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TJDG t1_j1wb0te wrote

Because being choked is not just about restricting airflow, it is about restricting bloodflow.

Choking someone blocks the arteries that feed blood to their brain, and this is the mechanism that causes them to pass out.

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Vprbite t1_j1xrlr8 wrote

Yep. I'm a paramedic and the same happens if your blood pressure drops (due to medication or other reasons)

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RyanXastron t1_j1ybbtk wrote

Well bloodflow is actually airflow in a deeper sense. It needs to get air(oxygen) to your brain for you not to pass out. LoL Edit: it's clearly a joke, why so much dislike 😅

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ADDeviant-again t1_j208sus wrote

Yes and no, but only as it applies to chokes. Spiking intra-cranial puts you out before the lack of oxygen could.

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davidildo t1_j1wcy7n wrote

You have two arteries and veins running in your neck that provides a whole bunch of blood to your brain. When someone is strangled, the veins are compressed which restricts blood flow to the persons brain, which restricts oxygen.

If someone were to get strangled through only the airway getting cut off, the blood would still be full of oxygen and flow to the brain to keep it active.

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dimonium_anonimo t1_j1wbmd9 wrote

When you take a breath, you fill your lungs with oxygen. The length that you can hold your breath is how long you can go off the oxygen in your lungs. It will be slowly turned to CO2 by your cellular metabolism processes. Normally, you clean out the waste by breathing out and get new oxygen to use by breathing in.

During that entire time, your heart is still pumping blood around and the oxygen is still being used. Your brain uses a massive amount of oxygen. When you choke someone out, you're stopping the oxygen in their blood from getting to the brain.

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WeNeedToTalkAboutMe t1_j1yl4qm wrote

This is also the difference between what are known in mixed martial arts as 'air chokes' or 'blood chokes'. An air choke does just that, cuts off the ability to breathe by compressing the trachea. Certain positions with a guillotine choke do this, along with the gogoplata (shin choke). You can also do this with a rear naked choke, which was how PRIDE veteran Fedor Emelianenko preferred to use the hold.

A blood choke compresses one or both carotid arteries and blocks bloodflow to the brain. Properly applied, with enough strength and leverage, a blood choke will make someone pass out in about 5-6 seconds max from hypoxia (lack of oxygen to the brain). Blood chokes are used more often in combat sports precisely because they're much quicker.

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ADDeviant-again t1_j208riu wrote

While a choke does cut off/limit oxygen supply to the brain by limiting blood flow, which is air-flow as some have said, something else is usually going on.

The jugular veins are easier to occlude than the deeper arteries are, especially the internal carotid pair and the vertebral artery in the posterior neck. So, a choke actually TRAPS blood in the head, preventing it from flowing out at the same rate it's being pumped in.

This creates a spike in intra-cranial blood pressure, and THAT causes the KO even aster than hypoxia would. This can take, 3-4 seconds.

If it takes closer to 12-15 seconds, that's probably more from hypoxia.

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