Niraj NaikFounder & CEO of SOMA Breath | Music-Powered Breathwork Pioneer | DJ, Speaker & Author

What is the lowest SpO₂ level we can reach and still be safe?

26 Sept 2019 · 2 min

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1:54

Short excerpt from a YouTube video by Niraj Naik discussing how SpO₂ (blood oxygen saturation) falls during a 'soma journey'—rhythmic breathing plus breath retention—and distinguishing intermittent hypoxia (short-term low blood oxygen during these exercises) from chronic hypoxemia. Naik claims SpO₂ can drop below 50% transiently without tissue harm and frames this as a potentially beneficial positive stress response.

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So how low can you really go with your SpO2, your oxygen saturation of your blood during a soma journey? Now, a soma journey consists of rhythmic breathing followed by breath retention over a period of time and several cycles. During this, you may find that you can go really deep with your SPO readings going even below 50%. Now, in normal day to day life, if your reading is below 90% and it's consistently below 90%, this is a sign that you have something called hypoxinemia, which means that you are suffering from lower than normal oxygen. This can lead to the problems of chronic hypoxia, which means that you get high blood pressure, you get all these problems where your organs aren't receiving enough oxygen. You, you can get cell degeneration. However, because we are doing it for a short period of time, that is called intermittent hypoxia. And you can actually go very low. You can go below even 50% without any harm being caused. Because what we're reading here is the blood saturation of oxygen, not the saturation in your tissues, which is the cells of your organs. So when you actually lower the oxygen in your bloodstream for a short period of time, you actually still have oxygen in your cells. Okay? The carbon monoxide builds up and then you're going to really feel inertia. Breathe. After that, oxygen in your cell starts to run out. However, that's just for such a short period of time because you quickly take an inhale again, that it's going to have no negative effects whatsoever. It can only have positive effects just due to the fact that we stimulate intermittent hypoxia and that positive stress response.