3 ms·
That may or may not be true, but it's not why this trick works. The need to take a breath is triggered by the level of CO2 in your blood. Hyperventilation exerc
by alexfarran 17y ago
That may or may not be true, but it's not why this trick works. The need to take a breath is triggered by the level of CO2 in your blood. Hyperventilation exercises like Blaine's flush out the CO2 so it takes longer to build up to the threshold level.
- curtis 17y agoWikipedia agrees with you. According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apnea http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apnea: "Blood leaving the lungs is normally fully saturated with oxygen, so hyperventilation of normal air cannot increase the amount of oxygen available."
- sketerpot 17y agoTo elaborate a little: you don't sense the oxygen level in your blood. You sense the CO2 level, using acidity sensors in your aorta. CO2 dissolved in your blood reaches an equilibrium with carbonic acid, which means that the acidity of your blood is proportional to the amount of CO2. It's stuff like this that makes physiology fun to study.