In a new inquiry-based teaching lab, students timed the duration of breath-holding - either with lungs emptied or filled. In either situation, one individual (a 45-year-old smoker) outperformed all others (19-20-year old professional athletes or singers) with breath-holding duration superior by a factor of 2 or 3. Is there a general explanation for this surprising result?
Not within my expertise, but curious to know the explanation given for the results.
The young likely have a higher metabolic rate, which is further increased by a higher proportion of muscle mass. The will also likely have a higher proportion of fast fibers with an even higher demand of oxygen. The smoker may be used to a suboptimal oxygen supply or to a higher concentration of CO2-Hb. From your observation one can not exclude the possibility of a general age-effect, but this is unlikely, as other publications show (see link).
Article The Influence of Age on Interaction between Breath-Holding T...
I read an interesting article about the size of the spleen and lung volume in divers.. may be of some relevance...
Article Size Matters: Spleen and Lung Volumes Predict Performance in...
Surely one individual does not constitute a correlation of any kind?
I was a Navy diver in my youth and could hold my breath (at rest and at ease) for over three minutes. Years later I was able outperform a professional singer - even though I certainly can't do 3 minutes anymore. In my now dim and distant youth (I'm now 65) I was certainly quite fit.
Thanks Douglas, you're right: the title of the question had a mistake in it!
No clear 'correlation' - possible anomaly.
Still curious! I suspect that Jochen's explanation might be a link to the truth: that smokers' brainstems are adapted to higher CO2... as those of trained free-divers would be?
Certainly when diving on a breath-hold you have to fight the urge to breathe - i.e. after a while you're trying to ignore what your respiratory centre is telling you about your blood CO2 level. (Read up also about shallow water black-out and hyperventilating.) Long term training might quite possibly result in some sort of detectable adaptations. I would also suggest using underwater hockey players and spearfishermen as test subjects.
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