CO2: Key Nutrient for Mental Health: Natural Sedative and Tranquilizer

Overbreathing or hyperventilation causes CO2 deficiency leading to abnormal
excitability of nerve cells; natural sedative and tranquilizing CO2 effects Apart from 2 vital uses of CO2 for human health (vasodilation and the Bohr effect), there is another crucial application of carbon dioxide for human health. This time we are going to focus on mental health and stability of the nerve cells in relation to accidental signals.

Medical research studies have clearly proven that modern people breathe at rest about 2 times more air than the medical norm (visit Hyperventilation: Present in Over 90% of Normal People with 24 medical publications). The physiological norm for minute ventilation was established about 100 years ago and it was also the norm for ordinary people at those times.

Since modern people breathe about twice more, they have less CO2 in the brains, but carbon dioxide is crucial for stability and normal work of nerves.

CO2 is also called a tranquillizer (or sedative) of nerve cells. Normal CO2 concentrations create conditions for the normal work of the nervous system. While hypocapnia (low CO2 level) is one of the most common breathing disorders in the sick and it naturally leading to anxiety. Let us consider how.

MDs smiling More than five decades ago, one of the world's leading physiological magazines, Physiological Reviews, published an extensive research article, "Physiological effects of hyperventilation". In this article, Dr. Brown (the Department of Physiology at the University of Kansas Medical Center; USA) provided an analysis of almost 300 professional physiological and medical studies. When considering the effects of carbon dioxide deficiency on the nerve cells, he stated, “Studies designed to determine the effects produced by hyperventilation on nerve and muscle have been consistent in their finding on increased irritability” (Brown, 1953). Muscles and nerve cells become abnormally sensitive or irritated.

CO2 model In 1965 the Journal of Physiology (another leading physiological magazine) published the article titled "Cortical CO2 tension and neuronal excitability". It was shown that CO2 has a strong calming effect on excessive excitability of brain areas responsible for thinking (Krnjevic et al, 1965).

In 1988 physiologists from Duke University (Durham, the UK) suggested in their summary, “The brain, by regulating breathing, controls its own excitability” (Balestrino & Somjen, 1988).

Do modern physiologists have different conclusions?

According to a recent study of Finnish scientists from the Laboratory of Neurology of the University of Joensuu, hyperventilation "leads to spontaneous and asynchronous firing of cortical neurons" (Huttunen et. al, 1999). The study was published in the Experimental Brain Research. Note that scientific research studies found that overbreathing is present in 100% of people with chronic disorders (see links with dozens of studies below).

Sick people with health problems Hence, instead of normal perception and stability, which is characterized by objective reflection and analysis of reality, the brain starts to generate its own “spontaneous and asynchronous” ideas, projects, explanations, and interpretations of real events. Moreover, an excited brain can create problems that, in reality, do not exist.

Hence, anxiety, fear, panic attacks, and many other negative emotions and states naturally appear in people who have breathing disorders (breathing problems or difficulties), while CO2 is natural sedative and tranquilizer of nerve cells. It is crucial for stability and normal work of nerves and treatment-prevention of anxiety, stress, insomnia, phobias, and many other mental health problems.

Furthermore, these calmative effects of carbon dioxide can be applied for treatment and prevention of epilepsy seizures and sleep seizures.

What is the impact of breathing on
the perception of the outer world?

Man knocking a door and woman to open it Normal perception requires a calm brain so that our senses and nerve cells can freely transmit correct information for objective analysis. In other words, we need minimal abnormal interference from our nervous system (self-generated signals) during the process of communication and analysis.

Hyperventilation, on the other hand, plays a key role in our immediate reaction to stress or in an emergency situation when our well-being or life is in danger. At such moments we do not need the objective world. We need to save/fight for our lives. Hence our minds need threats, enemies, stress sources or outside problems to deal with.

Sometimes an obvious or visible threat is absent (no enemies or threats are seen). Then the excited brain can invent threats literally from nothing due to “spontaneous and asynchronous firing of cortical neurons” (see above). Hence, when we breathe more, we have a tendency to experience anxiety and search for threats, enemies, problems, etc.

Related web page: Anxiety Breathing Disorders

Reference Web Pages: Breathing norms, Medical Graphs and Tables about Breathing Rates (Minute Ventilation) and Body Oxygen in Healthy, Normal and Sick People
Breathing norms Parameters, graph, and description of the normal breathing pattern
6 breathing myths 6 myths about breathing and body oxygenation (prevalence: over 90%)
Hyperventilation Definitions of hyperventilation: their advantages and weak points
Hyperventilation Syndrome in the Sick. Table 1. Western scientific evidence about prevalence of CHV (chronic hyperventilation) in patients with various chronic conditions (34 medical studies)
Normal Minute Ventilation in Healthy Subjects: Easy and Light Breathing (14 Studies)
Hyperventilation Prevalence Present in Over 90% of Normal People (24 medical publications)
HV and hypoxia How and why deep breathing reduces oxygenation of cells and tissues of all vital organs
Body oxygen test How to measure your own breathing and body oxygenation (a simple DIY test)
Body oxygen in healthy Table 4. CP (body oxygen level) in healthy people (27 medical studies)
Body oxygen in sick Table 5. CP (body oxygen level) in sick people (14 medical studies)
Buteyko Table of Health Zones with clinical description of most common zones
Morning HV Morning hyperventilation effect or how and why critically ill people are most likely to die during early morning hours

