Dehydration Defined Dehydration means your body does not have as much water and fluids as it should. Dehydration can be caused by losing too much fluid, not drinking enough water or fluids, or both. Vomiting and diarrhea are common causes. Pressurized airplane cabins, scuba air, alcoholic and other diuretic drinks, diuretic medications and certain medical...

Obesity and Decompression Illness There is a considerable body of work relating an increased incidence of DCS to increased percentage of body fat. Higher DCS rates have been noted in the older diver, due in part, to the gradual increase in skin fold thickness (% body fat) and possibly to the increased incidence of cardiovascular...

Eating for Diving As your diving season arrives, it might be a good time to remind everyone about eating for diving. Over my many years of diving, I have had the occasion to learn through trial and (mostly) error, as well as watching others, what it takes to have a pleasant day of diving. What...

GENETICS In a study which was funded by the U.K. Departmentof Energy (Fox et al, 1984) blood was taken from more than 150 divers and an equal number of control subjects. Of 77 compressed air divers and 76 mixed gas divers, 6 had a few heavily damaged cells. The health risks imposed by these abnormal...

The thyroid gland secretes thyroxin which is a hormone that helps control the rate at which we burn up carbohydrates (metabolic rate). Too much thyroxin causes hyperthyroidism (thyrotoxicosis) — too little causes hypothyroidism (myxedema). What a diver needs to be concerned with is his/her body’s ability to function with the increased work load that hyperthyroidism...

Diabetes Mellitus: Insulin dependent diabetics represent a gamut of severity; from the more brittle diabetic who should not dive to a less serious one which should not increase the hypoglycemia risk enough to exclude diving. The long-standing diabetic who has lost the normal defense mechanism against hypoglycemia should not dive. Newer methods for testing and...