what does too much oxygen do to your body

Considering COPD is a breathing disorder, most of the symptoms of the disease are caused by non existence able to go enough oxygen when y'all breathe. Nonetheless, there is another, every bit serious animate trouble that COPD patients face, which is non exhaling plenty carbon dioxide (CO2) when they exhale—known equally CO2 retention.

When this happens, it allows backlog carbon dioxide to build up in your blood, which can cause serious symptoms and make it more hard to exhale. Although it is nigh likely to happen to patients suffering from severe COPD, anyone with the disease, especially those using supplemental oxygen, are at risk for CO2 retentivity.

In this mail, we're going to explain how carbon dioxide retention happens and how it affects your health and your COPD. We'll also requite you lot tips on how to avert CO2 retention and how to recognize the signs in instance it ever happens to you.

How Does CO2 Memory Happen?

COPD causes your airways to get narrowed and obstructed, which makes it more hard for air to flow through. This, along with the harm to the air sacs in your lungs, causes the majority of COPD symptoms like coughing, wheezing, and shortness of breath.

Sometimes, the same airway obstacle that makes it hard to inhale plenty oxygen in besides makes it difficult to exhale effectively. And considering yous release carbon dioxide—a waste product—when you breathe, breathing out is but as important every bit breathing in.

How Your Lungs Procedure Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide

Breathing is about maintaining a balance between oxygen and carbon dioxide; you take in oxygen when you inhale, and breathe out carbon dioxide when you exhale. These gases are both carried by your red blood cells, which cart them to and from your lungs.

The first, oxygen, is an important fuel that all the cells in your body need a abiding supply of in society to survive. The other, carbon dioxide, is a waste product product that your torso gets rid of in order to brand room for more oxygen.

When you breathe in, empty-handed red blood cells pick upwards oxygen molecules from your lungs before showtime their journey to carry that oxygen all effectually your whole torso. This commutation betwixt your blood and the oxygen in your lungs happens in the alveoli, or the tiny air sacs in the lungs.

As the oxygen gets used up by the different organs and cells in your body, it gets turned into the waste product production carbon dioxide. Then, the cells paw off this CO2 to empty-handed carmine blood cells in your bloodstream, which and then behave the CO2 back to the air sacs in your lungs.

Then, before you exhale, all of those CO2-carrying scarlet claret cells release their carbon dioxide into your lungs. When you breathe out, you exhale all of that CO2, and the red blood cells, empty-handed one time more, are ready to choice upwardly more oxygen the adjacent time you inhale.

Why COPD Causes CO2 Retention

COPD can disrupt the process described higher up by preventing you from getting rid of enough carbon dioxide when you breathe. It does this in two ways: by destroying the tiny air sacs in your lungs, and by preventing y'all from pushing all of the air out of your lungs when you exhale.

COPD tin make it difficult to breathe out because of airway narrowing, blockage, and other changes in the lungs. This leaves backlog CO2 trapped in your lungs subsequently yous breathe, which takes up infinite that is needed to hold oxygen-rich air when you breathe in.

COPD also amercement and destroys your air sacs, or alveoli, which is where oxygen and carbon dioxide is passed between your blood and the air in your lungs. When you have COPD, there are fewer healthy alveoli and fewer places for this exchange to happen, which makes it difficult to get enough oxygen into your blood and also hard to go plenty CO2 out of your blood and into your lungs.

Over time, equally your COPD progresses and your lung part declines, you may retain more and more carbon dioxide as you breathe. As that excess CO2 builds up in your claret, it causes an imbalance between your blood oxygen and carbon dioxide levels, which tin can crusade serious symptoms and oxygen deprivation.

Co2 retention also happens through a phenomenon known as ventilation-perfusion mismatch. This happens when your trunk gets confused well-nigh which parts of your lungs to prioritize, which reduces the efficiency of gas exchange in your lungs.

Usually, your lungs tuck your blood vessels in such a way that they subtract the corporeality of blood that flows to poorly operation air sacs that have been damaged by COPD. At the same fourth dimension, they increase blood menses to the most healthy alveoli and so they can absorb as much oxygen (and release every bit much carbon dioxide) as possible.

