Symptoms can include fatigue and pain in muscles and joints. In the more severe type, symptoms may be similar to those of stroke or can include numbness, tingling, arm or leg weakness, unsteadiness, vertigo (spinning), difficulty breathing, and chest pain.
What causes the bends in scuba divers?
Decompression sickness, also called generalized barotrauma or the bends, refers to injuries caused by a rapid decrease in the pressure that surrounds you, of either air or water. It occurs most commonly in scuba or deep-sea divers, although it also can occur during high-altitude or unpressurized air travel.
Is the bends painful?
Symptoms of the bends include: Joint pain: Gas bubbles can get stuck in joints and stretch ligaments and tendons in ways they shouldn’t. The result is a deep and throbbing pain that you feel inside your joint.
What are the bends while scuba diving?
The Bends is an illness that arises from the rapid release of nitrogen gas from the bloodstream and is caused by bubbles forming in the blood and other tissues when a diver ascends to the surface of the ocean too rapidly. It is also referred to as Caisson sickness, decompression sickness (DCS), and Divers’ Disease.
What happens when divers get the bends? – Related Questions
Do people survive the bends?
Prognosis or outlook of people who develop the bends varies with the following factors: Prognosis is good with hyperbaric oxygen treatment. Delay to hyperbaric oxygen treatment: Although reports show that divers can do well after days of symptoms, delay in definitive treatment may cause damage that is irreversible.
Can you avoid getting the bends?
Diving conservatively and ascending slowly are effective ways to reduce your risk of the bends. That said, it’s possible to make the same dive 99 times without issue, and on the 100th dive experience decompression sickness.
How do you avoid the bends when scuba diving?
When possible, keep exertion to a minimum during the deepest part of a dive. After diving, avoid exercise as long as possible. If exertion is unavoidable, dive conservatively to minimize risk.
At what depth do you get the bends?
A US Air Force study reports that there are few occurrences between 5,500 m (18,000 ft) and 7,500 m (24,600 ft) and 87% of incidents occurred at or above 7,500 m (24,600 ft).
At what point do you get the bends?
Symptoms of DCS can occur immediately after surfacing or up to 24 hours later. On average a diver with DCS will experience symptoms between 15 minutes and 12 hours following a dive.
How serious are the bends?
Decompression sickness (DCS), known as ‘the bends’ because of the associated joint pain, is a potentially deadly condition caused by bubbles of nitrogen gas forming in the blood and tissues. It’s most common among divers using scuba tanks, but can affect free-divers and people at high altitude.
How long does it take for the bends to go away?
They don’t get worse unless that diver swims deeper. Symptoms start to become more serious at a depth of about 300 feet. Once a diver returns to the water’s surface, the symptoms usually go away within a few minutes.
Can you dive again after the bends?
After pain-only DCI without neurological symptoms, you can consider a return to diving after a minimum of two weeks. With minor neurological symptoms, consider returning after six weeks. If you had severe neurological symptoms or have any residual symptoms, you should not return to diving.
Why do freedivers not get the bends?
Decompression sickness (DCS) after freediving is very rare. Freedivers simply do not on-gas enough nitrogen to provoke DCS. Thus, very few cases of DCS in freedivers have ever been reported, and these have involved repeated deep dives in a short time frame.
Can the bends be cured?
1) Professional treatment for the Bends
Hyperbaric treatment can take as long as 12 hours or more depending on the severity of symptoms. The chamber is a pressurized environment which reduces the size of the bubbles and helps them to be reabsorbed. It also provides large amounts of oxygen to the damaged tissues.
Why are free divers skinny?
As in every sport, professional or not, diet and nutrition can make a huge difference in performance. Freediving is no exception. Like many have experienced, freediving can make you skinny quite fast. Going through high levels of hypoxia while diving to extreme depths burns a lot of calories.
Why do sharks not get the bends?
Marine mammals’ chest structure allows their lungs to compress. Scientists have assumed that this passive compression was marine mammals’ main adaptation to avoid taking up excessive nitrogen at depth and getting the bends.
Why does flipping a shark upside down?
When the shark is gently turned on their back, it’s thought to disorientate them, causing them to enter the state. The shark’s muscles relax and their breathing becomes deep and rhythmic.
What happens if you rotate a shark upside down?
While upside-down, the shark’s breathing slows, muscles become lax, and the dorsal fin straightens, rendering it almost helpless. The exact mechanism as to how tonic immobility occurs is still a mystery, nor do scientists know why this reflex even exists at all.