WTF Fun Facts
Wilma Franzén
Wilma Franzén: WTF Fun Facts
WTF Fun Fact
YOU CANT KILL YOURSELF BY HOLDING YOUR BREATH
Note: as much this article is just for general knowledge, this article contains things that might
be triggering for some, especially with the mentions of death, suicidal methods. If you, a
friend or a family member in anyway is having suicidal thoughts/tendencies, please go talk to
someone/talk to them and try to seek help. Remember, you are not alone. Suicide hotlines are
on the second to last page.
Even tho it seems to be a plausible idea to
commit suicide by holding your breath, it’s
physically impossible to kill yourself with only
this method. The reason being that when you
hold your breath, eventually the urge to breathe
becomes to irresistible. The exact reason for
why we do this is complicated, but a little is
known about how it works.
The partial pressure of oxygen (O2) and carbon
dioxide (CO2) in blood changes as you hold
your breath. Oxygen is used up by metabolic
processes, reducing its partial pressure, and carbon dioxide is produced, raising its partial pressure.
One might think that there are mechanisms to detect these concentrations, and give rise to the
impulse to breathe if oxygen gets too low and/or carbon dioxide gets too high.
Early research pointed to the partial pressure of CO2 being the crucial variable. In the past, before
intrusive institutional review boards, studies such as the following, a experiment done by Edward C.
Schneider in 1930, could take place. Basically, hook some people up to a tube, and, without the
subjects knowledge, switch the gas they receive from the tube to pure nitrogen. When the subjects
inhale from the tube and exhale into the room, their oxygen is going down but carbon dioxide levels
are staying relatively constant. Do people experience the panic of imminent asphyxiation?
Schneider wrote in American Journal of Physiology, Vol 94 no. 464-470: “The sensations
experienced during an acute anoxemia, such as result from nitrogen breathing, are not distinctly
unpleasant; in fact they are quite like those of nitrous-oxide anesthesia…” Subjects in this study had
to be observed and monitored for cues that they were about to pass out; “cyanosis, mask-like facial
expression, pupil dilation, eye convergence, falling systolic pressure.” The result of this study might
suggests that it’s the buildup of CO2, rather than the lack of oxygen, that gives rise to the impulse to
breathe.
Having said that, M. J. Parkes, reviews evidence that shows that it’s more complicated than this,
and there could be multiple systems at work here. The fact that the system seems to work on CO2
levels rather than O2 is interesting, of course, but it seems reasonable to think that under normal
circumstances – in worlds without tanks of pure nitrogen about – these two are likely to vary
systematically with one another, so either could work.
!1
WTF Fun Facts
Wilma Franzén
In modern environments, all things are, of course, not always equal, and here comes forward, The
Disappearing Spoon by Sean Kean. In the book he discusses how NASA decided to use nitrogen in
simulators subsequent to the horrible fire during training for the Apollo missions in 1967 in which
three astronauts were killed. Using nitrogen rather than pure oxygen on the ground is useful insofar
as it reduces the chance of fires, but its use had a side effect. In one case, five men entered a
compartment filled with nitrogen and collapsed. There was no oxygen to breathe, but, like the
subjects in Schneider’s study, they simply passed out; two of them died.
Greg Downey, Professor of Anthropology at Macquarie in Sidney, Australia, wrote an article linking
this to one of his interest, diving, with the fact that the urge to breathe seems to be triggered by high
CO2 levels “may also be the reason that free diving participants pass out with some frequency; they
run low on oxygen before carbon dioxide levels get high enough to prompt breathing.” In short,
again quoting Downey: “When you breath hold, you are not so much ‘running out of air’ as you are
fighting powerful impulses to breathe when you don’t really need the oxygen yet.”
That’s pretty interesting, but there is an adaptive problem, which is to replenish oxygen, which is
necessary for normal metabolic processes. One part of the solution to the problem seems to be –
but, again, only a part, as Parkes indicates – a sensory system designed to measure CO2 and
motivate breathing when this level gets high, which is, under normal circumstances, related to when
levels of O2 are low. These sensory systems are known as central and peripheral chemoreceptors. As
this level rises, the phenomenological urge to breathe is produced, motivating appropriate action.
This urge can be offset, for a time, but only for a time, and this limit seems to have to do with the
increasing chance of damage due to lack of oxygen. Again, it’s complex, but still, we seem to be
building toward a satisfying account of these systems.
An alternative view, that is much easier to understand, is because breathing is “automatic” and once
you pass out, the autonomic nervous system, also known as involuntary nervous system, takes over
and your breathing begins again. This theoretical approach has the virtue of not “resorting” to any
sort of functional explanation/storytelling. !2
WTF Fun Facts
Wilma Franzén
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WTF Fun Facts
Wilma Franzén
Sources
[Original Source For Fact] “CLICK HERE FOR MORE OF “WTF-FUN-FACTS” funny &…”
[Breathing] “Autonomic Nervous System Function and Breathing”
[Evolutionary Psychology] “Why Can’t You Hold Your Breath Until You’re Dead? | Evolutionary
Psychology”
[Neuroanthropology] “Human (amphibious model): living in and on the water |
Neuroanthropology”
[Wikipedia] (English) “Central chemoreceptors - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia”
[Wikipedia] (English) “Peripheral chemoreceptors - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia”
Sam Kean – The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of
the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements (2011)
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