References: CO2 Effects Web Pages
Vasodilation: CO2 expands arteries and arterioles facilitating perfusion (or blood supply) to all vital organs
The Bohr effect How and why oxygen is released by red blood cells in tissues
Cell Oxygen Levels and oxygen transport are controlled by alveolar CO2 and breathing
Oxygen Transport depends on breathing and these two effects (Vasoconstriction-Vasodilation and the Bohr effect) are parts of two diagrams that summarize influences of hypocapnia (low CO2 content in the blood and cells) on circulation and O2 delivery
Free Radical Generation takes place due to anaerobic cell respiration caused by cell hypoxia. Hence, antioxidant defenses of the human body are also regulated by CO2 and breathing
Inflammatory Response is controlled by breathing since hypoxia leads to or intensifies chronic inflammation through over-expression of the hypoxia-inducible factor 1, while normal breathing reduces these processes
Nerve stabilization takes place due to calmative or sedative effects of carbon dioxide in neurons or nerve cells
Muscle relaxation or relaxation of muscle cells is normal at high CO2, while hypocapnia causes muscular tension, poor posture and, sometimes, aggression and violence
Brochodilation - dilation of airways (bronchi and bronchioles) by carbon dioxide, and their constriction due to hypocapnia
CO2: Best Natural Cough Suppressant and "home remedy" since it calms urge-to-cough nerve receptors located in the tracheobronchial tree and larynx
Blood pH regulation and regulation of other bodily fluids
CO2: Lung Damage Healer: Elevated carbon dioxide prevents injury and promotes healing of lung tissues
CO2: Skin and Tissue Healer
Synthesis of Glutamine in the Brain, CO2 fixation, and other chemical reactions
CO2 myth "CO2 is a toxic waste gas" myth
Breathing control How is our breathing regulated? Why hypocapnia makes breathing uneven and erratic?

References (CO2: natural or body-made sedative and tranquilizer of nerve cells)

Balestrino M, Somjen GG, Concentration of carbon dioxide, interstitial pH and synaptic transmission in hippocampal formation of the rat, J Physiol 1988, 396: p. 247-266. - “... The brain, by regulating breathing, controls its own excitability...”

Brown EB, Physiological effects of hyperventilation, Physiol Reviews 1953 Oct, 33 (4): p. 445-471. - “Studies designed to determine the effects produced by hyperventilation on nerve and muscle have been consistent in their finding on increased irritability”

Davis H, Pascual W, Rice LH (1928), Quantitative studies of the nerve impulse. Amer. J. Physiol. 86, 706-724.

Huttunen J, Tolvanen H, Heinonen E, Voipio J, Wikstrom H, Ilmoniemi RJ, Hari R, Kaila K, Effects of voluntary hyperventilation on cortical sensory responses. Electroencephalographic and magnetoencephalographic studies, Exp Brain Res 1999, 125(3): p. 248-254. - Hyperventilation ... "leads to spontaneous and asynchronous firing of cortical neurons".

Krnjevic K, Randic M and Siesjo B, Cortical CO₂ tension and neuronal excitability, J of Physiol 1965, 176: p. 105-122. - In section "Changes in membrane resting potentials": "Hypercapnia was associated with an increase in resting potential and the period of falling Pco2, with depolarization..." "Cortical cells are remarkably sensitive to variations in PCo2; even changes of the order of 1-2 mm Hg may be sufficient to produce a clear alteration in their excitability. On the whole, the main effect of hypercapnia is depressant...." "There is general agreement that an increase in Pco2, tends to reduce the excitability of vertebrate nerve fibres (Davis, Pascual & Rice, 1928; Necheles & Gerard, 1930; Lorente de No, 1947) probably by raising the membrane potential (Lorente de No, 1947; Shanes, 1948)."

Lorente DE (1947), A study of nerve physiology. Stud. Rockefeller Inst. med. Res. 131, pp. 148-193.

Necheles H & Gererd RW (1930), The effect of carbon dioxide on nerve, Amer. J. Physiol. 93, 318-336.\

Shanes AM (1948), Metabolic changes of the resting potential in relation to the action of carbon dioxide, Amer. J. Physiol. 153, 93-108.

References (Effects of hypocapnia on neurological symptoms and mental states)

Allen TE, Agus B. (1968) Hyperventilation leading to hallucinations. Am J Psychiatry 1968;125:632-7.

Bonn JA, Readhead CP, Timmons BH. Enhanced adaptive behavioural response in agoraphobic patients pretreated with breathing retraining. Lancet 1982;ii: 665-9.

Garssen B, Van Veenendaal W, Bloemink R. Agoraphobia and the hyperventilation syndrome. Behav Res Ther 1983;21:643-9.

Hibbert GA, Hyperventilation as a cause of panic attacks, Br Med J (Clin Res Ed) 1984 January 28; 288(6413): 263–264.

Ker WJ, Dalton JW, Gliebe PA. Some physical phenomena associated with the anxiety states and their relation to hyperventilation. Ann Intern Med 1937; 2: 962.

Ley R. Agoraphobia, the panic attack and the hyperventilation syndrome. Behav Res Ther 1985; 23: 79-81.

Lum LC. Hyperventilation and anxiety states. JR Soc Med 1981; 74: 1-4.

Magarian G. Hyperventilation syndromes: infrequently recognized common expressions of anxiety and stress. Medicine 1982; 61: 219-336.

Salkovskis PM, Warwick HMC, Clark DM, Wessells DJ. A demonstration of acute hyperventilation during naturally occurring panic attacks. Behav Res Ther 1986; 34: 91-4.

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* Illustrations by Victor Lunn-Rockliffe

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