The nature of the body is so amazing that it is not limited to the abilities we know well, but is capable of mutating to transform into an improved version of itself. Over the years, new generations are born with abilities that challenge the limits of the body, this has happened with the so-called sea gypsies, the traditional people called Bajau, who are capable of remaining underwater without needing to breathe for long periods of time. time.
The Philippine Islands are a large archipelago of rocky islands that, as is evident, are surrounded by large amounts of water, a situation that has marked the lives of the inhabitants of that region who live mainly from fishing. But before the region even got its name, a group of traditional peoples learned to live freely on the seas.
Called Bajau, the people are known as ‘sea nomads’ or ‘sea gypsies’ and like almost all traditional peoples, they have been living in their territory for thousands of years and coexisting with nature. The first records of the Bajau that we have date back 15 thousand years ago and since then they have dedicated themselves to life in the sea.
Some of them even still live in their floating houses, from where they go into the sea to get the food necessary to survive. They have spread to other parts of the Asian seas such as Thailand. In their small boats they carry with them what they need to live and move across the ocean.
Mutation of your genes
But the characteristic that has made them iconic to modern man is that the Bajau were born to dive. Since they were little, they go into the depths of the sea and therefore have developed the ability to endure long periods of time without breathing. On average, a member of the Bajau tribe can dive up to 70 meters deep and hold their breath for up to 13 minutes.
Taking into account that an average human can barely suspend breathing for 1 minute, Bajau have become an icon of diving. And this is the reason why science has been interested in understanding how they push their bodies to the limit, to the point of having mutated to adapt to life in the sea.
The first research that analyzed blood samples from members of the Bajau peoples was carried out in 2018 by Melissa Ilardo, Eske Willerslev and Rasmus Nielsen from the University of Copenhagen. They analyzed samples taken from 59 Bajau villagers and compared them with samples from other traditional villages in the region that in their history have had little contact with the sea.
There they discovered that sea gypsies had developed a gene known as PDE10A, which is produced by the thyroid and whose main objective is to make the spleen grow. The spleen acts as a store of red blood cells, so when we hold our breath it contracts and releases red blood cells that are responsible for transporting oxygen to the body. Today we know that it is possible to train this skill and proof of this are mountaineers who subject themselves to environments with poor oxygen, as well as free divers who do not use equipment to dive.
But the most intriguing thing is that the Bajau did not have large spleens as a result of training, but rather that newborns, even before immersing themselves in the , already have spleens of larger than average sizes.
This is why researchers believe that the Bajau pushed their bodies to such a limit that it is now part of their genes, they mutated in a certain sense. The evidence is surprising and suggests that the body is so amazing that it can change its composition to adapt to extreme conditions.
References: Ilardo, M. Physiological and Genetic Adaptations to Diving in Sea Nomads. (2018). Cell, DOI