are freedivers more resistant to carbon monoxide poisoning?

[elacdude]

Any ideas about this?

 

[trux]

No, there is no real reason they should be more resistant. The level of hemoglobin is rarely any higher than at an average person, and the diving reflex, the main aid of a freedvier, will not kick in when you inhale CO.

 

[elacdude]

hmmm, i thought it might have because doing O2 tables trains your body/brain to work on low levels of O2, right? and thats pretty much what CO poisoning does, steals your body of oxygen?

 

[trux]

Not really. The brain will fail at about the same level at a freediver or an non freediver. The difference is in the way you economise the available oxygen - proper muscle and mind relaxation, strong vasoconstriction, bradycarcdia, splenic contraction, etc. None of that will work when inhaling CO, because you won't even know you do. And if you know it, instead of trying to relax, you'll do better to get hell out of that place and look for a medical help.

 

[efattah]

I would say a freediver may have a 'marginally' higher resistance to CO poisoning, simply because the freediver would more quickly recognize the symptoms of 'ghost hypoxia,' fading vision, fogged thinking, and sit down and call for help, rather than simply faint.

Of course, you can always count on me to have tested everything on myself. I poisoned myself deliberating with CO sometime in 2001, and I used a CO monitor to measure my blood CO levels and see how long it took for them to return to normal. The reason was I was training for a WR attempt and I was afraid that exhaust from a boat engine could cause me to fail in the attempt. This actually turned out to be exactly correct after the experiment. One breath in a blast of engine exhaust and my CO level was way up, and took 24 hours to return to normal, and during at least one training session I was suffered such severe CO poisoning from a messy boat engine that I aborted WAY early on the dive and still almost blacked out without any urge to breathe.

 

[elacdude]

I would say a freediver may have a 'marginally' higher resistance to CO poisoning, simply because the freediver would more quickly recognize the symptoms of 'ghost hypoxia,' fading vision, fogged thinking, and sit down and call for help, rather than simply faint.

Of course, you can always count on me to have tested everything on myself. I poisoned myself deliberating with CO sometime in 2001, and I used a CO monitor to measure my blood CO levels and see how long it took for them to return to normal. The reason was I was training for a WR attempt and I was afraid that exhaust from a boat engine could cause me to fail in the attempt. This actually turned out to be exactly correct after the experiment. One breath in a blast of engine exhaust and my CO level was way up, and took 24 hours to return to normal, and during at least one training session I was suffered such severe CO poisoning from a messy boat engine that I aborted WAY early on the dive and still almost blacked out without any urge to breathe.

thats an interesting thought... freedivers are more "mentally" aware of symptoms. hmmmm.... that may be true, but one of the symptoms of CO poisoning is confusion, so you may not recognize you're having symptoms until its too late.
i've had minor acute CO poisoning once and developed some effects which lasted 3 or 4 days. people told me i was as dumb as a vegetable. for example, i went to subway and bought a $4 sandwhich, then payed for it with two $5 bills. even after the cashier explained to me that i only needed the one $5 bill, it still took me about 30 seconds of scratching my head to understand what she was talking about.

 

[watts]

Eric 24 hours :head thats crazy. i think about the effects of sitting in traffic all day every day in my old job as a medical courier.