Tuesday, October 30, 2012

The most important element is...

...oxygen. Not water (which isn't an element anyway), not even glucose, and certainly no vitamin, mineral, or foodie/quack "superfood".

Our bodies are essentially oxygen delivery and utilization systems. We cannot store it so every nanosecond of our lives is dedicated to getting it and using it to create energy. Every cell needs it, every process requires it. Without it death begins within seconds. 

There is no "why", there just is. Homeostasis is basically the situation in which all systems that require oxygen are getting enough. Disease always involves some sort of oxygen delivery or utilization problem.

So, look to the O2. 

Without it there can be no life, but with it we have real power. In a very real sense, the practice of medicine is all about oxygen.

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