Is Supplemental CO2 As Good or Better Than Exercise?
Everyone knows that exercise is beneficial to the body. But what is it about exercise that provides those youthful benefits. While exercise itself can be a stress (releases free fatty acids, lowers thyroid, increases growth hormone, and other factors), exercise is known to be a stress reducer when done right.
Chris Masterjohn in a recent article suggests that one of the primary benefits of exercise may be the more abundant supply of carbon dioxide it produces.
Future studies should directly investigate whether exercise increases the activation of vitamin K-dependent proteins, but it seems reasonable to suggest that part of the reason exercise promotes cardiovascular health may be because it ensures a more abundant supply of carbon dioxide, which vitamin K uses to activate proteins that protect our heart valves and blood vessels from calcification. Thyroid hormone is a key regulator of the metabolic rate and may thus be a major determinant of the carbon dioxide available for activating vitamin K-dependent proteins. Theoretically, thyroid hormone should increase the rate of metabolism and a greater rate of metabolism should produce a proportionally greater supply of carbon dioxide.
So vitamin k-dependent proteins require carbon dioxide. In a low metabolic state or in a low carbohydrate diet less carbon dioxide is produced. Masterjohn goes on to say:
Once vitamins A and D stimulate the production of vitamin K-dependent proteins, vitamin K activates those proteins by adding carbon dioxide to them. Once added to a protein, carbon dioxide carries a negative charge and allows the protein to interact with calcium, which carries a positive charge.
So if one of the main benefits of exercise is carbon dioxide then why can’t one just breathe higher concentrations to receive the same benefits of exercise. Yandell Henderson suggestions this is the case.
Published in the American Heart Journal in 1931 Yandell Henderson explains how one gets the benefits of exercise by breathing co2 without the negatives.
When a Healthy Person Exercises
The general conception under which these observations were made was as follows: In a normal person muscular exertion induces no pain either in a limb or in the heart, for the reason that the blood supply is sufficient to afford all the oxygen needed initially in the working parts. This supply of oxygen quickly converts a large part of the fatigue products, especially lactic acid, into carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide then induces a relaxation of the blood vessels and thus increases the blood supply to the working parts, both heart and limbs. This is the normal reaction to exercise. The healthy man takes a walk or plays an athletic game to improve the oxygenation of his tissues. Thus as Miescher” said forty-five years ago : “Carbon dioxide spreads its protecting wings over the oxygen supply of the body”.
When an Unhealthy Person Exercises
Quite different, is the reaction in a person in whose heart or limbs the blood vessels are sclerotic or constantly contracted. The blood supply and therefore the oxygen supply are insufficient for the initial requirements of exertion. Lactic acid and other fatigue products accumulate; for in the absence of a large supply of oxygen they cannot be burned to carbon dioxide. They tend to induce a cramp of the musculature, cardiac or striated, in contrast to the influence of carbon dioxide which, as I long ago demonstrated experimentally on the heart, promotes relaxation. To do effective work a muscle must be able to relax as well as to contract. From excess of lactic acid and local deficiency of carbon dioxide come the abnormal reaction to exercise, the ischemia and the cramp.
Yandell Henderson Suggests Breathing CO2 may be More Beneficial Than Exercise Without the Negatives
If now a patient who is liable to such an abnormal reaction receives an inhalation of carbon dioxide, still a third form of reaction develops. He experiences the benefits, without the disadvantages, of physical exercise. He makes no exertion. His muscles are at rest, and his heart is put, under no additional strain. There is no decrease of the oxygen supply to any part, but rather an increase, for the carbon dioxide inhaled induces a relaxation of the finer blood vessels, a more ample heartbeat, and a fuller circulation. The balance of supply and demand for oxygen in the tissues is thus distinctly improved and the tendency to cramp is diminished. Furthermore as the treatment is repeated day after day the blood vessels and the heart muscle, under the influence of an essentially normal physiological agent and an essentially normal reaction, gradually acquire and retain a state of decreased habitual strain and more normal behavior.
One of the pioneers in carbon dioxide therapy (CDT), Dr Albert LaVerne describes the benefits of breathing co2″
Patients appear to become rejuvenated in physiological, psychological, mental and emotional areas. Central nervous system, vascular, endocrine, stress systems (pituitary-adrental) become more efficient, and productive. The repetitive use of CDT seems to enhance total body health. It slows down catabolic processes, builds up anabolic processes of metabolism. In effect, CDT deters the aging process and encourages longevity. These observations and conclusions are based upon numerous patients treated with CDT.
Additionally Ray Peat as talked about the benefits of carbon dioxide for cancer.
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