Weight Loss, Dieting & ObesityAnother WebTrev.Com Health Services specialist sub-site. |
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What About Oxygen Therapy for Weight Loss? - Part OneThe chemistry sounds very straightforward. Human body fat is a combination of three elements - hydrogen, carbon and oxygen molecules (plus other substances that are stored within the fat cells). Add extra oxygen to the body fat, and in theory it should break down into two well known substances:
Oxygen or Ozone Therapies are used by a number of alternative medicine practitioners around the world. It is more popular in Europe than in the USA. Practitioners are also found in Canada and Mexico. Despite being banned in some countries and certainly debunked by large sections of the "conventional" medical profession (read: drug therapists trained and influenced by multinational pharmaceutical manufacturers whose patent-lead approach to medicine finds low cost natural therapies a threat to their multi billion dollar per annum profit base), there is plenty of evidence that oxygen therapy produces health benefits for many conditions far cheaper, much faster and without the side effects of patent drugs. Oxygen therapy is usually administered in one of two ways:
Given the straightforward chemical composition of body fat discussed above, does Oxygen Therapy actually work for weight loss? I decided to contact a number of practitioners in various parts of the world and ask them if, when treating patients for other ailments using oxygen therapies, weight loss was ever seen as a side-effect of their treatment. All the doctors who replied responded that no such weight loss factor has ever been observed that they could credit to the oxygen therapy itself, and not the condition they were treating. It seems there is no empirical evidence to support the theory that oxygen therapy could reduce body fat into the easily excreted H2O and CO2. Still, not everyone is convinced - and nor am I. The chemistry appears fine on paper, so something is missing in the implementation. Finding that missing factor could be crucial in the battle of the bulge, the quest for weight loss, and conquering obesity. Books have been written promoting special breathing techniques for weight loss. Although there are sceptics, there are also many people around the world who swear by the success they have achieved in losing weight via these breathing techniques. It doesn't take a book to explain. Go outside into an open area with clean air (away from car fumes and other obvious pollutants). Stand with your legs apart and hands on your hips. Take a deep breath through your nose, as deep as possible, filling your lungs with air (which at sea level is approximately 21% oxygen in most places - lower in congested cities, higher in the middle of a forest). Then, through your mouth, breath it out. Breath it all out, thoroughly emptying your lungs all you can - to the point of discomfort. You usually find yourself buckling at the waist to expel every last bit of air in your lungs and may even end with a cough the first few times. Repeat this process for 15 to 20 minutes. Do it each morning, and each evening. (That summary just saved you spending $30 or so on a book.) The theory behind that breathing technique is not merely due to the intake of the oxygen, but the human body's metabolic process expels waste matter, including carbon dioxide, when we breath out. Our air intake is higher in oxygen than what we expire, and we breath out more carbon dioxide than we breath in. The breathing technique therefore seeks to encourage and maximize the expulsion of carbon dioxide from our bodies - carbon dioxide that is the waste matter created when the oxygen dissolves body fat. The technique has its critics, as can be expected with anything that produces health benefits without lining the pockets of the medical and pharmaceutical industries. Personally, I must admit to being impressed though not thoroughly convinced. It is quite reasonable to assume that the people who are disciplined enough to follow this breathing technique diligently for several weeks or months are probably motivated enough to also be doing other things (dietary, psychologically, etc.) that will be causing the weight loss. Still, it fits the basic (unproven) theory that somehow adding oxygen to body fat should result in weight loss. Furthermore, it is harmless. Whether the actual results are from the technique itself or of a more psychosomatic nature is immaterial if it works, is free and available to all, and has no adverse side effects. By all means, add this breathing technique to your overall toolbox of weight loss treatments. Still, there is one more form of oxygen therapy (not usually recognized as such) that even the sceptics would have trouble disputing. It is more commonly called exercise. More accurately, aerobic exercise. (Aerobic simply means "air breathing".) It is exercise that makes you huff and puff, deepening your breathing and accordingly raising your oxygen intake. Aerobic exercise is and always has been one of the two most fundamental parts of the weight loss "formula". |
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