Carbon monoxide connects with red blood cells, stealing oxygen from your body it requires to thrive. It combines with these cells nearly 200 times more easily than oxygen, creating a condition known as carboxyhemoglobin saturation.
Carbon monoxide, on lieu of oxygen, then gets taken to the essential organs through the bloodstream. To put it simply, carbon monoxide starves your body of oxygen. Organs need oxygen; when they don’t have it, they begin to suffocate.
It takes your body a long time to eradicate carbon monoxide; however, it can be absorbed much more rapidly.