
Pushing the Limits of Extreme Breath-Holding - uptown
https://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/pushing-the-limits-of-extreme-breath-holding
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nickpsecurity
Here's a Popular Science article I read a long time ago on this where the
author gets to experience free diving:

[https://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2003-06/one-dive-
one-...](https://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2003-06/one-dive-one-breath)

Although, my first exposure to the topic was a movie called The Big Blue about
a free diver pushing himself to and past his limits. Had Jean Reno in it. Just
found out it was Luc Besson's movie, too.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82onGmBx9ZM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82onGmBx9ZM)

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dmitriid
I remember holding my breath when watching that movie. Thank you for reminding
about it!

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clort
I'm a bit confused by the breath-hold where they breathed pure oxygen. The
article claims that because they only started with oxygen in their lungs, that
is all absorbed and nothing left by the end. But, where does the carbon
dioxide go in this case? Your body is producing it, and it normally
transitions from the blood into the lungs, to be exhaled. why doesn't it do
that if there is only oxygen in there?

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thope
Correct me if I'm wrong, but maybe the carbon dioxide you exhale comes from
the air you inhale. No air in, no carbon dioxide out.

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jdblair
Correction:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Respiration_(physiology)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Respiration_\(physiology\))

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thope
Ok thank you, I also found a short answer[0]. It seems the carbon comes from
the conversion of glucose; that is, from food.

[0] [http://www.smh.com.au/news/big-questions/we-breath-in-
oxygen...](http://www.smh.com.au/news/big-questions/we-breath-in-oxygen-and-
breath-out-carbon-dioxide-where-does-thecarbon-come-
from/2008/06/06/1212259085199.html)

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poster123
How is this anything other than dangerous and stupid?

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xutopia
I did 3m06s in a pool, very much like those apnea competitions. I had a
spotter and people around me in case something went wrong.

For me the idea of controlling my body and mind to do such a feat felt like a
huge accomplishment. It requires fighting off reflexes, relaxing my muscles
and reducing my thoughts to the bare minimum so as to use the least oxygen
possible.

Control and determination are tested and it feels great to overcome these
things.

I stopped practicing apnea because I didn't have any data on how it could
affect my brain negatively but I still am very proud of my accomplishment.
Also before I started I couldn't swim a full lap underwater without coming up
for air but now I can do it without any problem.

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xyhopguy
used to do this during swim practice. unbelievably relaxing and amazing how
far you can swim without a breath with a slow buildup. we used to go up to 4
lengths aka 100m

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0xdeadbeefbabe
What stroke? Seems like you'd choose a minimal stroke.

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fabrice_d
If you are without fins, a long relaxed breaststroke is what you do.

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AElsinore77
This is quite interesting -- tangentially related, is anyone aware of studies
of the long term effects of sports which include blood chokes (constricting
carotids)? These might include Judo, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, as well as modern
MMA and submission grappling. In these cases, there may be plenty of oxygen in
the blood, but the blood flow to the brain is being restricted causing loss of
consciousness.

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tasty_freeze
One thing I find fascinating is that when you hold your breath long enough and
your body is forcing you to breath, your lungs still hold plenty of oxygen. If
you exhaled into an empty bag, then inhaled that air back into your lungs,
that reflex would be quelled for awhile. Of course after each cycle the O2
content would drop an CO2 would rise and the period of each cycle would get
shorter.

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kazinator
The record is held by the first _homo sapiens_ who asphyxiated. Tens of
thousands of years and counting!

