Huffin' and Puffin'

Reflections of a Busy Day
Originally uploaded by altsaint

Is your cutie transfixed when you hold your breath? Mine is. Even if yours isn't, at least you have one.

I'm referring here to your cardiac QT interval. It's the period of time between the final 'wobble' of one heart beat, and the beginning of the next. A group of researchers at London's St Thomas's hospital are trying to find a link between this measurement and the mammalian dive reflex. Why?

Because some individuals that jump into cold water develop an arrythmia that can lead to sudden death.

The researchers needed to take ECG measurements of volunteers who were able to do something slightly unconventional while being monitored. Basically, plunging their heads into a basin of icy water, and keeping them there for as long as they could hold their breath for. The idea being to maximise the mammalian reflex for as long as possible.

The experiment hadn't worked too well with their sample group. This group consisting of medical students with an aversion to cold water and apnea. The 30 second samples they were getting were just too short - a good couple of minutes were required, but nothing in excess of four.

Enter the feediving community. This sounded straightforward enough, and a number of us volunteered.

There was an uncommon misconception. We assumed we could do our 'normal' thing - couple of minutes breathe-up, then head-down into the icy broth. The researchers on the other hand had a different expectation. Something along the lines of, "one deep breath and off you go". A breathe-up introduces physiological effects that skew the results.

Not being someone who likes to disappoint, I did things their way and managed to grimace my way through it. I was duly treated to "oohs" and "aahs" and, "didn't he do well?".

More importantly, the doctors had their first set of results over a time period that confirmed their predictions. They seemed pleased. My cutie was just as they'd imagined...