The composition of Earth’s atmosphere consists of roughly 78 percent nitrogen, 20 percent oxygen and 2 percent of other gaseous elements, including water vapor, argon and carbon dioxide. Without oxygen, life on Earth would be drastically different. An essential element of life, oxygen acts as an electron acceptor during oxidative reactions in and outside the body, providing many benefits in terms of cellular respiration, health and muscular pain.
Cellular Respiration
Throughout exercise, your cells require the assistance of oxygen and other nutrients in carrying out metabolic reactions within the body. Breathing oxygen assists your cells in breaking down energy from eaten foods, converting them into biochemical energy in the form of adenosine triphosphates, or ATPs. Your ATPs drive bodily processes that require energy, such as muscle movement, biosynthesis and the transportation of molecules across cell membranes. In other words, breathing oxygen helps your body to perform everyday processes without growing weak or shutting down as quickly.
Oxygen Therapy
Although controversial, oxygen therapy is quickly becoming a form of alternative medicine, with the potential of providing a range of pain-relieving benefits from headache symptoms to cancer-related and other health-related complaints. According to health psychologist and professor Matthew Galas of Vanderbilt University, in oxidative therapeutics, hydrogen peroxide and ozone--complex oxygen molecules from the atmosphere--deliver excess oxygen to the cells of patients, which helps their bodies regulate nutrients and chemical reactions more smoothly. Thus, breathing oxygen aids in the production of cell energy and blood sugar, in the regulation of the immune system and in assisting chemicals in the nervous system.
Reduced Muscular Fatigue
During strenuous physical exercise, muscle cells need increasingly more ATPs as an energy supply. However, when the supply of glucose and oxygen to the muscles become scarce, exercise physiologist George Brook says that muscle cells switch over from aerobic respiration to anaerobic fermentation, or the breakdown of muscle cells in the absence of oxygen. Lactic acid fermentation then results, using carbohydrates in place of oxygen for energy and producing lactic acid buildup and muscular pain as a byproduct. The lactic acid buildup in the muscles causes muscular fatigue the following day due to the “pickling" effect on muscles, inhibiting their ability to contract more effectively. Therefore, increasing oxygen through proper breathing during exercise becomes essential for reducing the amount of lactic acid buildup and for preventing muscular pain following heavy workouts.
