Oxygen concentration is the amount of oxygen in a system, measured in medicine and the environment. Humans need to breathe frequently as they cannot store much oxygen, while some animals can hold their breath longer. Normal blood oxygen concentration is between 96% and 100%, and hypoxia can be treated with oxygen.
Oxygen concentration refers to the total amount of oxygen in a given system. This term is frequently used both in medicine and in the study of the environment. In medicine, oxygen concentration, also called oxygen saturation, refers to the amount of oxygen that is carried in the blood by red blood cells, as well as what is dissolved in the body’s tissues. In the environment, oxygen saturation can be measured by comparing the percentage of oxygen to the percentage of other molecules in a liquid or gas.
In humans, oxygen is found in three places. It can be retained in the lungs, found dissolved in body tissues, or carried through the blood attached to red blood cells. Humans need to breathe frequently because they are unable to store more than a few minutes of oxygen at any one time. Other animals, such as some aquatic mammals and reptiles, are able to slow down their metabolism and store more oxygen in their bodies so they can hold their breath longer.
Most of the time, a person’s oxygen concentration is between 96% and 100%. In medicine, this percentage is not a comparison of the total amount of oxygen to the total amount of other molecules, but rather a measure of the number of binding sites on red blood cells that are currently occupied by oxygen molecules. Each red blood cell can bind up to four oxygen molecules at a time, and if the blood oxygen saturation is 100%, all of these sites are occupied.
Breathing normally at an atmospheric pressure of 1, which is the pressure found at sea level, will result in a normal blood oxygen concentration in an otherwise healthy person. Hyperventilation can lead to an increase in the amount of oxygen in the tissues and blood, while holding the breath can lead to a decrease. In either case, oxygen saturation can be returned to normal by returning breathing to a normal rate.
Individuals with certain medical conditions may have hypoxia, the state of having too low a blood oxygen concentration. This is often treated by giving pure or 90% pure oxygen for a period of time. A state of hyperoxia can be induced by hyperventilation or the administration of oxygen, but since the body cannot hold large oxygen reserves, this condition will self-correct within minutes after stopping treatment with concentrated oxygen.
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