Excess Oxygen isn’t As Benign as Scientists Thought
We typically perceive oxygen as harmless, even the source of Life, but hyperoxia shows there is such a thing as breathing too much oxygen.
Like many people, I thought oxygen is harmless. After all, it’s everywhere, and most living things on Earth utilize it. But then I saw a post on Reddit a while back that made me look at oxygen from a new perspective. It was a clip of a thread someone started by posing the question:
“What if oxygen is poisonous, and it just takes 75 to 100 years to kill us?”
Remarkably, some commenters said it’s true, so I did a little research and learned that, sure enough, oxygen isn’t as benign as I thought. We all know that too little oxygen hurts us and can even kill us, but now researchers are learning that receiving too much oxygen is also dangerous.
Hyperoxia
You’ve heard of hypoxia — It’s a fancy word for what happens when we receive less oxygen than our body requires. It causes symptoms like bluish skin, cognitive confusion, difficulty breathing, restlessness, rapid heart rate, and even death — aka suffocation.
Hypoxia is well known because it has affected our species — and countless others — probably for…
