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This is probably nonsense for a healthy person but for someone who doesn’t get enough o2 it probably has the same benefits of a person who does.

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That's the kind of inference that allows these claims to proliferate.

This article makes a lot of claims about I.Q. scores before and after holding breath (specifically underwater, for some reason), but there are no links to studies, no mention of who or how many people participated, etc.

This is the definition of a baseless claim.

Not defending the overall claim, but there's a plausible reason why being underwater matters: the mammalian diving reflex. Holding your breath on land is not the same.

That too is the kind of inference that allows these claims to proliferate.

Perhaps being under water makes it harder to “cheat”.

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