The invention relates to a ready-to-use binary gaseous mixture containing 63.1 to 69.9% by volume of helium and the remainder being oxygen, preferably a mixture of 65% of helium and of 35% of oxygen, and its use in the treatment of asthma, of obstructive bronchopneumopathies and the like. Such a gaseous mixture can be used as a vector or propellant gas for medicinal aerosols, in particular aerosols containing a therapeutically effective substance chosen from .beta..sub.2 -mimetics, corticoids and anticholinergics.
The disclosure details methods and gas mixtures which are useful for washing nitrogen out of the body and mitochondria following acute cerebrovascular accidents (strokes) and allow the reuptake of oxygen into mitochondria of ischemic tissues following re-flow, thereby reducing the severity of reperfusion damage and cell death.