However, this ventilation-perfusion ratio tin can get thrown off, usually because of loftier-flow oxygen therapy, COPD exacerbations, or other COPD symptoms. That causes this blood flow strategy in the lungs to pause downward; less blood flows to the parts of the lungs that part efficiently, and more blood flows through damaged alveoli that are less capable (or completely incapable) of exchanging oxygen and carbon dioxide efficiently.

The outcome is depression claret oxygen levels (hypoxemia) and high blood carbon dioxide levels (hypercapnea) that make information technology more and more difficult to breathe. When balmy, this tin can often be corrected with supplemental oxygen therapy and other COPD medications, however, information technology tin exist caused past improperly-dosed oxygen therapy, as well.

Why CO2 Retentiveness is Dangerous

When also much CO2 is trapped or "retained" in your lungs after you exhale, information technology makes it much harder to breathe. This is partially because oxygen-rich air that enters your lungs when y'all inhale mixes with the leftover CO2, diluting the oxygen concentration of the air in your lungs and making it more difficult for the air sacs to absorb plenty oxygen.

Another problem is that the excess CO2 gets picked upwardly by empty-handed red blood cells and re-absorbed dorsum into your blood. Since reddish claret cells tin merely hold one gas at a fourth dimension, it leaves fewer ruby-red blood cells complimentary to selection up oxygen when you breathe in.

The trouble can get worse every bit more and more than CO2 builds up in your bloodstream, making it harder and harder to absorb oxygen from your lungs. If your claret CO2 gets too high, it'south known as hypercapnea, and it can lead to serious breathing issues and dangerously low levels of oxygen in your blood.

Because of this, the main symptoms of hypercapnea overlap with the symptoms acquired by hypoxemia, which happens when your blood oxygen saturation gets too low. If left untreated for too long, hypercapnea-related hypoxemia tin can cause serious health complications, including respiratory failure and death.

Withal, CO2 retention poses a more immediate risk of making your COPD more than difficult to manage and making symptoms similar coughing, wheezing, and shortness of breath worse. You are more than likely to feel hypercapnea during symptom flare-ups, respiratory illnesses, and COPD exacerbations, just CO2 memory can also happen slowly and gradually over fourth dimension.

In fact, the early on symptoms of CO2 retention may be so mild or non-real that you lot don't notice them until it gets much worse. That's why information technology's important to understand what CO2 retention is, how it happens, and how to recognize it; the sooner you lot realize information technology's happening, the sooner you can seek treatment and get your COPD back under control.

Left unchecked for besides long, CO2 retention deprives your trunk of oxygen, which tin can cause serious health problems like eye illness, pulmonary hypertension, and cognitive dysfunction. If it gets besides bad, severe hypercapnea can crusade respiratory failure, organ harm, and decease.

Respiratory failure happens when you take so much CO2 in your claret that information technology raises your blood's acidity beyond healthy levels. This is a condition known every bit acute respiratory acidosis, and it is is a life-threatening medical emergency.

A less severe form of respiratory acidosis, known as chronic respiratory acidosis, tin happen gradually over time. Information technology does not pose as immediate a risk as astute respiratory acidosis, and, because information technology happens fiddling past little, the body adapts to the blood'southward acidity. This makes the symptoms are subtle, if noticeable at all.

If you have COPD and are worried most CO2 retentivity, hypercapnea, or chronic respiratory acidosis, then inquire your doctor to take another await at your blood oxygen, CO2 levels, and your lung function tests (he should already do this at your regular appointments). Always tell your doctor about any new symptoms yous have, even if they are mild, and don't be agape to hash out any concerns yous have most your health.

The Symptoms of CO2 Memory and Hypercapnea

The first symptoms of CO2 retention or hypercapnea are unremarkably headaches, breathlessness, drowsiness, and lack of energy. These symptoms happen considering you lot can't absorb plenty oxygen and your claret oxygen saturation gets low.

