The Beginner's Mixture

[DCBC]

I wondered about air quality, but she said she got the air from 3 different sources so probly not the problem. Lots of other possibilities with those first 5 dives? I've had a nagging bug for 12 days now; never seriously ill but pushing myself at all can make me feel like I'm going to be. Maybe she was just healthier by the time she started Nitrox? Or maybe she relaxed enough to stop skip breathing by then. Can't say. Now, she probly expects to be ill on air, not ill on Nitrox - so the trend is set regardless of what the actual causes were? Really, it's be nice to see SailingK8 start a new thread with full details in Dive Medicine for a more objective discussion.

Yes Sir. I thought that she was probably just not ventilating enough when she was on air. The tension of "getting use to breathing underwater" naturally would affect her breathing cycle. I've had similar symptoms at times using a Superlite when working. I would work a little harder than the valve setting warranted; there just wasn't enough ventilation and I'd start feeling symptoms. She could have experience some Zone 2 symptoms of hypercapnia, that she may not have noticed with the higher P02 provided by Nitrox, but it's impossible to tell.

 

[DandyDon]

"She" being an important word there, as women seem to generally use less O2, if they breath properly. Women astronauts were initially favored in the early days of the US space program in part because of that general tendency. I am drifting however; sorry. I suspect nervous skip breathing...

 

[DCBC]

"She" being an important word there, as women seem to generally use less O2, if they breath properly. Women astronauts were initially favored in the early days of the US space program in part because of that general tendency. I am drifting however; sorry. I suspect nervous skip breathing...

Exactly. It could be said that women use less O2 because they have smaller brains (2% of body weight and 20% of O2 consumption). I however wouldn't be the one saying that...