-changer. After using it for a week, my oxygen levels have increased, and my dependency on the device has reduced. Earlier, I used it for almost five hours a day. But now, I use it only for a couple of hours. It has made me confident about my health,” she says.
Aarti emphasises that oxygen concentrators do benefit patients, especially in difficult situations. “It would be appreciated if the government can waive taxes or reduce the prices of these devices. It will make it more affordable for common people and prove beneficial in times of the pandemic,” she adds.
Oxygen Level Below 90 When Sleeping
To procure an oxygen concentrator, please click here, here and here.
Edited by Divya Sethu