EWOT Research

The Science Behind EWOT And Why Oxygen Training Is So Important To Life

The greatest volume of purely scientific research into Exercise With Oxygen Training (EWOT) has been generated by Dr. Von Ardenne (1907 to 1997 ) a German Prize Winner whose “Multi-Step Oxygen Therapy” is still a mainstream medical practice in Germany today.

Following on from a fellow German scientist, and Nobel Prize Laureate, Dr. Otto Warburg (1883 to 1970 ), who postulated that the root cause of all cancer is the “insult” to cells so that they become purely anaerobic, that is, use glucose by fermentation, rather than cellular respiration. His rather short hypothesis was: “Cancer, above all other diseases, has countless secondary causes. But, even for cancer, there is only one primary cause. Summarized in a few words, the prime cause of cancer is the replacement of the respiration of oxygen in normal body cells by the fermentation of sugar”.

Fermentation is the process of glycolysis. In glycolysis, glucose (a six carbon sugar) is split into two molecules of a three-carbon sugar. Glycolysis yields two molecules of ATP (free energy containing molecule), two molecules of pyruvic acid and two “high energy” electron carrying molecules of NADH.

Normally, when oxygen is present, the pyruvate molecules continue through the process of cellular respiration, which produces much larger amounts of energy (ATP), and the NADH eventually reforms into new glucose. However, Warburg found that with these compromised cells, the pyruvate and NADH combined to produce lactic acid and a free Hydrogen ion, H+ (this is the normal process when high intensity exercise goes above and beyond the speed that aerobic respiration can keep up with).

This H+ ion, and in the amounts produced by the malfunctioning cells, turn the cellular environment highly acidic. With our high intensity exercise example, the heart rate rises and breathing rate increases, delivering a greater blood flow to the working cells and a higher level of oxygen – eventually the aerobic respiration catches up. However, in the compromised cells there is no urgency for the heart rate to increase, and therefore no increase of blood flow or of oxygen delivery.

Many forms of illness, dis-ease, and ageing effects, are found in anaerobic conditions, and/or in conditions of high acidity. Dr Otto Warburg was a leading scientist whose work, very early on, demonstrated that the basis of all dis-ease is the lack of oxygen and proper oxidative processes within the cells, and the resulting acidity of the cellular environment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Heinrich_Warburg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warburg_hypothesis

You can read Dr Otto Warburg’s Nobel Lecture here.

In Dr Von Ardenne’s breakthrough work, “Oxygen Multistep Therapy – Physiological and Technical Foundations” he references Dr Otto Warburg’s research and, indeed, Von Ardenne and Warburg appeared to have frequently exchanged ideas. Von Ardenne said of Warburg’s main hypothesis that “such a comprehensive biological basic truth is contained in this short theorem”.

Oxygen is basic to life, and is basic to the healthy state of that life. Lack of (or deficiency) of oxygen, damages life.

Von Ardenne states that “the generic term, “O2 deficiency”, can be defined as the combined or individual effect of critically reduced O2 transport to the tissues, critically reduced O2 utilization of the tissues, and critically increased O2 requirements of the tissues”.

In “Oxygen Multistep Therapy” Von Ardenne delivers various methods, studies, and clinical trials, for his Multistep model, across the application of the system to various illnesses and disease conditions. This large and very significant publication can be viewed online here, and purchased by the enthusiasts here.

Without going into all the variations and depths of Von Ardenne’s research in this article, we can easily summarise the key concepts so that readers can get a grasp of why EWOT is so important for health, well-being, anti-ageing, and even in the realm of sports, music, and other performance activities.

Increasing the amount (%) of oxygen in our lungs increases the PAO2 (the pressure of oxygen in the alveoli of the lungs) which forces more oxygen to transfer to the blood. Red blood cells can only carry so much oxygen, so the rest is permeated into the blood serum. It is this blood serum oxygen that delivers a great deal of the benefits of EWOT.

Exercise increases the arterial pressure of oxygen, PaO2, by the actions of increased respiration, elevated heart rate and the resulting increased blood circulation. (In Von Ardenne’s research, incapacitated patients’ had their heart rate and breathing rate artificially increased, to increase PaO2, by the use of drugs).

This increase in PaO2 significantly improves the rate of cellular uptake of oxygen. Exercise is well known for its health benefits. When we worked more physically there were a lot less degenerative health problems in general. The more sedentary we become, the more issues we have. There is a direct relationship between exercise and oxygen getting into the tissues, and a direct relationship between this better utilization of oxygen and our health. Add higher PAO2 (alveolar O2 pressure) and even more O2 is available via the serum to tissues, and here is where Von Ardenne’s research hits it straps.

More recently, in mainstream medicine and sports medicine, the benefits of hyperbaric therapies have been very well researched, while EWOT has been more marginalised. One of the major reasons for this is because most EWOT systems simply do not deliver enough oxygen to be of any real use in exercise. However, EWOT Australia’s breakthrough system is able to deliver 50 times the amount of O2 to the tissues than comparable hyperbaric therapies.

Hyperbaric therapies require strict medical control and can only be performed in specialist practices and medical facilities. It is also not very cost effective. Each hyperbaric chamber costs in the tens of thousands of dollars and, of course they are not generally available to the public to purchase! In comparison, EWOT is very safe, can be used in your own home, and doesn’t require any specialist supervision. Every one of the well researched benefits of hyperbaric therapy for health and recovery from injury can be reproduced with EWOT. Click through here to learn more about the hyperbaric therapy research and uses.

Please feel free to delve deeper into the science of EWOT research by following the links below:

Read more on EWOT and Health.

Read more on EWOT and Anti-Aging.

Read more on EWOT and Fitness.

Read more on EWOT and Elite Performance.