Tuesday 10 November 2009

A closer look at hypoxia

Lately, my days have been occupied by less freediving and more studying. I'm still training and trying to stay in shape, but having a break from the competition rush at the moment.

I'm currently working on my bachelor project (to be finished in June 2010), which is somehow related to freediving. I will be studying how hypoxia is increasing the formation of new blood vessels in the body. A protein called hypoxia-inducible factor is responsible for activating several genes, which give us a physical response and help the body to cope with the stress.

From a freediving perspective, it's facinating to learn more about what's happening in the body when it's faced with low oxygen. There's still lots to learn.

4 comments:

  1. Hi

    How low dose the oxygen saturation in the body/blood need to get for this mechanism to start working ?

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  2. Where can i find this protein and how do i eat it, you big nerd? Explain this in the simplest terms possible, please, or i'll sit on you and fart.

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  3. ooh threatening to fart over the net ...

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  4. Daan, watch what you are saying or I'm gonna ripp your head off...

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