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aware of what you are doing. By the above procedure, you must be truly underwater, not just
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dipping your face in or just holding your breath, because the brain-circulation enhancement
induced by the marine diving response common to all mammals is unexpectedly powerful
in this combination of effects.)
***
Special Addendum 1 2002 to the CO2-building, brain-building, held-breath underwater
swimming procedure recommended here in the above article.
We still would very much like to see, and to some extent can support, formal research done on
the use of held-breath underwater swimming to increase intelligence, attention and awareness
span, physical coordination, and general physical health.
In the meantime, it is now pretty clear to this writer that all the while during that intense brain-
building interval of two to three concentrated weeks of held-breath underwater swimming and
for some weeks thereafter, it is hugely important that you be making demands on your brain,
learning new subjects, new skills, new arts, figuring out things, laying in new abilities, so that
extra circulation is being taken up and so that the new equilibrium that is being established has
a USE for all that extra circulation. I think this is very important.
In the new version of the book How to Increase Your Intelligence, I am emphasizing this point,
that you don t want the new equilibrium simply to be all that extra circulation going to support
just what your brain is doing now.
Function determines structure. You can t expect to build extra muscle with supervitamins just
sitting there on the sofa. To be effective with physical strength-building, you have to combine
any special nutrition program with a physical exercise regimen. Start figuring out things and
working your brain, press mental iron and not just a lot of trivial mental puzzles but stuff
worth figuring out or learning, stuff even worth getting excited about. For at least this one
concentrated interval, push yourself.
***
Special Addendum 2 2002
Now as it turns out, there is even some increase in bloodflow to the brain resulting from apoxia
alone. However, this is not the effect we are after, because with the program we suggest there d
be a net increase of oxygen to the brain even during the actual held-breath underwater
swimming, to say nothing of the rest of the time. That increase, of course, results from (1) CO2-
triggered expansion of the Carotid arteries; (2) the mammalian diving response from being
underwater, which further increases circulation to the brain; and (3) improving respiratory
capacity, and the effects of that on attention span and awareness span.
Here is a relevant article on Changes of cerebral blood flow during short-term exposure to
normobaric hypoxia by Buck A, Schirlo C, Jasinksy V, Weber B, Burger C, von Schulthess GK,
Koller EA, Pavlicek V, published by the Division of Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital,
Zurich, Switzerland. They report, in part, as follows:
Decreased arterial partial oxygen pressure (PaO2) below a certain level presents
a strong stimulus for increasing cerebral blood flow. Although several field
studies examined the time course of global cerebral blood flow (gCBF) changes
during hypoxia at high altitude, little was known about the regional differences
in the flow pattern.
53 BRAIN BOOSTERS
Positron emission tomography (PET) with [(15)O]H2O was used on eight
healthy volunteers to assess regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) during short-
term exposure to hypoxia corresponding to simulated altitudes of 3,000 and
4,500 m. Scans at the simulated altitudes were preceded and followed by
baseline scans at the altitude of Zurich (450 m, baseline-1 and baseline-2). Each
altitude stage lasted 20 minutes.
From baseline to 4,500 m, gCBF increased from 34.4 +/- 5.9 to 41.6 +/- 9.0 mL x
minute(-1) x 100 g(- 1) (mean +/- SD), whereas no significant change was noted
at 3,000 m. During baseline-2 the flow values returned to those of baseline-1.
Statistical parametric mapping identified the hypothalamus as the only region
with excessively increased blood flow at 4,500 m (+32.8% +/- 21.9% relative to
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