Welcome to the inaugural dive medicine blog for Savedra Dive Centre
Lets start with a common scenario we are all familiar with, you’re booking your flights for you next vacation and you are looking forward to a fortnight of daily diving. What you are probably not giving much thought to between checking passports, visas and bathing suits into your luggage is how fit you are for this upcoming trip.
Diving is a physically demanding sport, and there are a lot of physical conditions that are simply incompatible with breathing compressed gas at depth. This does not imply that you have to be a young athlete, far from it, people of all ages, backgrounds and sizes enjoy long and healthy diving careers. But caution is needed and we should be sure we are up to the task ahead before jumping in the water.
If you are enrolling on a training program, be it your first step into scuba diving like PADI’s Open Water Program, or continuing your education with a Divemaster course you will need to complete a medical questionnaire. This serves as a very basic guide as to what conditions may prevent you from diving. Most dive centers will allow you to start your course if you can answer no to each question, tick yes to any and they will need you be cleared for diving by a doctor.
If it is your first time diving, or you are returning after a long break, an examination by a diving physician is an excellent idea. These examinations go a little bit further than the average one provided by a general practitioner. See the guidelines from the South Pacific Underwater Medical Society (SPUMS). Diving is fun and has an excellent safety record, but only when approached with the correct mindset and properly executed. More and more countries are making dive medicals prior to training a legal requirement,
If exercise is not part of your daily routine it may be time to reconsider this. We have already made it clear we do not need to be athletes, but scuba equipment is heavy out of the water, and propelling ourselves along at depth for long periods takes some effort. try to incorporate at least 20 minutes of mild exercise a day, walk the dog, go to the local pool and get some laps in, find something that interests you and stick with it. The benefits of this go way beyond scuba diving.
If you have an ongoing medical condition do make sure you have been stable for a long time before considering a scuba course, in this instance it would be very unwise not to consult a dive physician. If cleared for diving be sure your instructor/dive center are aware of your condition and what medications you are taking, you may need their help to use them later.
I set out to provide some basic guidelines with this article, in future blogs I will speak more about specific conditions and how they might be affected by diving.
Hope this helps you all prepare for your dive trip and keep you safe in the water
