New freediver, currently at the Great Barrier Reef AUS - iron defficiency and freediving

[JenniferMeza5]

Hi all! I am new to freediving, just got my license in Indonesia. Im currently based in Queensland, Australia very keen to connect to other freedivers around here to explore and practice more. I have joined some apnea training at the pool to deepen into it.
I found this amazing forum as I have an iron defficiency since a couple months and was wondering if holding breath would worsen this situation or if the body ends up getting used to the low levels of oxygen....?

cheers!

 

[adrian.u]

I suspect that anaemia could lead to a higher possibility of blackout if you tend to push a bit towards hypoxia when freediving.

I'm pretty sure it's true that the body will be able to cope better with it to some degree as you do more breathhold/freedive training (improved dive response meaning better oxygen use overall, incl. spleen adaptations so there's a bit more 'fresh' O2 added into blood when needed, etc.)

Still, I think it'd be wise to be wary of the possibility you could become somewhat hypoxic before the hypercapnia causes you to reach the point where you have enough discomfort (i.e. urge to breathe) to discontinue the dive/breathhold (perhaps a bit like hyperventilating beforehand), especially if your CO2 tolerance has been improving with training...

Next time you're doing some near-max dry static breathholds, it might be worth using a pulse oximeter, so you can see if you are actually managing to bring your spO2 down significantly. (I'm assuming that anaemia would affect spO2 sufficiently for it to detect that - I'm not 100% sure, although this article suggests it probably should...?)

Ideally, of course, you'd want to try to reduce the anaemia if you can.

 

[adrian.u]

Was just doing a bit of searching on anaemia & freediving and came across this noteworthy memoir:

The importance of freediving courses and safety training | Apneista

apneista.com

Powerful reminder...

 

[hydroid]

Welcome to the Forums mate. You are in a great area for freediving.

 

[cdavis]

Was just doing a bit of searching on anaemia & freediving and came across this noteworthy memoir:

The importance of freediving courses and safety training | Apneista

apneista.com

Powerful reminder...

Thanks Adrian, very good article. It is something we all need to guard against and sometimes that is difficult.

 

[JenniferMeza5]

I suspect that anaemia could lead to a higher possibility of blackout if you tend to push a bit towards hypoxia when freediving.

I'm pretty sure it's true that the body will be able to cope better with it to some degree as you do more breathhold/freedive training (improved dive response meaning better oxygen use overall, incl. spleen adaptations so there's a bit more 'fresh' O2 added into blood when needed, etc.)

Still, I think it'd be wise to be wary of the possibility you could become somewhat hypoxic before the hypercapnia causes you to reach the point where you have enough discomfort (i.e. urge to breathe) to discontinue the dive/breathhold (perhaps a bit like hyperventilating beforehand), especially if your CO2 tolerance has been improving with training...

Next time you're doing some near-max dry static breathholds, it might be worth using a pulse oximeter, so you can see if you are actually managing to bring your spO2 down significantly. (I'm assuming that anaemia would affect spO2 sufficiently for it to detect that - I'm not 100% sure, although this article suggests it probably should...?)

Ideally, of course, you'd want to try to reduce the anaemia if you can.

thanks so much for the insight, yes it's been a couple months and definitely trying very hard to reduce it.
Always good to know until where I can push without causing any major harm.