What is the best treatment for excess CO2 in the blood?
Are you on hyperbaric O2 therapy? If not, that may be the solution. Hypercapnia, or a high level of carbon dioxide in the blood, is a serious medical condition that can result in permanent damage to internal organs. Carbon dioxide produced by the human body is not a toxin. Carbon dioxide levels in the blood are not dangerous until they reach high levels. This gaseous metabolic byproduct typically exits the body quickly. Once it dissolves into the blood stream, it becomes bicarbonate and is flushed out by the kidneys or carried to the lungs, transformed back into carbon dioxide and exhaled. The same elimination process expels inhaled carbon dioxide. Depending on the severity of the carbon dioxide poisoning, the individual receives oxygen through an oxygen mask, a ventilator or hyperbaric chamber. Hyperbaric chambers pressurize oxygen to twice its normal pressure and force oxygen into the body. This process hastens the removal of carbon dioxide from the bloodstream.
