Feeling good

[Jason]

Hi everyone,
Am wondering...we all know that smoking doesn't improve air consumption (along with alcohol not improving air absorbtion) so someone who dives a healthy lifestyle enjoys their diving. What if someone continually dives with NITROX/ENRICHED AIR - do they improve their absorbtion/consumption more so Do they improve their health overall I think about this often ever since I learned that during the age of the Dinosaurs, our (Ocean-Earth) planet's atmosphere was x3 times as thick (oxygen rich?) as it is today and hence why things grew lush, large and fast. I wonder about those 'Oxygenarians' also - do they use somethig akin to what us Divers breath

Vampire Squid

[tara]

hmmm .. okay.

i am a social smoker, and i am a little more than a social drinker.
my air consumption is actually pretty bloody good. a deep dive to 26.4m for 30mins on a 190bar tank and i came up with 140 bar.
i credit my lower air consumption to yoga and being lazy in the water. i only fin when i really really have to.

[Jason]

...No offence DiveChiq. Many Divers state that they smoke a pack a day and/or a slab of beer a week and still achieve minimal usage of their 'bar' amount. But stack it all up and non-drinkers/smokers do better 'pound for pound' as they say in boxing. I'm just wondering if their is something beyond the norm with the use of Nitrox

[tara]

oh goodness no - i am not a pack a day girl.
more like a drink in one hand and its usually a cigarette in the other - to balance things out otherwise i topple sideways.

i have noticed that with some of my more 'fit' students, that they go through their air faster.

still, i really do think its down to more confidence and less effort.
come dive with me and we will compare effort vs air.

its dive fitness pure and simple.

[Jason]

I social drink/smoke and it never occurred to me as to exactly why I held one in each hand

Sure I'll give you that Diving challenge/research when I'm next over there...but I think you win because what just comes to mind is that pair that just held their breath for 16 minutes by not doing a thing but laying in shallow water. Effort does make a difference but I still stand by better without the effect of drink/smoke etc.

[tara]

definitely.

not drinking and not smoking are much better for you than drinking and smoking. 100% agree with you there.

[Andy]

Hi everyone,
Am wondering...we all know that smoking doesn't improve air consumption (along with alcohol not improving air absorbtion) so someone who dives a healthy lifestyle enjoys their diving. What if someone continually dives with NITROX/ENRICHED AIR - do they improve their absorbtion/consumption more so Do they improve their health overall

I'm reminded somewhat of a couple of "old school" British mountaineers who used to smoke like chimneys... they claimed that they could acclimitise better at altitude because they were used to not having the same levels of oxygen in their blood!!

I'm not sure that diving EANx will really make you feel better in life in general. I mean, if you did four dives of an hour each on a weekend... that's just under 2.5% of the total number of hours in a week that you'd be breathing elevated oxygen levels.

The body doesn't need a certain percentage of oxygen, but a partial pressure of oxygen. I can't remember the exact range of the top of my head, but it's something like we can cope with a range of ppO2 from about 0.16 to 0.4 ATM. So at sea level, that's breathing 16% to 40% O2.

Even when we dive with air, we increase the ppO2... so a 30m dive on air has a ppO2 of 4 (depth in ATM) times 0.21, or 0.84. That's nearly the same as breathing pure oxygen on the surface. Do you feel healthier and happier after a weekend of diving now?

A lot of people claim that they feel less fatigued after diving EANx than air, it's never been something that I've noticed - individual physiology and perceptions are all different, I guess.

my air consumption is actually pretty bloody good. a deep dive to 26.4m for 30mins on a 190bar tank and i came up with 140 bar.

Any idea what the average depth was on that dive, T? If that was all spent at 26m, that's a bloody amazing consuption rate!

[Jason]

Interesting. I'm reminded when Des Paroz (Oztek MC) said he and a buddy upon a Mike Ball Liveaboard were paying extra for Nitrox but the difference was that they were always pepped for the next dive (x4 I think?) and doing things (like camera cleaning n' all) between dives whereas everyone else was on the cheaper 'air' and feeling snoozy between dives. Nitrox seems to keep things 'normal' between dives. But I wonder about using Nitrox without 'underwater pressure' , up here on the surface? Having worked in Hospitals where O2 (via Hudson Mask or Nasal Prongs) is used over AIR. If someone surfaced 'Bent' - would it be wiser to use (say 36%) Nitrox than just O2

[Andy]

Interesting. I'm reminded when Des Paroz (Oztek MC) said he and a buddy upon a Mike Ball Liveaboard were paying extra for Nitrox but the difference was that they were always pepped for the next dive (x4 I think?) and doing things (like camera cleaning n' all) between dives whereas everyone else was on the cheaper 'air' and feeling snoozy between dives. Nitrox seems to keep things 'normal' between dives. But I wonder about using Nitrox without 'underwater pressure' , up here on the surface? Having worked in Hospitals where O2 (via Hudson Mask or Nasal Prongs) is used over AIR. If someone surfaced 'Bent' - would it be wiser to use (say 36%) Nitrox than just O2

It's an interesting one, but not clear cut I think. I started doing slower ascents and including deeper stops (even in recreational limits) in my dive profiles a few years ago - and that really made a difference for how fatigued I get after a dive. Some people definitely do suffer less fatigue on EANx - I couldn't really say whether it's the gas, psycho-somatic or something else they do.

I still end up sleeping between dives on a liveaboard, though... I just sleep on boats all the time!


Ever been to an Oxygen bar???

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQuuPXd9sjY

I went to one in Vegas a few years ago, but got a bit weirded out to be honest. That could just have been Vegas, mind you. People claim the benefit of breathing O2 on the surface!


With DCS, higher percentages of O2 are preferable - as Axe said, controlling the nitrogen is the issue. But if you've got 32% and not O2, give it.... it's better than breathing air.

[Jason]

Geepers! Just skimmed through some of those YouTubes upon 02 Bars.
I don't think I would want to be feeling like that around 30m+, might be just as bad as feeling narked on nitrogen!?

I'm surprised that those 02 Bars aren't a big hit in Chinese cities and Mexico City (hell, i'll throw in Bangkok!)...sign of the times though that these things will become more popular or people will be carrying their little portable 02 tank (possibly upon their backs)