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
There’s a super interesting video for this. If you’ve got an hour to spare I highly recommend you check out James Nestor. https://youtu.be/aH9boP9pksM
Your blood has oxygen in it.
Tonight’s homework, one page, double spaced about hemoglobin
They breathe funny before diving to oxygenate their blood to an extreme level.
In other words they take some extra oxygen with them, bound to red blood cells, and have trained to use it sparingly.
Also 4-6 minutes is like most of those sort of specs, just an average, not a rule.
In the simplest explanation: Holding your breath does NOT mean no oxygen to brain.
Oxygen doesn’t suddenly stop being transported to your brain just because you held your breath. Oxygen is held by the blood and transported to your brain. This is ongoing even when you hold your breath, it takes some time before all the stored oxygen in your blood is used up when you stop breathing and stop restoring oxygen to the blood.
Oxygen is transported to the brain through the blood. You suffer brain damage after there is NO oxygen being transported to it – which means all the oxygen stored in the blood has been used up. How much oxygen your blood is able to store and long it takes for your body to finish using all the stored oxygen is what affects how long you can hold your breath safely.
People train to be able to store more oxygen in their blood, and also use oxygen slower.
People who can hold their breath for 10+ minutes basically means the oxygen supply in their blood is enough for their brain to have access to oxygen for 10+ minutes BEFORE the oxygen runs out.
Latest Answers