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does free diving kill your brain cells?

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
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dhu

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Oct 6, 2004
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Hi all!
i was just wondering if anyone has read about or heard of any evidence to suggest that freediving kills your brain cells? maybe you've been diving for a long time and have noticed that you've been getting stupider by the year!
 
Ah, this timeless classic pops up almost monthly in the forums. It's quite understandable since it must be the biggest concern of any beginner.

It has, however, been discussed numerous times. You might get better answers by doing a search with the keyword "brain" and "search titles only" option. There should be a dozen or so variations on the subject.

In short:
No one really knows how much and at which time damage occurs. But it is generally agreed that the infamous "4 minute rule" applies AFTER blackout. So you should be safe for a couple of minutes even after blacking out.

Minor damage may occur sooner, I guess that would be really hard to test though. Just quit alcohol to balance it out :)

Edit: Yeah I edited it a bit, since it seems my sense of humour isn't for everyone :) I meant absolutely no disrespect to the question or asker.
 
Last edited:
You are really warming up Simo, another great post!

Love, peace and Water!

Carlos
 
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hi

suggest that freediving kills your brain cells?
_________

Not what kills the cells is when we getting older--


so keep practicing - but be carefull to to the right thing with the good technique

saludos

Daniel.
 
average human only uses 2-3 percent of his/her brain, and may be the smartest guy uses 5 percent. So there is plenty of them to sacrifice for freediving:duh :head
 
Recently at the AIDA 2004 World Championship, scientific talks were held and one of the speakers, Andrew P. Blaber, Ph.D., addressed something related to this.

In their studies they found that oxygen delivery to the brain was maintained at the same level from the beginning of the static to the end of the static. The longest static they witnessed under their control conditions, was a 6:30, and still with the same results.

This suggests, that statics, in practice, do not have a hypoxic effect on the brain directly. Other stresses of performing statics may indirectly damage the body and the brain, especially if a diet does not compliment the activity and considerable resting is not performed.

Now, this is in considerate of constant max attempts that take one into LMC and blackout conditions. There was no information regarding this presented, and I have not seen anything specific to the conditions of statics to suggest anything conclusive, other than the age-old, "after blackout, brain damage can occur in less than 4 min".
 
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thanks everyone!
keep it coming anyone else who reads this.
if those reports are accurate as per tylerz, regarding the brain still getting plenty of oxygen, how about the effect that the increase in carbon dioxide may have on the brain? after all, isn't it a poison of sorts?

p.s. please don't be offended by the bluntness of the original question!
 
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