Your Health

One of the most common concerns that people interested on learning scubadiving is to be sure wheter they are physically fit for the sport or not.

Itīs really hard to give specific advise in this matter since first of all, Iīm not a doctor and secondly because there is a lot of controversy in this matter, probably due to the fact that scubadiving is a relatively new sport so there isnīt that much research on this field, so medical doctors releases are based on opinion rather than in scientific studies or facts.

The main thing that we have to be aware of is that when we scubadive we are actually immersed in a totally different environment to the one which our bodies was made for. In my opinion, based in my personal experience, the two most important physical changes to consider are:

a) The sorrounding pressure increases big time. Do the math: For every 33 feet of depth in salty water, the pressure increases 1 atmosphere, so instead of having one atmosphere which is the normal pressure at the surface, at 33 feet the pressure is actually the double compared to that at the surface; at 66 feet is the triple of the pressure and so forth. This thing alone, of course, is of great impact over your body.

b) You rely on your lungs and heart -basically but not only- to breath the air in the tank you carry underwater which sustains your life. Oh, and another important factor to consider is that if any problem arises, you have to make it back to the surface in order to receive medical attention.

But to make things objective, there is a list of illnesses that will keep you permanently away from this sport: heart pain, chronic asthma, heart failure, heart muscle weakness, cardiac arrhytmia, pulmonary insufficiency, vertigo, nervous system instability, history of spontaneus pneumothorax, history of embolism from rupture lung, epilepsy requiring drug treatment for prevention of seizure, diabetes requiring insulin for control of blood sugar levels and asthma requiring drug treatment for control. There are also the temporary illnesses that once you recover from them won't keep you from scubadiving, hereīs the list: anemia, sinus or ear infection, head or chest cold, continuous cough, pregnancy, use of anti-anxiety or sedative medications.