Wearing a mask, good or bad?

 

 

 

 Wearing a mask, good or bad?

Is wearing a mask protecting you or compromising your immunity??

Everyone is aware that COVID-19 has significantly boosted the use of masks over the past few years. Well, we employ it to safeguard ourselves. You'll be shocked to learn that it also has some negative consequences.

Why do you feel suffocated in a mask, especially in summer?

1. Toxic substances like carbon dioxide and other waste products are expelled by your body. When we wear a mask, they cannot be properly expelled; instead, they adhere to the inside of the mask, causing us to breathe them in, once more.

2. Your mask is not supplying you with enough oxygen as you continue to breathe in and out. There is a reduction in oxygen consumption and an increase in blood carbon dioxide CO2 levels. Resulting in a modest drop in the pH of your blood.

Humans have a blood pH is 7.6 under normal conditions. The enzymes in your body are designed to work perfectly at that pH called optimum pH. Reducing the pH may have an impact like decreased efficiency of enzymes. Enzymes are controlling almost all vital functions of your body including digestion of food, the release of energy from food, protein synthesis, etc. So it is going to have an impact on your whole system. 

What do we exhale?

What is the composition of human breath? All of us are familiar with the carbon dioxide gas released when we exhale, but it's not just this gas. The body needs to get rid of some other toxic chemical substances as well which are the byproducts of many metabolic processes. These are Volatile organic compounds (VOCs). These compounds contain traces of methanol, isoprene, acetone, and other alcohol. It also contains water vapors and some other organic toxic chemicals 

3. During certain conditions of exercise or any sort of workout, the body needs extra oxygen and rapidly gets rid of carbon dioxide and toxic waste. It is recommended not to wear masks while engaged in this sort of activity. 

4. Another very important factor is that, when we wear it, we keep touching it with our hands, as we know the germs are present outside the surface of the mask, so we are touching the germs more often than normal as the solid surfaces can retain the germs on them for up to 72 hours depending on the type of material. Think about it, you are actually carrying the germs with you all the time and are at risk when you touch your mask,

One way to deal with this problem is to exactly know, how long we can use a mask and when to change it.

So in short, we should be wearing masks for their benefit to stop some germs or allergic reactions but you must be well informed to use them for your good, not for some bad outcome. Unfortunately, there is no scientific research-based evidence available that helps us decide, how long we can use a single mask. But I guess it is easy for a person to decide because after 4 to 6 hours, the mask smells different as it is saturated fully with chemicals and germs, so in my opinion, a single mask should not be used for more than 4 hours to be on the safe side.