Evolution of Air on Earth: The Nature's Cause of Chronic Diseases
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How is it possible that a human being, one of the smartest species on Earth, can kill itself, and over 90% people die this way, by over-breathing? Is it nature so silly to create this way? In order to answer these questions we need to consider changes in air composition on Earth.
When there were no life on Earth, air has no oxygen (since oxygen is a very reactive substance), while CO2 was a part of the volcanic gases that formed air during those times. Geological studies suggest that CO2 concentration was up to 10-12% or even more. Thus, when the first organic substances and life forms appeared on Earth (from about 5 billion to 1 billion years ago), our atmosphere did not have any measurable amounts of O2, according to Professor Maina (Maina, 1998), who wrote the book The gas exchangers: structure, function, and evolution of the respiratory processes about development of respiration and breathing in various creatures living on Earth in the past and now. He is one of the leading modern authorities on respiration of different life forms.
Appearance of the first vertebrates (about 550 millions years ago) and the development of prototypes of human lungs took place when air was made up of only about 1% O2, while having much higher percentage of CO2 (Maina, 1998), likely over 7%. Normal air today has many times more O2 (about 20%) and only a fraction of the CO2 (0.03%). However, our cells now still live in the air that existed hundred millions years ago: “But the cells of animals and humans need about 7 % CO2 and only 2% O2 in the surrounding environment. This is the way how our cells live: cells of the heart, brain, and kidneys” (Buteyko, 1977).
However heavy was breathing of these primitive creatures in the past, they would still get the main nutrient, CO2, from air, and their CO2 values in the blood and cells were very high. Indeed, the CO2 content in tissues had to be even higher than in outer air (due to own CO2 generation) and these creatures would never develop hypocapnia-induced spasms of blood vessels, bronchi, other smooth muscles, or abnormal excitability of the nerve cells, or muscular tension or any other above-mentioned negative effects which are described in Section Carbon Dioxide Effects. Hence, nature did provided primitive creatures with ability to function without all above-discussed physiological flaws.
However, the main parameter of our environment, our air, had dramatic change during later stages of our evolution due to advance of green life that transforms CO2 into O2 during photosynthesis. These events could be reflected on the following picture.
Fig 1. CO2 and O2 values in air during early stages of development of our lungs, in our cells now and in modern air.
We can see that air had dramatic change during evolution. It now has too much oxygen and almost no CO2. Hence, the chief parameter of our environment (we can survive for days or weeks with no water or food, but only for minutes with no air) became abnormal in its composition. It is only existence of our lungs that protected us from extinction. Nature could not anticipate this cardinal change in air, but it did provide us with the means for survival.
"But why suddenly, is carbon dioxide toxic according to our old ideas, if deficiency of this “poison” causes these sufferings and these terrible abnormalities in the organism?
To answer this question, it is necessary to briefly consider the history and evolution of Earth and life and the atmosphere of our planet. There is no doubt now that life appeared on Earth about 3-4 billion years ago. If we consider the development of Earth during the past 7 billion years, then somewhere in the middle of this period life emerged. The atmosphere then consisted mainly of carbon dioxide and other incompletely oxidized products. It was seemingly entirely toxic in its composition; oxygen was practically absent. Nevertheless, life still appeared in this oxygen-free environment. Oxygen was totally absent. It was only present in compounds, i.e. it was inert. Mainly there were carbon dioxide, methane, hydrogen supplied and incompletely oxidized products. In general, it was the same atmosphere that there is now on Venus, as results of our spaceship missions have shown.
Venus is a younger planet in cosmogenetic development and its atmosphere is similar to the atmosphere on Earth during those times, as we believe, when the life emerged. Our investigations and measurements confirmed that, yes, indeed, the atmosphere on Venus is 90% of carbon dioxide and only about 2% oxygen. That is, theoretical assumptions about the conditions of the origin of life on Earth were brilliantly confirmed by our interplanetary investigations.
Meanwhile, every living thing on Earth is produced from carbon dioxide, and is built on it. We simply do not realize this. As you know, Timiryazev and his school clearly established that plants utilize carbon dioxide from air, by attaching water molecules during the reaction of photosynthesis and releasing oxygen, as the waste product.
*Kliment Arkadyevich Timiryazev (1843-1920): a Russian botanist and physiologist; Professor of the Moscow University; the founder of the Russian school of plant physiology; Honorable Doctor of Cambridge, Geneva and Glasgow Universities; discovered and investigated composition and optical properties of chlorophyll, physical and chemical conditions for photosynthesis (breakdown of carbon dioxide), parameters and spectrum of sunlight that participate in photosynthesis, qualitative relations between consumed energy and generated work during this process; constructed the first greenhouse in 1870s.
Still some other elements are taken from the soil and an organism comes into existence: plants, fruits, and seaweeds. The main source of the life on Earth is carbon dioxide from air. Plants are eaten by animals, and we eat both. This means that we are built due to energy of the Sun from the carbon dioxide of air and water. Therefore carbon dioxide is the main element in the construction of all living things on Earth.
*Above-mentioned Yale Professor Yandell Henderson suggested the following about CO2, “Carbon dioxide is, in fact, a more fundamental component of living matter than is oxygen. Life probably existed on earth for millions of years prior to the carboniferous era, in an atmosphere containing a much larger amount of carbon dioxide than at present. There may even have been a time when there was no free oxygen available in the air…” Henderson Y, Carbon dioxide, in Cyclopedia of Medicine, ed. by HH Young, Philadelphia, FA Davis, 1940.
As plants and animals developed, they started to utilize more carbon dioxide than was produced by volcanoes, geysers, etc. And huge carbon dioxide reserves were eaten up by vegetation and transported underground, under sediment rocks, forming turf, oil, coal, shale, and soil - all of them below the soil covered with cosmic and earthy dust. With the disappearance of carbon dioxide from the air all living things on Earth will die, life will end.
As you can see, the main reserves of carbon dioxide on Earth have been already exhausted only 0.03% remain [in the air]. A minuscule amount! - one/30,000th of the total gas composition of air. And if this amount disappears, then life on Earth will end completely since the plants and man will have nothing to eat. The problem of migration of life to Venus, where huge reserves of carbon and carbon dioxide are present, arises, followed by a migration of people there, when plants and animals will have created the appropriate oxygen concentration.
It is already evident that life on Earth continued with high concentrations of carbon dioxide for billions of years and was built from carbon dioxide. CARBON DIOXIDE is THE MAIN SOURCE OF DEVELOPMENT OF LIVING creatures and an extremely necessary component of the environment for metabolism.
Today’s atmosphere has abruptly changed. There is 21% oxygen in the air, and 0.03% carbon dioxide. It is as if we got scissors and cut off the head of life on Earth." Dr. Buteyko lecture in the Moscow State University on 9 December 1969
Conclusions. Air on Earth had dramatic changes during evolution due to advance of green life forms: greatly decreased CO2 concentrations and drastic increase in O2 percentage. This change resulted in appearance and advance of chronic diseases due to CO2 deficiency or alveolar hypocapnia caused by overbreathing.
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