Now some people say that oxygen may be a chronic poison. How did this view come from?

Theoretically, the ultimate life span of human beings is 1 20 years, but due to pollution and diet, the average life span is only about 77 years. As life on earth, oxygen needs life-sustaining gas, so it is obviously an exaggeration to think of it as poison. However, oxygen is not completely harmless. If the concentration is too high, people will be poisoned and die. Generally, 2% of the oxygen they breathe will become oxidative free radicals, which will promote aging. Therefore, many fruits and vegetables flaunt their antioxidant effects.

In fact, there was no such thing as oxygen on the earliest earth. Its appearance is entirely due to the photosynthesis of a large number of cyanobacteria 2.45 billion years ago. The oxygen they produced destroyed most anaerobic organisms at that time, but it also laid the foundation for later more complex animals and plants.

So far, mankind has not found any gas or other substitutes that can be used by the human body except oxygen. Without oxygen, human beings can't live. So from this perspective, oxygen is the foundation of human survival, not to mention any chronic toxic gas. On the other hand, however, the oxygen that sustains our lives plays a role in human aging. Oxygen free radicals, to be exact.

The survival of human beings depends on air, water and food, among which lack of oxygen is the fastest and most deadly. After oxygen is inhaled into human body, it will participate in various biochemical activities in our body. The most important thing is to oxidize nutrients and provide energy for our bodies. Oxygen also participates in various circulation and metabolic activities. Once lack of oxygen, human organs and tissues will be damaged due to lack of energy. But everything has two sides. Oxygen can oxidize food to produce energy, at the same time, oxygen can also damage normal cells and accelerate the aging of the body. Therefore, it is very important to maintain a certain oxygen concentration in the atmosphere on the earth.

Some studies have analyzed the relationship between human metabolism and aging, and found that the less you eat, the less your metabolism and the slower your aging speed. This is because the metabolic rate is low, the chances of oxygen participating in the reaction are less, and the ROS produced will be less. In the end, the degree of cell damage will be small, and human aging will be slow. Of course, people's aging is caused by multiple factors, and ROS is only one of them, so some people eat less or even don't eat, which is like realizing eternal youth, so we should consider it carefully. However, overeating is definitely healthy.