If our body needs oxygen in the air to live. then what the 77% of nitrogen do to our body?

Question

as I was told from early education that the air we currently breathe in contains 21% oxygen and 77-ish% of nitrogen and the rest are other particles.

So I have a dumb question on what the body uses nitrogen we breathe in for?

In: 387

Answer 1

Absolutely nothing. Nitrogen is completely unnecessary for the human body. In fact, deep water divers actively avoid nitrogen since too much nitrogen in the body causes nitrogen narcosis, which causes a drunken-like state. The gas mixes they use usually swap out the nitrogen for another inert gas like helium or argon.