Question

Competitive swimmers sometimes hyperventilate before a race thinking they will “load up on extra oxygen.” While this does allow them to often hold their breath longer, it can also lead to loss of consciousness and drowning. Explain why these adverse affects occur. Include in your answer what normally happens to the levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the lungs and blood during hyperventilation.

Answer 1

In normal healthy individuals the rising levels of carbon di oxide gives a signal to the brain to take a breathe, falling oxygen levels do not cause that same urge to breathe, The main trigger to our breathing is not that we are low in oxygen,  instead, it is that we are high in carbon dioxide. So when you hyperventilate, you loose more of carbon di oxide, when the levels are extremely low, a swimmer may not get the signal in time to breathe, this will trigger the signal of oxygen deprivation leading to blackout, as soon the individual blackouts, the body’s natural response is to take a breath, under water this leads to drowning. If immediate assistance is not there it can kill a person in matter of minutes, this can happen even in as low as 2 to 4 feet.of shallow water.

Note : During hyperventillatioin oxygen saturation reduces in our blood.