Carbon Dioxide and Nitric Oxide – Essentials of Cardio Care

The father of modern medicine, Paracelsus (1493–1541), made use of carbon dioxide gas for therapeutic purposes, calling it Spiritus Sylvester. Paracelsus was a pioneering figure in the development of early modern medicine and pharmacology. He believed in using natural substances, including gases, minerals, and plants, for healing and treatment. CO2 has a rich study history, showing its ability to enhance circulation, optimize oxygen delivery, and promote healing.

However, medicine hides the power of CO2, which is used quietly in hospitals to make oxygen safe. Just as they hide magnesium, which, when given via injection or intravenously, can prevent death from cardiac arrest, they hide the full power of what carbon dioxide can do for patients.

CO2 is the most powerful way to release armies of oxygen into the cells. It is CO2 that liberates oxygen for healing. It also plays a key role in Nitric Oxide, a crucial gas involved in various physiological processes, including vasodilation, neurotransmission, and immune responses. Its production in the body is intricately linked to carbon dioxide (CO₂) levels, particularly in regulating cerebral blood flow.

Interaction with NO Production:

• Cerebral Blood Flow Regulation: Elevated CO₂ levels (hypercapnia) can stimulate NO production in cerebral endothelial cells, leading to vasodilation and increased cerebral blood flow. This mechanism helps maintain adequate oxygen delivery to the brain during hypercapnic conditions.
• Carbonic Anhydrase Role: Carbonic anhydrase (CA) can catalyze the reaction between nitrite and CO₂, especially under acidic conditions, leading to the non-enzymatic generation of NO. This pathway provides an alternative NO production means, particularly in hypoxic environments.

The endothelium (inner lining of arteries) typically protects against plaque formation by releasing nitric oxide (NO) to maintain blood vessel flexibility. Atherosclerosis, the underlying cause of heart disease and other vascular disorders, is characterized by endothelial dysfunction and a limited capacity to produce nitric oxide. It is a vicious cycle. Diseased arteries cannot generate enough protective nitric oxide, and low nitric oxide levels set the stage for further damage, hypertension, and increased risk of cardiac events.

This explains why nitroglycerin is such an effective therapy for angina. It triggers nitric oxide production, which dilates narrowed coronary arteries, improving circulation and delivering much-needed oxygen to the heart muscle.

Elevated glucose levels can lead to the uncoupling of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), reducing nitric oxide (NO) production, which is crucial for maintaining vascular health. This process increases ROS formation, exacerbating oxidative stress.

Carbogen 5% CO2

Advanced human plaques are hypoxic. Medical scientists have tested the hypothesis that reversing hypoxia in atherosclerotic plaques by breathing carbogen gas will prevent and possibly help reverse atherosclerosis. In many pathophysiological conditions, reduced oxygen tension (hypoxia) is a known stimulus of inflammation, angiogenesis, and apoptosis. Because the same processes drive the progression of atherosclerosis, they investigated whether hypoxia was present in atherosclerosis.

They found that Carbogen restored plaque oxygenation and prevented necrotic core expansion (a significant feature responsible for plaque disruption.) After decades of sluggish progression, such plaques may suddenly cause life-threatening coronary thrombosis, presenting as an acute coronary syndrome. Most often, the culprit morphology is plaque rupture with exposure likely due to accelerated macrophage apoptosis and defective phagocytic clearance efferocytosis.

Carbogen enhances efferocytosis. Thus, plaque hypoxia is causally related to necrotic core expansion. In cell biology, efferocytosis is the process by which phagocytic cells remove apoptotic cells. It can be regarded as the ‘burying of dead cells.’ During efferocytosis, the cell membrane of phagocytic cells engulfs the apoptotic cell, forming a sizeable fluid-filled vesicle containing the dead cell. This ingested cyst is called an efferosome. Coronary atherosclerosis is the most frequent cause of ischemic heart disease, and plaque disruption with superimposed thrombosis is the leading cause of acute coronary syndromes of unstable angina, myocardial infarction, and sudden death.

Research indicates that cerebral vessels respond to changes in CO₂ levels by modulating NO production, thereby regulating blood flow. In a study examining human cerebral endothelial cells and astrocytes under varying CO₂ conditions:

• Hypercapnia (elevated CO₂ levels) led to a significant increase in NO production in endothelial cells, with levels rising by 36% within 8 hours.
• Hypocapnia (reduced CO₂ levels) resulted in a 30% decrease in NO production in endothelial cells over the same period.

These effects were independent of pH changes, suggesting a direct role of CO₂ in modulating NO synthesis.

Mechanisms of Interaction

The interaction between CO₂ and NO production involves several mechanisms:

• Enzymatic Activity: CO₂ levels influence the activity of NOS enzymes, particularly in endothelial cells, affecting NO synthesis.
• Signal Transduction: Changes in CO₂ concentrations can alter intracellular signaling pathways that regulate NOS expression and activity.
• Vascular Response: The modulation of NO production in response to CO₂ levels contributes to the dilation or constriction of cerebral vessels, thereby adjusting blood flow to meet metabolic demands.

