There are times when using the Frolov device makes sense, and times when you should put your energy elsewhere. Because the basics of how the body uses oxygen is understandable, we thought it to be of value to try and explain it here.
To outline the fundamentals of oxygen exchange we will look at one cell, which can also represent the sum total of all our cells. Looking at the actual cell is like looking at the engine in your car instead of looking at the paint and seats.
The cell simply eats sugar and oxygen in a certain proportion. Eating more sugar allows the cell to perform immediately. A cell that needs to perform more consistently over a longer period of time will use less sugar and more oxygen. A cell that is needing to act impulsively gobbles a lot of sugar for a second, then rests for a while. A cell that is working evenly for hours will steadily stream minimal amounts of sugar and oxygen.
During strong exertion cells need a lot of sugar delivered. The actual excitement of the event helps bring sugar to the blood. A very healthy persons actual exertion is proportional to his or her excitement. In other words, it is good for you to have stress during a sporting event in which you are actually exerting yourself. It is also very good for you to be calm at times and only mildly active. Problems happen when, for example, someone is in a chronic state of anticipation as if in a sporting event while sitting down. Their cells would be flooded with sugar that they aren’t eating and would become backed up. Likewise, it would be dangerous to be completely relaxed and suddenly sprint up a hill. Imagine your cells working extremely hard without the nutrition they need to work hard.
The key thing to understand is that when the cell is active, it is eating, and draws food in. Stress represents a more urgent need to perform, so it helps deliver extra sugar to the cells ideally at the same rate they are eating the sugar. When the body is functioning at lower intensity, like when walking as opposed to sprinting, the cell is using oxygen at the same time the stress is low, meaning sugar is not pumped into the cell as much. This sets the stage to develop the oxygen energy system.
Perhaps the most fundamental goal of training would be train both the low intensity oxygen system and the high intensity sugar system. Due to some combination stress, poor nutrition, and sedentary lifestyle, and too much high intensity training, people end up with their cells using they sugar system disproportionally. Let’s look at the natural mechanism whereby the cell knows to take in more oxygen.
If you walked up a small hill, your cells would use more oxygen. They would also need more oxygen delivered, which would have to come from the air. When the cell uses oxygen to burn sugar, carbon dioxide is produced, which is released from the cell into the blood. The carbon dioxide signals the release of more oxygen from the red blood cell. This is the Bohr Effect. As the walking continues, the carbon dioxide builds up more in the blood which has the effect of opening up the lungs, and increasing the breathing rate. The end-result is more oxygen is delivered as more oxygen is needed.
This all works beautifully, but there is a serious limitation to this system. Suppose, for example, you had to suddenly exert yourself, like if you were a firefighter and the bell rang. The time it would take to first move, then produce carbon dioxide, then bring oxygen into your cell would not work. You don’t really have time to warm up. The nervous system can give you a shot of adrenaline, and get your emergency system amped up ahead of time.
In this scenario, you don’t really have time to ease into the firetruck. Instead, huge amounts of sugar are imported from the liver, and the cells suck up the sugar. But you might ask, why would you start breathing faster when you aren’t really using the oxygen system?
Burning sugar without oxygen creates lactic acid. The lactic acid moves into the blood, and some of it can actually be breathed out. Even though not a lot of carbon dioxide is produced in this scenario a lot of acid is produced, and some of that acid is converted to carbon dioxide in the blood.
But what if the bell rings for the fire, the fighter gets all amped up, but never actually gets out of his bed? In this scenario, the hyperventilation based on misinterpretation of the environment creates a low carbon dioxide situation in the blood, and that low carbon dioxide is a partial player in most disease. There are other ways to deal with this situation besides the Frolov device. When the symptoms involve the sinus or lungs, especially if they prevent you from exercising, using the Frolov Device makes sense.
One common theme occurs in people with asthma. They tend to over breathe. Overbreathing lowers carbon dioxide in the blood. This could be very dangerous which is why the body has ways to protect us from too low carbon dioxide.
If you have ever had to blow up a lot of balloons and feel a little strange you can get a sense of this hyperventilation. Another common example is when people get anxious and have to breathe into a paper bag in order not to pass out.
When carbon dioxide is low, there are different protective mechanisms that might kick in depending largely on ones genes. One mechanism involves excess mucous production. If you have nasal drip, especially in the morning, even when you aren’t sick, there is a strong chance you hyperventilate. Another protective mechanism is asthma, which is a constriction of the bronchioles. Often, the hyperventilation is provoked by exercise, eating too much, etc. It could also happen when you are very relaxed. In order to understand this better, lets return to the actual cell and see how it is affected by carbon dioxide.