• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
Zippy Facts Logo

Zippy Facts

Interesting Random Facts

  • Animals
  • Culture
  • Firsts
  • Food
  • Geography
  • Health
  • History
  • Inventions
  • Language
  • Mythology
  • Odds
  • People
  • Religion
  • Science
  • Space
  • Universe
  • World
You are here: Home / Science / How Long Can a Person Hold His Breath and What Are the Signs and Symptoms Of Hypoxia?

How Long Can a Person Hold His Breath and What Are the Signs and Symptoms Of Hypoxia?

February 19, 2020 by Karen Hill

On average, a healthy young person can hold his breath about three minutes.

With training, that might be extended some, but beyond that, a person might start to lose consciousness, because the body does not store a lot of oxygen.

What triggers breathing is not a lack of oxygen, but a buildup of carbon dioxide in the bloodstream.

When the carbon dioxide pressure in the blood gets high enough, the need to breathe gets very intense. That is because the carbon dioxide triggers breathing centers in the brain, forcing the person to take a breath.

When children hyperventilate at the side of a swimming pool, breathing deeply and rapidly for a few minutes, they think they are loading up on oxygen, but they are actually unloading carbon dioxide.

They can hold their breath thirty seconds longer, but the danger is that they don’t in fact have that extra oxygen.

This can cause the brain to malfunction because of low oxygen pressure, so that the person starts breathing water and drowning.

The body has no strong sensors for loss of oxygen.

In fact, oxygen shortage, or hypoxia, causes a temporary euphoria. That is one reason people feel a “Rocky Mountain high” when they first get to the mountains.

Temporary euphoria also affected many high-flying pilots in the early days of airborne warfare, before oxygen masks.

Trying to push through the twenty-thousand-foot barrier to get above antiaircraft fire, they became euphoric, started to make bad judgments, became unconscious, crashed and died.

Symptoms of mild or gradual hypoxia include headaches, fatigue, shortness of breath, and nausea.

Related Facts

  • How Can Radiocarbon Dating Tell Us How Old Anything Is?
  • What is the Best Way to Keep Soda Pop From Going Flat?
  • What is Dry Ice Made of and Why Does Dry Ice Produce Smoke?
  • Why is Carbon Monoxide used to give Tuna a Bright Red Color when it is Poisonous?
  • What is the Difference Between Carbon Monoxide and Carbon Dioxide?
  • How Long Can You Hold Your Breath?

Filed Under: Science

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

Previous Post: « Why Do Babies Sleep So Much and How Fast Do Babies Grow When They Sleep?
Next Post: How Does Immunization Of a Pregnant Woman Give the Baby Immunity To Disease When It Is Born? »

Footer

Follow

  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • GitHub
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Medium
  • Pinterest
  • StumbleUpon
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Categories

Accomplishments Animals Culture Firsts Food Geography Health History Inventions Language Mythology Odds People Religion Science Space Universe World Your Body

About

Zippy Facts empowers the world by serving educational content that is accessible to everyone.

A tribute to growing up, zippyfacts.com showcases interesting and unusual facts about the world.

Our mission is to use technology to facilitate knowledge transfer and sharing.

Copyright © 2020 Zippy Facts

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy