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
Everyone else has given great answers, but I’d like to give a simple analogy that may make sense.
We all know a car needs gas to run, just like the brain needs oxygen. Deprive an engine of gas, and it will eventually coast to a stop. If you’re in a moving car, and it runs out of gas, you only have a limited time before it stops moving. This is why cars have gas tanks.
The body is similar – divers take a whole lot of deep breaths before they dive, which is similar to a car filling up with gas. And when they dive, they use up the oxygen stored in their blood like a car uses up the gas in its tank.
The blood running out of oxygen is similar to the car running out of gas – once it’s gone, there’s a time limit. For a moving car that means coming to a stop, and for a human that means brain damage.
My dad smoked almost his whole life, starting from a very young age. In his 40s he could hold his breath under water for about 4 or 5 minutes. I’ll be 40 this year, never smoked a single cigarette and can only hold my breath under water for about a minute tops.
Oxygen doesn’t travel faster than the speed of light. It diffuses through your body and takes time.
When you read that people cannot survive more than 4-6 minutes without oxygen, it means just that, zero oxygen in the body for that amount of time. It is also referring to normal situations. You can increase the oxygen level in your body by deep breathing. You can slow the exiting of oxygen from your body by slowing breathing and being very still. With practice you can get up to the numbers you mention. Also, some bodies are better and more suited to doing this feat. There are differences between people who are born and live in higher altitudes to those from lower altitudes.
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