Hypoxia
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From: hampshire
Hypoxia
Why is it that someone with severe breathing difficulties, eg asthma, suffers great distress during an attack, yet someone taken to n mega feet in a decompression chamber feels no distress at all?
Joined: Aug 2005
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From: Estonia
Originally Posted by wasdale
Why is it that someone with severe breathing difficulties, eg asthma, suffers great distress during an attack, yet someone taken to n mega feet in a decompression chamber feels no distress at all?
If the lungs are obstructed by asthma, or choking, or the exhaled air remains in a small volume, or carbon dioxide from any other source gets into the inhaled air, this causes distress. But if the oxygen is in short supply while carbon dioxide does not build up, whether because the overall pressure is low or because some inert gas is around, this does not produce the rapid distress response like carbon dioxide.
