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Why can people hold their breath longer when underwater?

2024-10-13 09:30:00, Kuriozitete CNA

Why can people hold their breath longer when underwater?

This may seem strange, given the added pressure it puts on the chest. But it's a phenomenon we share with our friends, known simply as the dive reflex, or dive response. When we submerge in water, a series of automatic physiological changes occur. This is likely caused by sensory information being transmitted by the trigeminal nerve.

When the response is triggered, you automatically stop breathing, your heart rate slows, and your peripheral vascular resistance increases.

"With increased vascular resistance, the body can conserve oxygen stores for vital organs, including the brain and heart, while diverting blood from inactive muscle groups," "The additional response of bradycardia again conserves oxygen stores by slowing the heart rate, thereby reducing the workload of the heart, which uses less oxygen." The record for holding breath under water is 24 minutes and 37 seconds set by free diver Budimir Sobat in 2021.

However, to achieve these types of breathless times, divers first need to hyperventilate with pure oxygen before submerging. The need to breathe is controlled primarily by chemoreceptors that try to maintain proper levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the blood.

"During a breath hold, the level of CO 2 in the blood rises and O 2 falls. The initial increase in the urge to breathe, say 30 seconds into the breath hold, comes mainly from the rise in CO 2. At a certain threshold , chemoreceptors also respond to the drop in O 2 , at which point the drive to breathe increases dramatically./ CNA





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