Low Oxygen Levels: How Low is Too Low and Should You Worry?
September 11, 2008 by Carrie Tucker
Filed under Asthma, Breath Building, COPD- Lung Disease, Diagnostics, Heart Failure, Oxygen, Sleep Apnea
Low oxygen levels will rob you of your eye sight, short term memory, and your energy. Eventually low oxygen levels will weaken your heart muscle.
Read that last sentence again. It is that important.
So tell me, why is it that online resources for heart failure, and for that matter, chronic lung disease all but ignore low oxygen levels?
If you know of any “how low is too low” information online, please let us know where you found it. Heart Failure Solutions is eager to work with any like minded sites to spread awareness about just how effective supplemental oxygen is.
So how low IS too low?
7 Facts to Remember About Blood Oxygen Saturation Levels
1. When oxygen saturation levels fall below 92%, the pressure of the oxygen in your blood is too low to penetrate the walls of the red blood cells. It is a matter of gas laws.
2. Your insurance company will not pay for oxygen unless your levels fall to 88% oxygen saturation. This has nothing to do with what is best for you, it is just the point at which your insurance is willing to pay.
3. Every time your oxygen level falls below 92% saturation the cells of your body are oxygen starved.
4. When you fail to meet your oxygen needs, every organ in your body suffers the consequences.
5. Low oxygen levels may be present only at certain times.
- when retaining excessive fluid
- when airways are reacting to pollutants
- with respiratory illness
- sleep apnea
- about 3:00am when you wake gasping for air
- with activity when the heart muscle has become weak, though isn’t technically “congestive heart failure”…..yet
6. Recurring low oxygen levels are harmful and should be treated with supplemental oxygen.
7. The problem is that your doctor may not witness your oxygen levels at 88%, and if he doesn’t see that reading on an oxygen meter (oximeter), then most insurance companies will not pay for it, and therefore doctors don’t order it.