Oxygen Saturation

[retard]

Is a 99% oxygen saturation reading bad? Does that indicate hypoxia?

[TheSir]

@retard it might indicate slight hyperventilation, which in turn can lead to cellular hypoxia. I have seen most have 98% saturation at rest when relaxed.

[yerrag]

@retard At best it means the lungs take in oxygen well so there is no shortage of oxygen that the blood carries, or hypoxemia. But it could also mean that because of low CO2 in blood, the blood cannot release oxygen to the tissues readily. Hypoxia, or low tissue oxygenation is the result, and if this were the case, sugar metabolism will increasingly use the glycolytic pathway instead of the oxidative mitochondrial pathway. More lactic lactic instead is a product of the anaerobic glycolysis, while carbon dioxide is produced from oxidative mitochondrial metabolism. Since the body produces little CO2 to aid in enable good tissue oxygenation, the condition of hypoxia will be perpetuated in a vicious cycle.

Steps can be taken to stop this vicious cycle temporarily, on the way to permanently turning it into a virtuous cycle where CO2 instead of lactic acid is the main sugar metabolic pathway is used by the body to produce energy.

Then you could start seeing lower oxygen saturation showing and correctly see it as a good thing. There are tests you can do yourself to increase the confidence in assessing your metabolic health in this regard.

[annis]

I heard somewhere, probably on a Danny Roddy/Georgi Dinkov podcast, that something lower, perhaps it was 92-95%, is preferable because it indicates better CO2 levels. Only elite athletes get to 92% however. Sorry I can't locate the source.