How to Increase Blood Oxygen Levels - Welltory (2024)

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Your blood oxygen level indicates how much oxygen is in your blood. When you breathe, oxygen enters the bloodstream. Red blood cells then carry it throughout the body, fueling every cell and system, from the brain to the digestive tract. Maintaining the right level of blood oxygen saturation is essential for overall functioning and health. A low blood-oxygen level could signal a serious medical condition.

Deep, slow breathing opens the airways and allows the body to take in more oxygen. With time, intentional breathing practices can also improve lung capacity by helping the lungs work more effectively.Pursed lip breathing and deep belly breathingare two techniques experts frequently recommend to increase oxygen levels.

Pursed lip breathing may be easier for beginners. To do it, inhale slowly through the nose and purse your lips as if you were about to blow out a candle. Exhale very slowly through your pursed lips and repeat.

To practice deep breathing, or diaphragmatic breathing, first sit or lie down and relax your shoulders. Place one hand on your belly and the other on your chest. Inhale through the nose for two seconds, noticing as the air moves through your abdomen. Exhale for two seconds through pursed lips while pressing your stomach, and repeat.

Cigarettes contain carbon monoxide, which binds to hemoglobin in red blood cells and blocks oxygen from doing the same. Thisreduces the amount of available oxygenin the bloodstream.

For current smokers, quitting is one of the best ways to increase oxygen levels. Most people’scirculation significantly improveswithin two or three weeks of quitting. And within one to nine months, wheezing and shortness of breath – common side effects of smoking – diminishes as the lungs work more effectively. These factors combined can raise oxygen levels.

Iron is essential because it helps the body create hemoglobin, a protein that helps red blood cells carry oxygen through the body. If you don’t consume enough iron, the body can’t produce enough red blood cells, and your blood oxygen level will decrease. According to the FDA, most adults need18mg per day.

Meat, seafood, and eggs are high in iron. So are several plants andplant-based foodssuch asbeans; peas; tofu; dark, leafy greens like spinach and kale; fortified cereals, bread, and pasta; and dried fruits, like prunes and raisins.

Drinking water is crucial to maintaining circulation and helping nutrients, including oxygen, move through the body. If you don’t have enough water – dehydration – issues likehypotension and lactic acid buildupcan occur and potentially affect your breathing ability. Drinking water also helps to thin the lungs’ mucus lining,preventing harmful buildupsand enabling the lungs to work more effectively.

How much water you need depends on factors like your body composition, environment, and activity level. But most men need about 15.5 cups (3.7 liters) of fluid per day, and most women need around 11.5 cups (2.7 liters), according to theU.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Generally, about20% of your daily intake will come from foods, including fruits and vegetables, while the rest will come from drinks.

Welltory can’t measure your blood oxygen levels. But it can provide valuable insights to help you make sense of your results, determine what factors affect your SpO2 levels, and track changes over time. Welltory also assesses SpO2 alongside other metrics, like heart rate variability (HRV). This provides a clearer, more complete picture of your health.

Before you take your SpO2 level with a pulse oximeter device, smartwatch, or fitness tracker, connect it to Apple Health, Google Fit, or Samsung Health. You can also enter your data manually into the aggregator. Then, go to Welltory and connect it with your wearable device, like Google Fit or Apple Health, and grant Welltory data access.

After taking your reading, you’ll find detailed charts in the Welltory app under the Health tab in My data.

Your blood oxygen level is a crucial indicator of how well your lungs are functioning. It can also tell a lot about how different habits and circ*mstances – like exercise, diet, and environment — affect your overall health and well-being.

With Welltory and a wearable device, it’s easy to measure and track your SpO2 levels to ensure your body is operating optimally. If your levels are lower than you’d like and you’re wondering how to get more oxygen in your blood, there are several possibilities. As you go through the list above, use Welltory to keep an eye on how your SpO2 level changes (or not). If one technique isn’t working, try another instead. Finding an effective way to improve blood oxygen levels might take some trial and error. But if your blood oxygen levels are consistently low or drop significantly, talk to your doctor, as this could be a symptom or sign of a serious underlying condition.