CO2 Imbalance

Every breath has two movements: inhaling and exhaling, taking in and giving back. What you need, you draw in — the oxygen that keeps your cells alive. What you no longer need, you release — the carbon dioxide that has formed inside your body and wants to return to the world. Simple. Self-evident. So automatic that you normally never give it a second thought.

And yet there are moments when this cycle falls out of balance. You breathe too fast, too shallow, too much — and suddenly your fingers tingle, you feel dizzy, your chest grows tight. Or you breathe too little, too held back, too strained — and the body becomes tired, heavy, dull. Doctors have words for this: hyperventilation, hypocapnia, hypercapnia. Gas regulation disorder. Acid-base drift in the breath.