Can Mushrooms Make You Breathe Longer?
“Are you kidding me?”, was the very first thing I said when a fellow diver I met in Bali told me I should try taking two of these capsules made from mushrooms because they should give me anywhere from 10-20% more air in my tank. “Are you nuts?” was the second thing I was thinking, but I didn't say it out loud, at least I hope I didn't. Instead I said, “Really?”
Truthfully, when it comes to these types of statements, until recently, I would have told you I was clearly a pessimist. Of course, I asked what’s it made from, who makes it and many more questions. After words, she basically said you just came off a dive an hour ago, go do the same type of profile (dive) and check your computer and air gauge at the end of your next dive and tell me what happens. After studying the bottle which was clearly OTC (over the counter) quality manufactured or appeared to be, I said okay because I trusted her (gut instinct) over the past two days of getting to dive with her and her friend that they weren't a couple of weirdo’s.
To set the stage, the previous dive I had just completed, I did a 70 foot beach dive for about 63 minutes with nominal currents while taking photos and with my usual safety stops.. When I did the safety stop, we were near the shore at 15 feet we decided to continue taking photos until I was completely out of air since we were near the resort and there were lots of critters to shoot even with a snorkel at 5 feet of water so no real danger. Well, I took two capsules just before the dive and had the same level of nitrox, both at oxygen content of 32% so nothing changed in terms of this profile.
I hit the water again with the appropriate surface time between dives and did my second beach dive of the day. We basically did the same type of dive and found some great subjects to take pictures of and I was distracted taking photos that I actually forgot that I took the capsules. I did the safety stop as usual but my guide was running out of air so we went ashore and ended the dive very content with another successful dive. As I was rinsing my gear, my friend came up and said, “So did it work?” I said, “How did what work?” Oh, I forgot, and went to my air pressure gauge and saw that I had about 200 PSI left. The I went to my dive computer and looked at the log and saw that we dove 74 feet and for 65 minutes. So it was deeper and longer by a bit and the bottom line was I had 200 psi more than before. My computer also verified I had the same amount of air since it integrates air into it as well. I was shocked. So of course I thought it was a fluke and on my third dive I had similar results.
I am now converted and had to buy a bottle and share this with you so you can tell me if any you had other results or if you had similar results or even heard of this stuff as a diver? I was told that there were no bottles on the market at the time of this writing since there is a supply shortage of one ingredient that the manufacturer is waiting for but when it comes back on the market you can bet I will be buying more. I understand they use this product for people with respiratory issues and it helps increase lung circulation, it was not necessarily for divers.
It turns out my friend is actually a distributor for this product and had her own business called Diversitea, which helps take out the nitrogen from the blood after a dive from a tea formula that she sells to the dive community for years and this is a mushroom " New Chapter Breathe" product is in her product line as well. She sold me one of her last three bottles after I begged her. Thanks Janine. Tell me your thoughts.
UPDATE (2/2/2014): I just got an email from Janine who read my blog and she informed me that she is now a distributor for Host Defense a version of Breathe called "Host Defense CordyChi and Reishi "which is the mushroom ingredient in question. It apparently has 50% more of the CordyChi and Reishi than Breathe and actually costs less. I will hopefully try it on my next Shark dive in February and will report if it works for me or not. Note: Like any of these OTC supplements, they are not evaluated or approved by the FDA, but I have been a called a rat by many so what the heck. You can read the general information by clicking on the link here at Diversitea. (DiveWet.com receives no monetary compensation from this blog or Diversitea or any products listed above.)