Does long-term use of Oxygen Generators Produce Dependence?

Many friends worry that I often use a home oxygen generator for oxygen inhalation, will I become addicted to oxygen inhalation? Especially some elderly friends worry that they will become dependent on oxygen after inhaling oxygen, but it is not good for their health! Here, Deda will give you an analysis of whether you will be addicted and dependent on oxygen, and dispel everyone’s concerns.

Oxygen is not a medicine. It exists in nature and is an element necessary for human survival. When we use a home oxygen machine to inhale oxygen, we only increase the concentration of oxygen we inhale, increase the oxygen content of the arteries, improve our body’s hypoxia, restore or promote the body’s metabolism to a certain extent, and establish an A virtuous cycle and relieve the pain caused by hypoxia.

Even the household oxygen inhalation machine that is used frequently does not depend on oxygen. In medicine, “dependence” is specifically used for drug dependence, also known as: “drug habit” or “drug addiction”, it refers to the use of certain drugs, especially drugs that act on the nervous system to produce mental or (and) Physical dependence on drugs;

Oxygen therapy does not have drugs to enter the human body. Supplementing oxygen directly increases the oxygen content of arterial blood, improves the hypoxic state of the human body, restores and promotes benign circulatory metabolism, and relieves the symptoms of hypoxia pain. Therefore, doctors such as pregnant women and emergency patients may recommend oxygen.

Oxygen inhalation directly increases the oxygen content of arterial blood, which is fundamentally different from taking medicine. People who take oxygen health care will not cause discomfort after stopping oxygen inhalation, but some of the original symptoms may repeat after stopping oxygen inhalation for a long time. Therefore, oxygen inhalation is not dependent.

So in general, long-term oxygen inhalation will not make people addicted and dependent.

In addition, the concentration of oxygen when inhaling oxygen is also emphasized. The higher the oxygen concentration, the better. This concept is wrong. If the oxygen flow is low, the body will respond instinctively, and the central nervous system will automatically take deeper and wider breathing. If high-flow oxygen is used, people’s breathing becomes shallower. However, the long-term lack of oxygen in the body of emphysema patients has carbon dioxide storage. If the breathing is too shallow, carbon dioxide cannot be discharged out of the body, and oxygen cannot be inhaled, which will cause oxygen inhalers to fail to inhale oxygen. Therefore, patients with emphysema need to choose safe hypoxia. Generally speaking, the oxygen flow rate is 1~2 L/min, and it cannot be adjusted to 3~5L/min.

Oxygen is still helpful to the body. Especially the elderly who have breathing problems with the heart and lungs and the young people do not need to inhale oxygen if they have no special problems.

So, when we use the oxygen generator, do we have a real understanding of the oxygen concentration and oxygen flow rate of the oxygen generator?

The oxygen flow rate of the oxygen generator: it represents the oxygen flow rate of the oxygen generator per minute.

At present, there are oxygen generators with different flow rates such as 1L, 3L, 5L, 9L, etc. on the market. The scale indicator that we adjust when inhaling oxygen is the current oxygen flow rate we are inhaling. For example: when you inhale oxygen, adjust the flow indicator to 5L/min, then your current oxygen flow is 5L/min.

The oxygen concentration of the oxygen generator: refers to the oxygen concentration of the oxygen generator.

I don’t know if you have any experience like this. Although we feel that we are short of breath even though we are inhaling oxygen, we will involuntarily increase the oxygen flow, because I feel that only the greater the oxygen flow, the more oxygen we can inhale. In fact, there is no problem with this kind of thinking, but there are many oxygen generators on the market at present, when the oxygen flow is increased, the oxygen concentration will drop. Therefore, the effective oxygen concentration actually inhaled into the lung cannot achieve the therapeutic effect.

As shown in the figure below: When the oxygen flow rate of many oxygen generators is 1L/min, the oxygen concentration can be maintained at 90%; when the oxygen flow rate is adjusted at 2L/min, the oxygen concentration drops to 50%; when the oxygen flow rate is adjusted at 3L/min, the oxygen flow rate It is 40%; when the oxygen flow reaches 5L/min, the oxygen concentration is only 30%.

So, what is the significance of oxygen flow and oxygen concentration for some of our lung disease patients?

For patients with lung diseases that require long-term oxygen inhalation, such an oxygen concentrator whose oxygen concentration decreases as the oxygen flow increases is meaningless.

For example, the most common people who need long-term oxygen inhalation are chronic obstructive pulmonary (COPD) patients. The oxygen concentration in our daily air is 21%. In general, the effective oxygen concentration in the lungs of patients with COPD needs to be 29% to 35% after inhaling oxygen, and it is stable and continuous to have the effect of treating the disease. We have a calculation method. When the nasal oxygen tube is used to inhale oxygen, the effective oxygen concentration of such patients reaching the lung = 21% + 4% × oxygen flow rate of oxygen generator × oxygen concentration of oxygen generator.

If the oxygen concentration of our household oxygen generator is maintained at 90%, in order to ensure a certain effective oxygen concentration reaching the lungs, the oxygen flow of the oxygen generator needs to be maintained at 2 to 4 liters.

Therefore, when we choose an oxygen generator, we need to choose a 5L or 9L large flow oxygen generator. At the same time, it is also necessary to ensure that the oxygen concentration can still be maintained at 90% even when the oxygen flow rate is adjusted to 5L/min.

We have conducted a survey of patients and their families who need long-term oxygen therapy. The survey data shows that about 30% of patients have not implemented long-term home oxygen therapy, 78% of patients have not implemented long-term home oxygen therapy correctly, and many people even choose the wrong oxygen generator. machine.