As it gets worse, hypercapnea can cause difficulty thinking and concentrating, confusion, and musculus twitches. In serious cases, it can crusade severe oxygen deprivation which leads to swelling in the hands and feet (edema), a bluish tint to the skin (specially fingers and lips), seizures, coma, respiratory failure, and death.

Here is a list of some of the full general symptoms of CO2 retention:

• Balmy headaches
• Feelings of drowsiness, fogginess, or sleepiness
• Lack of energy or fatigue
• Inability to focus or call up directly
• Feeling lightheaded or disoriented
• Shortness of breath

Here is a list of the more astringent symptoms of hypercapnea:

• Unexplained defoliation
• Abnormal muscle twitching
• Abnormal depression or paranoia
• Irregular heartbeat
• Bluish tint to the peel and lips
• Swollen hands and feet (edema)
• Hyperventilation
• Seizures
• Loss of consciousness

These symptoms tin occur chop-chop or happen gradually over time. If you experience mild symptoms for more than a couple of days, then you should schedule an appointment to see your md. If your symptoms are severe, then you should seek medical attention at an emergency room immediately.

Causes of CO2 Retentivity for People with COPD

Every bit nosotros discussed, CO2 retentiveness is often caused by airway obstacle, damaged lung tissue, and ventilation-perfusion mismatch in the lungs. However, in that location are a variety of other things that tin make CO2 retentiveness worse.

Oxygen Therapy

A common cause of CO2 retention is supplemental oxygen therapy. If your oxygen dosage is wrong or you lot get besides much oxygen for any other reason, it tin cause as well much CO2 to build upwardly in your blood.

This happens because, when you get backlog oxygen with every breath, it can cause red blood cells to drib carbon dioxide to pick up oxygen instead. As a result, the dropped CO2 dissolves into your blood instead of getting released into your lungs for expulsion.

This dramatically throws off the rest of oxygen and carbon dioxide substitution in your lungs, causing more and more CO2 to build up in your bloodstream. In this way, portable or home oxygen therapy tin brand CO2 retention much worse and cause hypercapnea when prescribed or used incorrectly.

Some other mode that oxygen therapy can worsen CO2 retention is by causing ventilation-perfusion mismatch. Although researchers aren't sure exactly why, this happens when y'all go more oxygen at a fourth dimension than what you really need.

The best manner to avoid oxygen therapy-induced CO2 retention is to follow your oxygen prescription exactly. To reduce the chances of hypercapnea, your doctor should prescribe you plenty oxygen to keep your blood oxygen saturation at about xc percentage, but non much higher.

If you are worried well-nigh CO2 retentiveness, you can always have your medico check to make sure your period rate is adapted correctly and that you lot are using your equipment properly. So, it's up to you to follow your doc'south instructions and only apply your oxygen equally often as your dr. recommends.

Emphysema

Severe emphysema is another major cause of CO2 retentiveness in people with COPD. Emphysema causes your lungs to become enlarged and less stretchy (a condition known as lung hyperinflation), which makes it more difficult to push all of the air out of your lungs when you exhale.

Lungs with emphysema tend to trap lots of air, which makes it difficult to exhale and absorb enough oxygen as well as expel enough CO2. This puts patients with emphysema at an increased risk of hypercapnea, especially during heavy exercise, which forces your lungs to get rid of fifty-fifty more than CO2.

That's why doctors recommend breathing exercises similar pursed-lips breathing and diaphragmic breathing to help you train yourself how to empty your lungs more completely when y'all exhale. These tin can be specially helpful during practice and physical activity to reduce and prevent shortness of jiff.

It is also of import to follow your COPD treatment plan advisedly to minimize your symptoms. The better you go along your symptoms and breathing under control, the amend you can forbid air from getting trapped in your lungs, reduce hyperinflation, and preclude hypercapnea.

Some patients with astringent emphysema may exist eligible for lung reduction surgery if their lungs are significantly enlarged. By reducing the book of the lungs, the surgery makes information technology easier to push all the air out when you breathe, preventing CO2 retention and making it easier to breathe.