Carbon Dioxide for Cardiovascular Care

Knowledge and appreciation of the effects of CO2 on the heart are necessary for optimal clinical management in perioperative and critical care settings because CO2 impacts coronary blood flow and myocardial oxygen supply.

The administration of carbon dioxide (CO₂) has been used for curative purposes for centuries. The first paper investigating the medicinal use of CO₂ was published by Brandi et al. in 1932, and yet over two hundred years ago, a book was written about its use to cure breast cancer.

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) mist, which dissolves CO2 gas in H2O,
improves cardiac function after myocardial infarction (MI)
and increases the concentration of CO2 in the myocardium.

Carbon dioxide is one of the most important gases for life. It is healthy and extremely necessary. Dr. Konstantin Buteyko said, “CO2 is the main source of nutrition for any living matter on Earth. Plants obtain CO2 from the air and provide the main source of nourishment for animals, while both plants and animals are nourishment for us. The great resource of CO2 in the air was formed in pre-historical times when the amount was about 10%.”

According to the Verigo-Bohr effect, we can state
that a CO2 deficit caused by deep breathing
leads to oxygen starvation in the cells of the body.

1904 Danish scientist Christian Bohr noticed that hemoglobin binds oxygen more tightly at high than low pH. This phenomenon is called the Bohr effect. CO2 and bicarbonate, carbon dioxide’s twin sister, are the vital players in the pH balance in cells, blood, and other bodily fluids, meaning CO2 holds the keys to oxygen delivery. If the level of carbon dioxide in the blood is lower than usual, then this leads to difficulties in releasing oxygen from hemoglobin.

Carbon dioxide is a harmless, colorless, non-toxic natural gas that is the key link
in the carbon cycle of life. In the presence of a large amount of carbon dioxide, the
hemoglobin molecule changes its shape slightly in a way that favors the release of oxygen.

In 1940, Y. Henderson’s “Carbon Dioxide” paper in the Encyclopedia of Medicine said, “Before considering these matters, it will be best that the mind be cleared of certain deep-rooted misconceptions that have long opposed the truth and impeded its applications. It will be seen that carbon dioxide is truly the breath of life. Under clinical conditions, low oxygen and low carbon dioxide generally occur together. Therapeutic increase of carbon dioxide, by inhalation of this gas diluted in air, is often an effective means of improving the oxygenation of the blood and tissues.”

Henderson showed that acapnia, a carbon dioxide deficiency in the blood and tissues, may induce acute heart disturbance and peripheral circulation failure. These conditions resemble the functional depression of shock in patients after prolonged anesthesia and significant operations. On the other hand, it was found that if the body’s carbon dioxide content was conserved, patients’ vitality, even under prolonged and extensive operations and trauma, was only slightly depressed.

Having a normal level of CO2 in the lungs and arterial blood (40 mm Hg or about 5.3% at sea level) is imperative for everyday health. Do modern people have normal CO2 levels? When reading the table below, note that levels of CO2 in the lungs are inversely proportional to minute ventilation rates. In other words, the more air one breathes, the lower the level of alveolar CO2.

Dr. Lynne Eldridge and many others have noted that most modern adults breathe much faster (about 15-20 breaths per minute) than what would be considered a healthy respiratory rate. Respiratory rates in cancer and other severely ill patients are usually higher, generally about 20 breaths/min or more. This means the general population is driving down oxygen available to cells, opening the door to increased incidences of cancer. Heavy metal and chemical toxification of the cells further impede oxygen, and nutritional deficiencies are the slam dunk that leads to cancer.

Oxygen availability to cells decreases glucose oxidation, whereas oxygen shortage consumes glucose faster in an attempt to produce ATP via the less efficient anaerobic glycolysis to lactate. This is much of the basis of oxygen therapy in cancer and a full range of other diseases because most chronically ill people if not all, have a hard time with both oxygen and its perfectly mated gas, carbon dioxide. In cancer treatment, this comes with the bonus of stimulating the immune system’s cancer-killer cells.

Carbogen

Carbogen, also called Meduna’s Mixture after its inventor, Ladislas Meduna, is a mixture of carbon dioxide and oxygen gas. A carbogen mixture of 95% oxygen and 5% carbon dioxide can be used as part of the early treatment of central retinal artery occlusion. On this same premise, it has also been proposed to manage sudden sensorineural hearing loss, which can increase the blood flow to the inner ear and possibly relieve the internal auditory artery spasm.

Inhaling CO₂ reduces blood viscosity and enhances cardiac output, cardiac efficiency, tissue perfusion, tissue oxygenation, and respiratory drive.

These are carbon dioxide inhalation devices from two different companies. The second source is here.

I use my CO2 device several times daily with my hydrogen/oxygen inhalation therapy, cyclodextrin suppositories, and daily magnesium supplementation. Not only was I able to avoid stents, a heart attack, or a stroke, but I am on my way to full recovery. Soon, I will restart my Exercise with Oxygen Therapy (EWOT) to safely ram oxygen into my capillaries.

There is a revolution in natural cardiovascular care, and it turns out that almost everyone needs to clean their arteries properly. Ever-increasing toxicity, stress, too much sugar, and being overweight are clogging up arteries, putting hundreds of millions at risk of a heart attack or stroke.