Surviving Without Oxygen: How Low Can the Human Brain Go?

Abstract Bailey, Damian M., Christopher K. Willie, Ryan L. Hoiland, Anthony R. Bain, David B. MacLeod, Maria A. Santoro, Daniel K. DeMasi, Andrea Andrijanic, Tanja Mijacika, Otto F. Barak, Zeljko Dujic, and Philip N. Ainslie. Surviving without oxygen: how low can the human brain go? High Alt Med Biol 18:73–79, 2017.—Hypoxic cerebral vasodilation is a highly conserved physiological response coupling cerebral O2 delivery (CDO2) to metabolic demand with increasingly important roles identified for the red blood cell (sensor) and nitric oxide (effector). In the current article, we reexamine previously published cerebral blood flow (CBF) and arterial blood gas data obtained in freedivers and mountaineers, extreme athletes in whom the lowest arterial partial pressures of O2 (19–23 mmHg) and greatest extremes of carbon dioxide (16–61 mmHg) were recorded during (acute) maximal static dry apnea or (chronic) exposure to terrestrial high altitude. Data highlight compensatory increases in CBF (+96% in freedivers to +2...