Breath-Hold Diving – The Physiology of Diving Deep and Returning

Breath-hold diving involves highly integrative physiology and extreme responses to both exercise and asphyxia during progressive elevations in hydrostatic pressure. With astonishing depth records exceeding 100 m, and up to 214 m on a single breath, the human capacity for deep breath-hold diving cont...

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Published inFrontiers in physiology Vol. 12; p. 639377
Main Authors Patrician, Alexander, Dujić, Željko, Spajić, Boris, Drviš, Ivan, Ainslie, Philip N.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Frontiers Media S.A 21.05.2021
Subjects
apnea
diving
free-diving
hyperbaric
immersion
nitrogen
Physiology
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Summary:Breath-hold diving involves highly integrative physiology and extreme responses to both exercise and asphyxia during progressive elevations in hydrostatic pressure. With astonishing depth records exceeding 100 m, and up to 214 m on a single breath, the human capacity for deep breath-hold diving continues to refute expectations. The physiological challenges and responses occurring during a deep dive highlight the coordinated interplay of oxygen conservation, exercise economy, and hyperbaric management. In this review, the physiology of deep diving is portrayed as it occurs across the phases of a dive: the first 20 m; passive descent; maximal depth; ascent; last 10 m, and surfacing. The acute risks of diving (i.e., pulmonary barotrauma, nitrogen narcosis, and decompression sickness) and the potential long-term medical consequences to breath-hold diving are summarized, and an emphasis on future areas of research of this unique field of physiological adaptation are provided.
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Reviewed by: Kay Tetzlaff, University Hospital of Tübingen, Germany; Allyson Hindle, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, United States; Peter Lindholm, University of California, San Diego, United States
Edited by: James P. Fisher, The University of Auckland, New Zealand
This article was submitted to Clinical and Translational Physiology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Physiology
ISSN:1664-042X
1664-042X
DOI:10.3389/fphys.2021.639377