A viral breath test claims that holding your breath for 60 second means you have better lungs than 95 per cent of the population.
Such breath tests have taken social media by storm with some claiming those who can last even just 40 seconds have ‘military-grade lungs’.
One of the latest offerings of the trend was posted Gideon Horner, a ‘breathwork’ specialist, on Instagram.
In a post where he touted the benefits of breathing exercises on anxiety, Mr Horner is seen holding his breath for one minute as a timer ticks down from A to B.
Before the challenge he states: ‘If you can hold your breath from A to B you’ve got better lung capacity and CO2 tolerance than 95 per cent of the population.’
It is unclear where Mr Horner has got these figures from, but a host of people struggled to complete the challenge with some stating it almost sent them to an ‘early grave’ or that they ‘saw their grandma’ whilst attempting.
However, others claimed to be in this coveted 5 per cent group.
‘I did it without any problem. I could have gone longer. I’m 78,’ one successful wrote.
‘I’m 51 and almost didn’t make it! Those last 5 seconds!’ wrote another.
However, breath capacity varies tremendously by individuals and is not considered by medics to be a good indication of overall lung health.
Studies have found the average person can hold their breath for between 30 to 90 seconds, though it varies.
Factors that influence it include age, smoking status, general fitness and, critically, tolerance for discomfort.
It’s this last one that means medics don’t typically consider a person’s ability to hold their breath a good indicator of respiratory health.
While it was used during World War I as measure of physical fitness experts started to realise it wasn’t a good measure of physical health.
This is partly because people can train to hold their breath and put up with the discomfort of their body craving oxygen for longer, muddying any potential results.
As such, modern medics typically use something called a spirometry test to gauge a person’s lung health.
In these exams, a person has a clip attached to their nose and a tube placed in front of their mouth.
Studies have found the average person can hold their breath for between 30 to 90 seconds
Then, breathing only through the mouth, the amount of air that they can inhale, and exhale is recorded by a machine.
This is used to see whether a person is gathering enough oxygen with each breath.
While people, such as freedivers and military personnel can train themselves to hold their breath for long periods, with the world record approaching 25 minutes.
But holding your breath for long periods as a challenge, isn’t without risk.
People who suppress their natural desire to breath can end up passing out, risking physical injury from hitting the ground, as well as potential seizures and even brain damage.
When someone holds their breath, not only is the flow of life-giving oxygen halted but the exhalation of carbon dioxide (CO2)
This CO2 begins to build-up particularly in the blood-brain barrier, a network of blood vessels and tissue, which serves as a protective layer lining the inside of the brain.
This can cause a drop in the delicate pH balance of the blood that triggers the brain to send an urgent signal to the lungs to breathe.
Savvy social media users have also theorised that such breathing challenges on may not entirely be about helping people measure their lung capacity.
Instead, they suggest such posts are about boosting engagement as viewers stay on the post for the breadth of the challenge, be it 40 to 60 seconds, and then read the comments to see how they compared.
