Treatment of Depressions with Hypoxemia

[trux]

Digging the web for some deeper information on breathing physiology and metabolism, I found an interesting and almost funny (though completely serious) abstract of a document describing that hypoxemia can be used for treating pathologic depressions (including schizophrenic depressions):

PEP Web - Treatment of Depressions with Hypoxemia: Gurevitch, Sumyanskaya and Khachaturean. J. of Clinical Psychopathology, VI, 1945, pp. 523–535.

That may explain why freedivers are so nice and happy folks

 

[sickbugs]

=\ wanna dive but all i can do is mope around all day... dont wanna eat.. dont wanna sleep.. so depressed..


i guess that explains the winter blues, as they pertain to freedivers

 

[XyseR]

i really, really, really, want to know what the hell happens when i breath hold. after holds i'm always like happy..i asked my doctor, but she had no clue either. i'm just all happy and like smileyish? lol i've heard of some other ppls get the happy thing, but maybe it's just me ?

 

[Bill]

Thanks for the reference Trux. Going by my own feelings and one celebrity death I would have bet that the opposite is true. I even plan my schedule to do aerobic training after a max hold. Also notice a big difference between wet and dry max statics.
Aloha
Bill

 

[oferdegi]

Thanks, Trux, very interesting!
I just wonder if there's any more recent research on this theme - well worth some googling.
For myself, I know that I get that great feeling of wellbeing after I do breath holds, it's a lot like the feeling after a good physical training session. It used to really surprise me in the beginning, because no real physical effort was involved, but I guess there must be some endorphines at work there. Considering that apnea puts the body under stress, and endorphines are designed to help us deal with such situations, that's not such a surprise.
Cheers,
Ofer

 

[trux]

I just wonder if there's any more recent research on this theme - well worth some googling.

I did not look further, but I guess you could indeed find more recent documents. I just saw couple of documents discussing the influence of CO₂ on panic control, which is relatively well studied.

For myself, I know that I get that great feeling of wellbeing after I do breath holds, it's a lot like the feeling after a good physical training session. It used to really surprise me in the beginning, because no real physical effort was involved, but I guess there must be some endorphines at work there. Considering that apnea puts the body under stress, and endorphines are designed to help us deal with such situations, that's not such a surprise.

Yes, it is true there is a lot of hormon secretion in work during apnea, but I attributed the feelings of wellbeing also to the mental relaxation during the session. Though, I think it is in fact well bound together, and most likely the effect of the combination of both.

 

[ggarrett]

....hypoxemia.... may explain why freedivers are so nice and happy folks

If hypoxemia can lifts folks out of depression, then it stands to reason that it can lift people from feeling normal to feeling even better (if not euphoric).

For an additive personality like myself, I find my well being often depends on my how well my apnea goes on any particular day. I am hooked for sure.

I believe there is something to this theory. Thanks for bringing it up.

Peace,
Glen

 

[XyseR]

it's sooo weird? lol..................hahha

 

[Lockedin]

I have no empirical evidence, just experience. But I do find that getting in the water and exercising (Surfing, scuba, freediving, spear, sail, train, etc.) almost invariably gives me a sense of well being. In the case of huge, or perfect surf, I find myself left with a terrific "high" that beats any of the stupid things that I did in the past to acheive this effect :yack :friday :hungover. The same for diving - a new PB, some big bugs or good hunting; it's a good, healthy "buzz" that stays with me all day long! Even plain old paddling in my kayak seems to work. In some cases, I've actually had to take a nap in my car before I felt safe to drive (exhaustion does not fully explain the sensation).

I've heard of (but never researched) negative ion theory - disturbed water releases negative ions, which help negative people feel positive again (my rudimentary interpretation). As we spend our time extremely close to the water, this makes sense to me. Has anyone else heard of, or researched this?

When my Wife :inlove notices that I'm down, or grumpy, she'll ask how the surf is, or if I'm going diving soon. So even an observer notices...

Rick

 

[trux]

Well, I do not want to disappoint you; there are certainly positive psychological effects of diving and apnea, and there may be even euphoric effects of hypoxia, but frankly told in my initial post I was more or less joking.

If you actually read the abstract of the document I referred to, you can see that hypoxemia is proposed (and probably used) as a replacement of electric shocks used in psychiatry to cure certain diseases, which includes also pathologic or schizophrenic depressions. It is not like the patient does a couple of apnea sessions with some funny freediving fellas, but he/she is exposed to prolonged hypoxemia that, similarly like the electrical shocks, actually kills some (or many) synapses' in the brain. I am not perfectly familiar with the process, but I believe it is the injury and the subsequent brain self-healing process rebuilding the killed synapses' that then suppresses the pathological behaviour.

Well, that told there still may be some relation of hypoxemia to satisfaction and happiness in freediving, but I think it is more complex. Although I am not really believer of happy ion theories, I am sure there are many aspects playing a role. One of them I always felt, and was one of the reasons for me to research diving activities, was the immediate escape from the reality and transfer to another world where you instantly forget all troubles and everything else in the world above the surface.

 

[baiyoke]

Just saw this old thread:

In my psychology class at University it was mentioned that changes in oxygen levels/breathing patterns/co2 levels does change the mind (as we all know) and that it was one of the reasons why meditating monks experienced changes. I remember reading elsewhere that zen-monks at the end of a sessions breath as little as once per 1:30 minutes.

I think it relates to a lot of things: brainwaves, calmness of body, clarity in mind etc. etc.

But one of the biggest factors behind wellbeing and APNEA (breathold in itself) I think is the triggering of the parasympathetic nervous system:

(From wiki) the parasympathetic system is responsible for stimulation of "rest-and-digest" activities that occur when the body is at rest, including Sexual arousal, Saliva , Tears , Urination , Digestion, and Defecation. Its action is described as being complementary to that of one of the other main branches of the ANS, the Sympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for stimulating activities associated with the fight-or-flight response.

Some psychologists working with traumatised people think that this is a key element in treatment. They teach relaxation techniques because the traumatised people have an overly sensitive symp. nerv. syst., and they need to activate the parasymp. nerv. syst. I don't think treatment involves apnea, but I think it could (in some cases, not all).

I believe the very powerfull triggering of the parasymp. nerv. syst. is behind a lot of the wellbeing experienced after apnea, and sometimes during breathold. The body is in a state of calmness and no fear.

Did you notice that it also stimulates sexual arousal. No wonder apnea is so good