The damage from an oxygen deficit begins in the mitochondria, the energy-producing organelles inside your cells.
They make energy by using the flow of oxygen. Mitochondria turn the air you breathe into energy. They use nutrients and oxygen to make a fuel molecule called ATP that your muscles can burn.
Without oxygen, there's no flow of energy, no spark of life, no ATP for fuel... And no energy for your tissues and organs.
Even if your oxygen levels drop by a few percentage points, your cells start to suffocate.
When this starts to happen, your cells make a fateful decision.
If your cells can't make enough energy with oxygen, they change their metabolism and create energy by fermenting blood sugar.
That's the trigger that turns a cell cancerous.
When cells start getting energy from sugar, you're in trouble...
Sugar is a "dirty fuel" and after a while, normal cell functioning starts to break down. Over time, cells become "zombies" because all they can do is reproduce.
This is how tumors are formed.
The rapid reproduction of cells with low oxygen and a broken metabolism kick-starts the formation and spread of tumors. And it's all downhill from there.