Freediver Elisabeth Kristoffersen: The secret of the long statics: the Spleen!

WEDNESDAY, 21 MAY 2008

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The secret of the long statics: the Spleen!

Erika Schagatay, a swedish scientist from the Mid Sweeden University, was
in Dahab for the Bizzi Blue Hole competition doing a research project on the
spleen. She has done several projects about the human diving respons
previously, and now her focus is on the effect freediving has on the spleen.
She has previously been to Nordic Deep , doing a set of spleen on the
freedivers there, and has confirmed the fact that the spleen contracts during
repeated breath holds. This releases extra red blood cells which the freediver
can utilise to store more oxygen and prelong the breath hold. Erika estimates
the effect to give up to 30 sek extra in a static attempt! I think I wanna take
good care of my spleen now....

ABOUT ME

Hello, I'm Elisabeth Kristoffersen,

a young norwegian freediver competing
in this sport on international level.
For me, the reason to go deeper and
further on one breath of air, lies in both
the challenge and the peace below the
surface. And also in the feeling of sheer
happiness after good dives:)

I gladly participated in the test,

CONTACT

which inclueded two dry breath

elisabethskn @ hotmail.com

holds with different warm ups

where my spleen was measured
continously by ultra sound. The
heart rate and oxygen saturation
was also measured throughout the

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HOLDER OF FOLLOWING NATIONAL

RECORDS:

DYN: 183m

Freediver Elisabeth Kristoffersen: The secret of the long statics: the Spleen!

test. The main question Erika was

DNF: 118m

asking this time was when do the

STA: 6.15

spleen contract? Their results will be very interesting and might give us

CWT: 65m

freedivers a better idea of how to warm up for a max dive most efficiently.

CNF: 40m
FIM: 55m

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Dahab
As you can see on the next picture, my spleen definatly contracted during a

Bizzy Blue 09

static apnea, which means it is a good idea for me to do one or two warm up

Aarhus

dives before a max. Then I will have more red blood cells in circulation, and

Bizzy Blue

will be able to dive deeper. I must say the human body is a brilliant organism,

Freewc09

and the more I learn, the more impressed and curious I become.

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POSTED BY ELISABETH MLLER AT 09:52

LABELS: DAHAB , SCIENCE

Ice diving
Project
Pula
Spearfishing

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Freediver Elisabeth Kristoffersen: The secret of the long statics: the Spleen!

WCh Maribor 07
3 COMMENTS:

WWF campain
art

Ben Noble 22 May 2008 at 12:08

That is very cool Elisabeth!

IN THE MEDIA

After seeing that photo with your toe I think you have the best dive
reflex in the world - O2% 28 and heart rate of 1!!! Not bad :-)

08.03.2010 - Elisabeth sprenger grenser NRK

Reply

18.12.2008 - I kveld - NRK2

28.11.2008 - Med hodet under vann Dagbladet

trux 23 May 2008 at 14:55

Yes, definitely interesting and a needed study. I see Erika Schagatay
continues in her research of spleen in breath-hold diving. She
already published a similar study in 2004. You can find it together
with about a dozen other studies about spleen in freediving at this
link: http://apnea.cz/?spleen
Personally, I am afraid that the breath-hold increase of 30s thanks to
the splenic contraction is rather exaggerated. In the older study Erika
found that in average the splenic contraction releases 49 ml of blood.
Now the hematocrit is packed with the density twice so high as in
arterial blood, so let's assume it corresponds to 100 ml. At ~5 l of
blood in body, it would make about 2% hematocrit increase. That's
consistent with the measurement from Erika's study (2.2% Hct
increase).

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However, spleen is used as a depository of old hematocrit, where it is

then being destroyed. So quite likely this hematocrit released from
the spleen has not the same oxygen transport capacity as new one. I
wonder if this fact was taken in view in Erika's study.

Havfruerne

Even if we speculate with the uncertain 2% increase of Hct, at the

max breath-hold of 5 minutes (300s), the 2% would make only 6s.
In fact even less, because although the higher Hct will allow
saturating the blood with more oxygen during the breath-up, it won't
help too much with pulling oxygen from lungs after the start of the
apnea. Well, to certain extent the gas exchange with the dropping
oxygen level in lungs during the apnea will be more efficient at
higher Hct, but likely the difference will be much lower than the Hct
increase. Blood pH will be a more important factor, so even with
more Hct it won't allow much lower hypoxemia.

Sanne Rasmussen

Considering the above mentioned facts, I am afraid that the splenic

contraction will help with just some very few seconds (2-4s ?). I
believe that the 20s or 30s observed in the study of Erika Schagatay
can be only attributed to the other remaining factors of the
progressing diving response (bradycardia, vasoconstrictions, etc.),
and unfortunately not to the splenic contraction.
I'd love though hearing from Erika or other experts on this topic. Of
course, having the possibility to increase own breath-hold time by
30s thanks to the splenic contraction would be wonderful, but I am
afraid it is just a dream originating probably in the studies of seals,
who have indeed huge spleens containing several liters of blood
highly packed with Hct.

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Freediver Elisabeth Kristoffersen: The secret of the long statics: the Spleen!
5 years ago

Reply

BennyB
7 years ago

Freediving 22 March 2011 at 16:37

Erika rocks! Her research is a huge help to all freedivers. I've seen
her freediving and she is also a pretty decent athlete.
Reply

DISIPLINS IN FREEDIVING

dyn / dnf : swimming underwater in a

pool, with / without fins
sta: holding the breath while laying still

Add comment

cwt / cnf : diving down with / without

fins
fim: diving by pulling yourself down a
rope

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2009
- Individual World Championship in
pool, 17.-23. August
- 1st Hemmoor No-Fins Only, 23.-24.
May
- Bizzy Blue Hole, Dahab, Egypt, 26.28. April
- Oslo Ice Challenge, Oslo, Norway, 7.-8.
March
- Coupe des Dauphins, Geneva,
Switzerland, 24.-25. January
2008
- 4th Dutch Apnea Open, Eindhoven, The
Netherlands, 23. November
- Europe Evolution Cup, Lignano
Sabbiadoro, Italy, 4.-5. October
- Nordic Deep, Lysekil, Sweden, 19.-24.
August
- Aarhus Triple Challenge, Silkeborg,
Denmark, 30. May-1. June
- Bizzy Blue Hole, Dahab, Egypt, 15.18. April

2007
- Long Night of Apnea, Berlin, Germany,

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Freediver Elisabeth Kristoffersen: The secret of the long statics: the Spleen!

10. November
- 3rd Copenhagen Open, Denmark, 29.30. October
- Nordic Deep, Lysekil Sweden, 12.-19.
August
- AIDA Indoor Freediving World
Championship, Individual, Maribor,
Slovenia, 1.-7. July
- Aarhus Triple Challenge, Denmark,
16.-17. June
- Freedive Dahab, CWT/CNF Challenge,
Egypt, 3.-4. April
- Mad Cup 2007, Maribor, Slovenia, 2.-3.
March
- 9th Berlin Masters Cup, Germany, 24.
February
2006
- 5th AIDA Freediving Team World
Championship, Hurghada, Egypt, 1.-12.
December
- III. Hungarian Apnea Day,
Hajduszoboszlo, Hungary, 13.-14.
October
- Nordic Deep, Lysekil, Sweden, 16.-20.
August
- 5th German National Championships,
Hemmoor, Germany, 28.-30. July
- Aarhus Triple Challenge, Denmark, 9.11. June

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Freediver Elisabeth Kristoffersen: The secret of the long statics: the Spleen!

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