Low blood oxygen levels
577,047
Published 2022-01-09
Oxygen is an essential element for life and without oxygen, humans can only survive for a few minutes before their vital tissues start suffocating and dying. It is therefore vital that there is adequate oxygen available to the tissues at all times and that there is the ability within the body to match any extra demand with extra supply of oxygen.
The 2 main systems that are responsible for maintaining this balance between supply and demand are the respiratory system and the cardiovascular system.
The respiratory system which consists of the airways and the lungs are responsible for getting air from the atmosphere into the body and loading our blood cells with oxygen and the heart is responsible for pumping that blood around and into our vital organs where the oxygen is unloaded and used by our tissues. If either the lungs or the heart start malfunctioning then our tissues may not get the amount of oxygen that they need and therefore start suffocating and dying.
The term for having less oxygen in the blood which is predominantly a function of the lungs and the blood supply to the lungs is termed hypoxemia.
The term for having less oxygen in the tissues which is a function of the lungs, the heart and the blood vessels supplying those tissues in hypoxia.
Whilst it is reasonable to assume that hypoxemia - less oxygen in the blood will lead to hypoxia, it is important to understand that hypoxemia and hypoxia are not synonymous i.e there are situations where you may have less oxygen in the blood but the tissues may still get the amount of the oxygen that they need. This happens for example with altitude training. Here there is less available oxygen and therefore less oxygen is loaded onto each blood cell but people who have adapted to this will have increased the amount of blood cells and their cardiac output and therefore even though each cell is loaded with less oxygen, there are more cells and therefore the tissues get the amount of blood they need.
All Comments (21)
-
Dr Sanjay last week my divorce was finalized and l haven't slept good in 3yrs and was on a cpac machine. And each night since my divorce l have been sleeping more and last night l got 7hrs of sleep. Hallelujah!!! And l haven't felt any heart pain.. Can't wait to see my cardiologist to tell him the good news. Stress and Abuse can also affect the heart and insomnia. Love listening to you explain about the heart. Blessing to you and your family.
-
Thank you for this informative video. I believe my husband has low Oxygen saturation. For two years he has been unable to walk more than 15 ft without becoming out of breath and his Oxygen levels drop into the 70’s. As soon as he sits down the levels come back to normal above 95% oxygen. I figured this out myself and have not been able to explain it to the doctors. He now has CHF and spent 2 weeks in the hospital because of fluid overload. I tried to explain the problem to the cardiologist at the hospital, but he ignored me. My husband is a 100% disabled vet and the VA tries to care for him, but I fear they are failing him. I fear My husband will pass away before I can get him help. Thanks to this video, I can now explain the problem my husband is having and show them the video. You sir are a god send.
-
Thank you doctor. I've been following you for many years now. You're a gift to humanity🙏🥰
-
This man is the Mr. Rogers of medicine. This is an entire educational show and I love it
-
I am a patient at York Cardiology and have been for a number of years. Dr Gupka is great. I really enjoyed this informative video.
-
Thank you for posting this. I am 80 years old and have been looking for this information for most of my life and now you have finally explained blood pressure in an understandable way.
-
Thank you for a clear refresher. I am a retired critical care RN and everything you said was very easy to understand and an excellent reminder of knowledge I had forgotten.
-
My God. You’re a professor in cardiology, in 14 minutes covered the subject more than 100% with even small details that are unnoticeable ex. Fingernails polish. I really wish my cardiologists would give me even 20% info of during my visits. Thank you prof.
-
That was needed to be told about oxygen meters. Well said. You are the most helpful person. I WISH YOU HEALTH ALWAYS.
-
I've trained myself to breathe deeply through the nose instead of the mouth at all times for higher O2 readings. Thank you doctor for another excellent video.
-
Youre the best cardiologist and very down to earth. Please, keep it up Doc.We appreciate all the information that you have provided us and they' re very useful and applicable on a daily basis. Thank you so much!!!
-
You are a heart doctor with a true heart. Thank you
-
Thank you Dr. Gupta for the informative discussion. As a retired FP Doc I look forward for your talks to keep learning.
-
Thank you more than I can say - your information has helped me understand how and why my life partner (Of 75), died of one of these conditions which the Specialist described as a form of pneumonia. He was falling asleep regularly over the few days before he was admitted, but had no coughing or other distress. She described it as "the old man's gift", and he died peacefully only on oxygen - no ventilator as we had agreed not to have any artificial support. A very clear and understandable explanation - thank you.
-
Wow. Perfect timing. So much confusion about it, and some health care workers do not take the readings seriously. 🙏 😊
-
Thankyou for ending my confusion. My partner was in the throes of a heart attack and whilst waiting for the ambulance, I tested his oxygen saturations, they were 99. I was so confused. He had a thrombus. It s clear now, thankyou.
-
Thank you, Sanjay. The explanations in your videos are immensely helpful. Your integrity and desire/dedication to genuinely help people is inspiring. --Elliott
-
As a heart patient, your information is extremely valuable. Even though my cardiologist is at Mayo Clinic, that doesn't mean they know everything and most are too busy to spend extra time answering "mundane" questions. I end up coming home having to "google" different terminology. You have clarified so much information and you are truly appreciated. Thanks so much for your time and knowledge.
-
It is so interesting to hear you explain everything so well. As a cardiac patient I am grateful for the knowledge that you are providing me that I otherwise would never have the opportunity to learn. Thank you so much. A dedicated student. Jim
-
Thank you for the explanation of difference between hypoxia and hypoxaemia...have never been asked to get out of breath for the definitive reading.
