Mouth breathing is not a cause of sleep apnea, but it can be a consequence. Bad pillows and bad sleeping positions aren't causes of sleep apnea either, but some people do have "positional sleep apnea" where the apnea is (usually) much worse on the back and much better on the side.
One can also have sleep apnea without ever experiencing hypoxia. Drops in oxygen saturation during hypopneas are very minimal, and pretty much nonexistent with respiratory effort related arousals (RERAs). Not breathing is bad, but for many people with sleep apnea, the problem is the constant arousals and the lack of decent sleep, not a lack of oxygen.
Seem to recall the nootropic Noopept allegedly acts as an activator for HIF-1. Maybe there are others. Could possibly be a therapeutic target, maybe not. This is not my area of study, I'm just reiterating some of what I've read in the past.
Hopefully some of that can be reproduced in further studies.
> Intermittent hypoxia (IH) entails alternating between intervals (typically 2–6 min in duration) of breathing normoxic (i.e., room air) and hypoxic (i.e., FiO2 of 10%–13%) gas mixtures and is a protocol that increases CBF and has been identified as a potential intervention to improve brain health (Panza et al. 2023). The onset of a hypoxia interval elicits an acute response wherein a rapid chemoreceptor-identified reduction in arterial (SaO2) and cerebral tissue (ScO2) O2 saturation stimulates increased ventilation and heart rate (HR) to maintain homeostatic O2 delivery
Anyways, erotic asphyxiation is such a bad idea.
I know part of the SCUBA story is that phenomena like nitrogen narcosis are particularly dangerous because you need your cognitive capacity to survive in the underwater environment.
In the surface world I can go to a party and drink eight beers and maybe throw up and act like a dumbass and embarrass myself and then wake up with a headache the next morning. That level of incapacitation under water would likely be fatal.
https://alchemy.gr/post/429/dealing-with-narcosis-when-freed...
Technically it's not just nitrogen. Most breathable gasses other than helium have some narcotic potential. This includes oxygen, although the magnitude is unclear. Elevated CO2 levels (hypercapnia) can also seriously reduce your cognitive capacity via multiple mechanisms.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7478267/
To offset this problem, world record divers are introducing Hydrogen to their mixtures at extreme depths.
Nitrogen narcosis is another risk of SCUBA diving, but it is not really related to breath holding.
I'd say most professional athletes are less intelligent than average…
> Professionals at anything, let alone an elite performance sport like this, are almost certainly statistically more intelligent than average.
A professional athlete in team based sports, at any given moment, is parsing a ton of data and responsing with quick reflexes and intuition to their changing environment. For example, quarterbacks in the NFL are reading a defense, parsing coverage, and making split second decisions after the play begins to develop.
A soccer goalkeeper is ensuring precise geometry to stay in an optimal position to make a stop, ensuring they are creating a triangle between the ball and the goalposts to optimize their position relative to the possible shooter.
Ontop of all of the in-game aspects, there is intelligence required to train to optimal levels, and hand waving this away as the coaches responsibility is not based in reality. Professional athletes have to stay very mentally focused in their training off the field to achieve their on the field results.
A lot of people judge professional athletes intelligence based on their communications with reporters and on field interviews, but public speaking ability and intelligence are not necessarily correlated. Your smartest engineer is probably not great at making keynote speeches, and likewise would be particularly terrible if they were making them after exerting extreme effort (like athletes do in post game interviews) or while they are pumped with adrenaline with an elevated heart rate (conditions sideline interviews tend to take place in).
All of this is to say, professional athletes arent all meat heads like most computer programmers and bookworms tend to believe. Your judgement that they aren't smart is probably based off of your bias and you are likely overweighting your analysis on a few notable dumb athletes against the crop.
Also, to top it all off, every sport is different, so you can't lump professional athletes into a single bucket.
You hold your breath and then breath intensely in an alternating pattern
Seems to work, but this was in the context of driving which I do not recommend, having fallen asleep at the wheel once and woken up rally driving down some paddock.
...I'm not holding my breath.
I also know top athletes train in hyperbaric chambers (extra oxygen).
Not to be confused with professional work where the only feasible way to complete the job is to spend hours wearing respirators clogged with particulate, having only one free hand to move heavy/bulky equipment through tight spaces, where getting a full breath of air is anatomically impossible. Extended periods of hypoxia are taxing on the body and require periods of recovery.
However, the respiratory loading and hypercapnia are extremely mild in the case of clogged respirators. Especially when compared to divers and snorkelers. The usual problem is that the respirator stops preventing contaminated air from reaching your lungs. As the filters become clogged, the air bypasses the seal around your face.
This is why I prefer a powered respirator. Zero work of breathing and positive pressure at the seals.
PoTs being where the autonomic system doesn't equalise blood pressure, especially when standing up n still for several minutes, this the brain doesn't get enough oxygen, so brain fog, head rushes, grayouts (and fatigue, temperature dysregulation + intolerance)
(I've the hyper-adrenergic variety, hyper-PoTS, where the brain tries to generate pressure in a way that will never generate pressure, leaving it so frustratingly easy to have adrenaline rushes that can last for hours)
I've seen a PoTS professional describe the effects as like kind of a mini stroke
it's getting more attention now due to the long COVID relation, and it seems that maybe microclots have become a prime suspect as a possible cause to many symptoms, though there's so many jigsaw pieces, and discerning correlation n cause n effect etc..
obviously there's many contextual tipping points between that and this study (if generalisable)
apparently I have a strong heart. idk
related;
I've nostrils with the collapsing innner valve, so I can't get deep breaths through my nose (and got getting enough air whilst sorry l asleep is a cause of bruxism)
rhinoplasty then turbinate reduction helped mildly, but apparently having some cartridge inserted would help prop the path open for a more normal use.
so,
both of these leave me feeling out of breath a lot
and it's why I'm a month breather. hopefully a third bit of surgery will finally properly help
some kinda vague anecdata there, some kind of a lens anyway!
ThrowawayTestr•1mo ago
eastbound•1mo ago
I’m joking, by the way. The more risk-taking people might be the ones who push civilization forward. Starting with Churchill…