A genuine question- does holding your breath help or harm your lungs?

[R P Tribute]

Does holding ones breath cause damage to the heart & or lungs.

Or can it improve them?

If improving them is the case...how long is breath held and how often ?

[Guest sibon]

That's two questions:P

[spooferman]

who is/was Robert palmer ??

[Blackbeard]

Does holding ones breath cause damage to the heart & or lungs.

Or can it improve them?

If improving them is the case...how long is breath held and how often ?

 

Only if you do it in Sheffield.

[ll49]

Does holding ones breath cause damage to the heart & or lungs.

Or can it improve them?

If improving them is the case...how long is breath held and how often ?

 

Holding your breath for short periods won't cause any damage at all because there is oxygenated blood already circulating in your body allowing everything to work correctly, but obviously the lungs then need to work to get rid of waste gases and breath in more air to allow the heart to continue pumping oxygen etc around the body.

 

On a serious note, why would you want to regularly hold your breath?

[Guest]

A bit off topic maybe but I once had to retrieve something from the bottom of our fish tank which made me have to plunge my arm shoulder deep into the water; doing this gave me a strange sensation in my lungs, like a slight breathlessness. I do wonder whether that is normal.

[taxman]

There is a technique used to alleviate asthma that involves holding your breath for a while. It means the blood cells in the lungs become starved of oxygen and release carbon dioxide. When the breath is finally taken oxygen is drawn into those blood cells in greater concentration than would have been the case had the CO2 not been drawn out.

 

(OK I'm hazy on the science, but it really does work. I was inhaler free for years after seeing this demonstrated on a TV documentary)

[AMR67]

Robert Palmer was a Singer/Songwriter from Whitby. You will know some of his sings - Addicted to love, Simply irresistible, Bad case of loving you, I'll be your baby tonight (with UB40), the list is endless. By the way, you cannot damage your heart/lungs from holding your breath, all it will do is starve your brain of oxygen which will (if you can 1 - hold your breath long enough and 2-resist your bodies reaction to breath again) kill you.

[Mecky]

Holding your breath for short periods won't cause any damage at all because there is oxygenated blood already circulating in your body allowing everything to work correctly, but obviously the lungs then need to work to get rid of waste gases and breath in more air to allow the heart to continue pumping oxygen etc around the body.

 

On a serious note, why would you want to regularly hold your breath?

 

It may do if you suffer a respiratory disease though or perhaps diabetes. I think there are the occasional stories where people die by holding their breath.

[Janus]

There`s a bit here on the subject.

http://www.hyperventilation.info/phorum/read.php?2,1960,1960