Carbon dioxide

Fremen

When I was a kid, I discovered that it's possible to get a brief high from inhaling the carbon dioxide from the fizz in a two-liter fizzy drink bottle.
My guess is this raises the level of CO2 in the bloodstream making the brain think it's oxygen deprived, which makes you hyperventilate, hence the high.

My question is: Is this likely to have been dangerous? Kids do some pretty stupid things sometimes...

2Scoops

Not really. Not much worse than holding your breath, physiologically speaking.

Fremen

Certainly feels a hell of a lot different to holding your breath
(I tried it a second ago )

Alun

I once made the mistake of sticking my nose into an open fermentation tank for a sniff while on a tour of a brewery once, and it very nearly knocked me out cold. A very strange experience indeed.

DrIndy

Alun wrote: »

I once made the mistake of sticking my nose into an open fermentation tank for a sniff while on a tour of a brewery once, and it very nearly knocked me out cold. A very strange experience indeed.

You were suffocating!

Breathing in carbon dioxide causes you to hyperventilate because the CO2 receptors are activated causing severe need to breathe (happens when you hold your breath too)