Sure Squintsalot
Contributor
I remember some experiment from the early 70s in which a lab rat was effectively "drowned" in some aqueous solution saturated with oxygen. Because the dissolved oxygen easily diffused through the aelveolar membranes and into the rat's bloodstream, and the carbon dioxide easily diffused the opposite direction, the rat did not experience the need to breathe in and out. Completely immersed in that 2 liter aqueous/oxygen bath, the rat survived about 3 hours. It died afterwards because it was impossible to remove fluid from the deep lungs.
Can anyone explain why diving with enriched air (or even with pure oxygen) doesn't lessen the breathing reflex? If it were possible to maintain reserve CO2 in the lungs far below normal concentrations, why wouldn't that decrease the reflex?
Don't record-chasing freedivers experience some elimination of that reflex as they hold the torpedo weight and plummet to high pressure depths where oxygen is literally cold-pressed through aelveolar membranes?
Can anyone explain why diving with enriched air (or even with pure oxygen) doesn't lessen the breathing reflex? If it were possible to maintain reserve CO2 in the lungs far below normal concentrations, why wouldn't that decrease the reflex?
Don't record-chasing freedivers experience some elimination of that reflex as they hold the torpedo weight and plummet to high pressure depths where oxygen is literally cold-pressed through aelveolar membranes?