And what about people like David Blaine or Tom Sietas? Sietas held his breath underwater for over 22 minutes (world record). I know they train for it like months and even years, but doesn’t holding your breath = no oxygen to brain?
Permanent brain damage apparently occurs just after 4 minutes of lack of oxygen to the brain, so why are freedivers left generally unscathed after 8 or 10 minutes without air?
In: Biology
Free divers do suffer accumulating brain damage even if they don’t black out. Essentially the more they practice the more efficient their bodies become at using oxygen but it does affect some of them negatively.
They will use breathing techniques to improve oxygen utilisation and they will learn to slow their bodies metabolism to use less oxygen.
For some deep dives the pressure can cause blood to enter the lungs and oxygenate them feeding it back to the rest of the body.
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