[HN Gopher] Intermittent hypoxia increases blood flow and benefi...
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Intermittent hypoxia increases blood flow and benefits executive
function
Author : PaulHoule
Score : 30 points
Date : 2025-12-10 18:24 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (onlinelibrary.wiley.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (onlinelibrary.wiley.com)
| ThrowawayTestr wrote:
| So those breath holding contests we had at school were making us
| smarter?
| eastbound wrote:
| In aggregate yes. When the most stupid die, the average IQ
| increases.
|
| I'm joking, by the way. The more risk-taking people might be
| the ones who push civilization forward. Starting with
| Churchill...
| tapoxi wrote:
| Finally, an upside to sleep apnea
| evanjrowley wrote:
| Maybe this is the link between sleep apnea and hypertension.
| samus wrote:
| There is overall no health benefit since the hypoxic phase is
| quite long and creates stress during a time when the body is
| supposed to rest and recover. And that compounds with the
| underlying issue, usually mouth breathing, bad pillow, bad
| sleeping position, or a combination of these.
| elric wrote:
| Pretty sure that was meant as a joke.
|
| 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.
| ang_cire wrote:
| Came to say this. If one day I don't wake up, at least everyone
| will know my brain was lit beforehand!
| joecool1029 wrote:
| I am wondering if this related to hypoxia inducible factor (HIF)
| activation.
|
| 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.
| deadfece wrote:
| Seems like that was what they set out to prove.
|
| Hopefully some of that can be reproduced in further studies.
| PaulHoule wrote:
| ... note that the article linked from this discussion
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46168057 mentions
| intermittent hypoxia as a rapid acting treatment for depression
| right up there with Ketamine and ECT
| ajuc wrote:
| Asthma counts?
| evanjrowley wrote:
| But depending on how it's done, may possibly damage your vision:
| https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S245199361...
| 1970-01-01 wrote:
| Makes me wonder if professional divers are statistically more
| intelligent than average, as they will experience hypoxia as part
| of the job.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_diving
| ceejayoz wrote:
| They shouldn't experience hypoxia. That's what the air supply
| is for.
| 1970-01-01 wrote:
| It's not so simple. Check this out: https://en.wikipedia.org/
| wiki/Freediving_blackout#Ascent_bla...
| ceejayoz wrote:
| Barring really traditional (and now very rare)
| pearl/scallop divers, professional divers aren't doing it
| by holding their breath.
| PaulHoule wrote:
| I never got "deep" into it but everybody told me that
| breath holding diving can be really dangerous.
|
| 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.
| ceejayoz wrote:
| Yeah, when I learned scuba, I was told the rule with
| freediving is your buddy stays on the surface while you
| dive; that way they can rescue you if you can pass out.
| nradov wrote:
| Nitrogen narcosis isn't usually a significant factor in
| breath hold freediving. They do feel it on extremely deep
| dives but most aren't going past about 100 ft / 30 m
| where it becomes really noticeable.
|
| 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.
| Hnrobert42 wrote:
| While ascending, the air in your lung expands. If it
| can't go out your mouth/nose, then it expands your lungs
| or is forced through membranes. Either way, the results
| are not good.
|
| Nitrogen narcosis is another risk of SCUBA diving, but it
| is not really related to breath holding.
| ed wrote:
| s/professional divers/free-divers/
| catigula wrote:
| Professionals at anything, let alone an elite performance sport
| like this, are almost certainly statistically more intelligent
| than average.
| dinkblam wrote:
| Can you link to a study backing this up?
|
| I'd say most professional athletes are less intelligent than
| average...
| nradov wrote:
| Why would you say that? Personally I would say that those
| who make unwarranted assumptions and post them online are
| less intelligent than average.
| untrust wrote:
| I think that this way of thinking is a little reductive.
| Every sport depends on certain intelligence metrics, and
| the brain is ultimately the operator behind all movement.
| The intelligence required to read a defense and solve a
| complex math problem may be different, but being good at
| either require intelligence.
|
| 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.
| elif wrote:
| Another confirmation for wim hof breathing
| samus wrote:
| Rather of its opposite (but similar): Buteyko breathing, which
| puts emphasis on building up CO2 tolerance and adopting more
| gentle, relaxed breathing patterns by inducing carefully
| controlled hypoxia. But I have to admit, I know only very
| superficially what the Wim Hof method is.
| ratelimitsteve wrote:
| according to wimhofmethod.com their breathing exercises are
| meant to increase oxygen levels, not decrease them
| jrootabega wrote:
| I'm not knowledgeable enough to confidently verify this from the
| linked material, but aren't they keeping CO2 levels the same
| during the hypoxic periods? i.e. isn't this significantly
| different than just holding your breath/being choked/sleep apnea?
| hackingonempty wrote:
| > Healthy young adults (N = 24)
| emmelaich wrote:
| I was given a tip to stay awake a while back: hold your breath
| for a little while. Apparently this well known for many years but
| I had never heard of it.
|
| 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.
| wslh wrote:
| A few days ago I linked some research to well known intervals
| running practice that include hypoxia:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46169398
| lubujackson wrote:
| Is this the new Adderall?
|
| ...I'm not holding my breath.
| kylehotchkiss wrote:
| don't tell the microdosers
| etrautmann wrote:
| The main effect of a reaction time reduction looks incredibly
| small and is all the way in Fig 6. I would not over interpret
| this result without higher N and some discussion of effect size.
| alex1138 wrote:
| brb
| nradov wrote:
| I guess it worked for Deadpool.
| Hnrobert42 wrote:
| I'd love to see them develop an at-home protocol for this, but
| I'm not holding my breath.
| estimator7292 wrote:
| Intermittent fasting, but for oxygen. Breatharians will be elated
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