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About 6 minutes before brain cells start to die. If a person has a cardiac arrest resuscitation has to begin within this time to be successful. The time may be prolonged if the body is cooled, for example by drowning in ice cold water.

As mentioned, temperature (specifically metabolism) plays a very big role in how long you can go without oxygen, but as general guideline:

  • Heart: Needs constant oxygen
  • Brain: 4-6 min
  • Kidneys: +- 30 min
  • Muscles: +- 2-4 hours
  • GI Tract: +- 12 hours

Thus, the main areas of concern is the heart and the brain.
A human body ca only live for six minutes without oxygen, before the brain cells start to die.

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10y ago

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3 to 5 minutes to brain death is normal, anything over 5 minutes will result in permanent brain damage, but people have been drowned in very cold water and recovered after hours of no oxygen, the rapid loss of body temperature saved the brain tissue by slowing brain cell deterioration.
Up to 16 minutes

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8y ago
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After five to ten minutes of not breathing, one is likely to develop brain damage. After 10 minutes many of the brain cells die and patient is unlikely to recover. However, survival after 30 minutes has also occurred in some cases.

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10y ago
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The brain cannot go without oxygen for more than ten minutes. If oxygen is not able to get to the brain before this, then there is a possibility of irreversible brain damage.

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10y ago
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Brain cells begin to die if oxygen levels are very low for four minutes or longer, and after five minutes permanent anoxic brain injury can occur. So anything up until 3 minutes is fine.

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13y ago
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Your body can go w/out it for about 7 min. take or give I'm pretty sure that's when the brain fails too

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16y ago
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3 minutes till you'll get irreversible brain damage.

If lying in a coma, never be the same again and such things are an option for you, 5-10min.

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13y ago
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6 minutes

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13y ago
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Q: How long can the human brain survive without oxygen?
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