O2 Oxygen Intake ???

[juantonwan]

On an average day there is roughly 21% oxygen in the air we breathe. A person on average takes in about 250 L or air per hour via breathing.

 

Does the human body respond or act differently to higher concentrations of O2 oxygen?

 

Do people with hundreds of plants in their home, or an oxygen generating system become healthier, more energetic, etc. etc.

 

Have there been studies on low concentrations of oxygen vs high concentrations of oxygen for humans? - What is the minimum about of oxygen a human needs? Is there a maximum?

[insane_alien]

higher oxygen concentration( i forget the threshold value, maybe ~40%?) will cause oxygen toxicity and can be fatal if not rectified.

 

plants only produce O2 during the day, and thanks to diffusion, the oxygen concentration in a house won't build up much unless the house is almost hermetically sealed.

 

at night they'll lower the oxygen concentration slightly too as they consume it.

 

either way, the difference in oxygen levels would be swamped by day to day variations in the atmosphere and how many people are in the room at the one time, what the weather is and so on.

 

also, more oxygen does not equal healthier. people living in the mountains where there is a lower partial pressure of oxygen can be just as healthy as those living at sea level if not more so as if they come down to sea level they can generally outperform someone who has lived a sea level their whole lives.

 

this is why atheletes train at high altitude regularly.

[Mokele]

What insane alien said.

 

Plus, as a basis for comparison, the average exhaled human breath is still 15% Oxygen (and is 5% CO2).

 

Here's some actual numbers for the effects of various Oxygen percentages

[hermanntrude]

personally, when I've been put on oxygen in hospital it's always made me feel awesome. Not an objective statement by a long way, but it's certainly true that the body responds differently even to small changes in concentration

[insane_alien]

well, they only tend to put you on oxygen when you're having trouble getting enough anyway. they tune the dose so you are still absorbing the same amount of oxygen overall into your blood.

 

the only exception i can think of is during hyperbaric oxygen treatment but that is rarely used.

[dttom]

I think the percentage absorption depends on the oxygen partial pressure but not the percentage.

So if the ambient oxygen partial pressure is applied, probably more oxygen would enter the body, beyond a threshold value this would pose the body into potential toxicity, maybe owing to the free radical nature and related species resulted of and from oxygen.

Yet, oxygen generated from plant wouldn't change the partial pressure much, even people in tropical rainforest would not intake too much oxygen. So in general case it just wouldn't make much difference.

[insane_alien]

yes it does depend on the partial pressure but if we assume the system is at a reasonably constant pressure (a fair assumption on the part of the atmosphere of earth especially if we are considering a single house) then the absorbed oxygen depends on the mole fraction present in the gas. which is the percentage composition.

 

happy?

[Mr Skeptic]

Does the human body respond or act differently to higher concentrations of O2 oxygen?

 

Yes, extra oxygen seems to act as a stimulant. That doesn't mean that it will necessarily be healthier though. Oxygen is nasty stuff, and can damage the fragile organic materials we are made of. We do have enzymes to help prevent oxygen damage; without them we would be unable to live in an oxygenated environment.

 

Do people with hundreds of plants in their home, or an oxygen generating system become healthier, more energetic, etc. etc.

 

Maybe, but you would need an awful lots of plants to make up for the oxygen you breathe. Remember that CO2 concentration is extremely small, so even converting all the CO2 in your local atmosphere to oxygen probably wouldn't be noticeable. Most likely the bigger effect is the effect they would have on CO2. But gases diffuse very quickly, so you might need a whole countryside full of plants to have an effect.

 

At night, plants take in oxygen and most of them exhale carbon dioxide (except plants adapted to very arid conditions, which only take in CO2 at night). This increase in CO2 will make you drowsier, which at night really isn't a bad thing.

[dttom]

If the increase in oxygen partial pressure is caused by photosynthesis of a large amount of plant, probably it would spend the partial pressure of carbon dioxide. But carbon dioxide plays a role in stimulating breathing, and this is also why pure oxygen is not applied in securing people from inconsciousness without breating, so probably it has limited advantage on the other hand.

[rogerxd45]

well when i was at the doc the other day they put me on the ;ulse oxygen monitor thing and my O2 was 97-99% so any extra oxygen wouldn't benefit my body since i had about 98% avg. so i guess a 2% increase might help some but not noticeably.