An Eye Opener about Half-bath - The Diving Reflex 

by Mahima
August 1975 
 
This research, reported on Newsweek, 13 January 1975, suggests another of the helpful effects of the half-bath. One could expect that splashing the limbs and eyes with cold water would trigger the "Diving Reflex" - slowing the heart rate, lowering oxygen consumption and thus dropping the body into a lower, slower, quieter state of metabolism. The constricting capillaries in the limbs and abdominal organs would direct blood to the heart and brain. This then is helping our pratyahara (sense withdrawal); in effect withdrawing the body's attention from its peripherals and concentrating blood in the heart and brain, preparing us for our inner work - meditation.  

When a duck or a seal plunges underwater to search for food, an important neurological phenomenon occurs. The animal's heart suddenly slows down by as much as 80%, and the blood vessels in the limbs and abdominal organs constrict, diverting to blood the brain and heart. This is known to marine biologists as the "diving reflex" and its purpose is to conserve oxygen during an aquatic animal's underwater excursions. Recently, researchers have shown that vestiges of the diving reflex persist in humans, and a team at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Dallas has used it to help patients suffering from a common type of disturbance in the heart rhythm. 
 
Interest in the diving reflex in humans began more than a decade ago. Dr. Per Scholander of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California, found that Australian pearl divers often showed peculiarities in their heartbeats suggestive of the reflex. Later, Dr. Stewart Wolf of the University of Texas at Galveston tested volunteers who immersed their faces in pans of water. He found that their pulse rates slowed dramatically and levels of lactic acid and potassium rose in their blond, indicating that the body cells were using less oxygen. 
 
Widdenthal tested eight patients for PAT by simply having them dunk their faces in ice-cold water. Paroxysmal atrial tachycardia (PAT) consists of periods of very rapid and regular heart beats that begin and end abruptly.  Within fifteen to 35 seconds, PAT disappeared and the heart rates of the subjects slowed to a normal 70 to 80 beats a minute.

Submerging the face into water causes the mammalian diving reflex, which is found in all mammals (including humans, although it is less pronounced), but especially in marine mammals (as, for example, whales and seals.) This reflex puts the body into oxygen saving mode to maximize the time that can be spent under water. The effect of this reflex is greater in cold water than in warm water, and includes three factors:

- Bradycardia, a reduction in the heart rate (of up to 50% in humans). 

- Peripheral vasoconstriction, a decrease in blood flow to the extremities, in order to increase the supply of blood and oxygen to the vital organs, especially the brain. 

- Blood shift, the shifting of blood plasma to the thoracic cavity, i.e. the chest between the diaphragm and the neck to avoid the collapse of the lungs under higher pressure during deeper dives.
 
Thus, both a conscious and an unconscious person can survive longer without oxygen under water than in a comparable situation on dry land. Children tend to survive longer than adults when deprived of oxygen underwater. These reflexes are also used when practicing the extreme sport free-diving and with training can help a human reach very deep water depths.

This reaction is similar to the body's reaction to cold water dousing and might be related to temperature biofeedback.

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"The mathematical framework of quantum theory has passed countless successful tests and is now universally accepted as a consistent and accurate description of all atomic phenomena. The verbal interpretation, on the other hand - i.e. the metaphysics of quantum theory - is on far less solid ground. In fact, in more than 40 years physicists have not been able to provide a clear metaphysical model." 
Tao Of Physics p132
Copyright 1979 Fritjof Capra