Eric, I kind of figured that 100% didn’t really mean 100% SaO2. Your explanation of relative verses fractional helps. The importance of that to me is that even if my reading is showing 100% in the breathup, I may still be able to oxygenate myself a little more by continuing the breathup a longer rather than just start the static because of the reading.
What I have found interesting with using the pulse/oximeter regardless if 100% means 98% or 100%, is that how sleep the night before and apnea activity in the preceding days (and sickness) can change my resting SaO2% by 2-3 points which almost always translates into even larger differences at later intervals in the static.
To me this is good info because it verifies the importance sleep and other things have on my physical ability to hold my breath. Although I am still a little confused as to why if resting SaO2 is low for one or more reasons the body just doesn’t regulated the breathing to increase it, like it normally does. For example it seems that if someone were at 95% true SaO2% due to infection, wouldn’t the body be better able to fight the infection at 98%? So why doesn’t the body increase the frequency and depth of breaths to achieve this?
don
What I have found interesting with using the pulse/oximeter regardless if 100% means 98% or 100%, is that how sleep the night before and apnea activity in the preceding days (and sickness) can change my resting SaO2% by 2-3 points which almost always translates into even larger differences at later intervals in the static.
To me this is good info because it verifies the importance sleep and other things have on my physical ability to hold my breath. Although I am still a little confused as to why if resting SaO2 is low for one or more reasons the body just doesn’t regulated the breathing to increase it, like it normally does. For example it seems that if someone were at 95% true SaO2% due to infection, wouldn’t the body be better able to fight the infection at 98%? So why doesn’t the body increase the frequency and depth of breaths to achieve this?
don
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