To learn more virtually animate exercises yous tin can practice to improve your COPD, encounter our previous article on COPD breathing techniques hither.

Eating Too Many Carbohydrates

Believe it or not, the foods that you eat can have a pregnant upshot on CO2 retention in your lungs. That's because, whenever your body digests nutrient, information technology turns it into two main things: energy, and carbon dioxide waste.

The carbon dioxide waste matter has to exist candy through your lungs then that y'all tin exhale it out of your body. Some foods, still, create extra carbon dioxide waste material that puts unnecessary strain on your lungs.

The principal culprits for this are foods loftier in carbohydrates, which create more CO2 waste than other foods when your body breaks them downward. When you have COPD and your lungs are already struggling to role efficiently, this excess CO2 can be enough to tip the rest in your lungs and cause you lot to retain besides much CO2.

Considering of this, doctors often recommend that people with COPD limit the amount of carbohydrates in their diets. That includes grains, pastas, breads, and peculiarly simple sugars and processed foods high in carbs.

While a certain amount of carbs are yet salubrious, you should endeavor to limit yourself to good for you sources of complex carbohydrates and be careful not to eat more than yous need. Instead, supplant carbohydrates in your diet with more foods that are high in lean protein and healthy fats.

According to Usa dietary guidelines for older adults, you should eat about 5-7 ounces of grains every day, at least one-half of which should come up from whole-grain sources. However, information technology is easy to exceed this amount if you eat a lot of breads, pastas, cereals, or processed foods.

Shallow Animate

When you take too curt or too shallow of breaths, your lungs have a hard time getting rid of plenty CO2. That's why it's important to keep your breathing nether control and exercise breathing exercises if y'all have COPD.

Many COPD patients tend to take more shallow breaths whenever they feel like they're having trouble breathing, such every bit during bouts of breathlessness or coughing. Unfortunately, that just makes the problem worse by making it easier for air and CO2 to stay trapped in your lungs.

This happens considering shallow breathing only uses the upper function of your lungs, which is why it is sometimes referred to equally "top breathing." As a outcome, stale air stays in the lower parts of your lungs, which leads to CO2 retention and makes it harder to breathe.

You can counteract this, all the same, past practicing breathing exercises in your spare time and remembering to use them when you feel brusk of breath. Exercises like diaphragmic breathing and pursed-lips breathing are peculiarly helpful for training yourself to have deep, total breaths and push all the air out of your lungs when you exhale.

Information technology also helps to strengthen your breathing muscles, which you tin too do with aerobic practise, wind instruments, and other forms of physical activity. Yous can even join special COPD do and therapy classes designed to aid you ameliorate your animate, including pulmonary rehabilitation and music therapy courses.

Decision

COPD is a complicated breathing disorder that can lead to a variety of unlike symptoms and health complications. Considering of the complex nature of the disease, many patients struggle to understand how their blood oxygen levels, claret CO2 levels, and their symptoms are all connected.

Hopefully, after reading this article, y'all accept a improve understanding of how your lungs role and how CO2 retention works. You should also be better able to recognize the signs of hypercapnea and how to protect yourself from factors that put y'all at risk.

If you utilize supplemental oxygen therapy, information technology's especially important to know the symptoms of CO2 retentivity and the dangers of getting besides much oxygen. If you grab the early on signs, you can work with your physician to adjust your oxygen delivery before it causes whatever serious problems. Information technology'southward important to fully understand oxygen therapy benefits and oxygen therapy side furnishings earlier yous get started.

COPD is sometimes a hard disease to manage, simply with the right cognition, a good handling plan, and the support of a good medical squad, you can successfully go along your symptoms and CO2 retention under control. That'south why it's important to learn everything you can about COPD and what you can do to keep your lungs every bit salubrious equally possible.

Topics: COPD, Medication and Handling, Respiratory Resource Center, Tips and Hacks, diet, portable oxygen concentrator, oxygen therapy

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Source: https://blog.lptmedical.com/copd-and-co2-retention-what-you-need-to-know

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