Hydration ?????

[Suarez]

Mr Carchadoron:
Thanks for your replay, I understand this is an open forum, and there is going to be a lot of posts I may or may not like, but that is what makes scubaboard interesting, all the mixed opinions, Frankly It would be very boring if we all had the same views on everything. Now for what is right and what is wrong, we might never know, but we have to build our opinions, on what makes sense to us, know and respect our limits, but most important have fun diving. We also have to respect each others opinions, I have been reading alot on GUE and DIR, I find all of It very interesting, most of It makes sense. Am I ready to go all the way, not sure! Maybe not yet, there are certain points, i dont agree with, but Maybe in a little while I will. Only time will tell. But I find very important to respect DIR Divers vs Traditional divers opinions, we choose diferent means to the same end.
Thanks again for your post,

 

[Doc Harry]

I get well-hydrated during breakfast before the dive. That's as far in advance as you need.

Personally I have found that Gatorade works really well for hydration, so I take a liter of Gatorade on the dive boat as well.

 

[James R]

My normal day includes drinking a 40oz Klean Kanteen bottle 6 or 7 times, which is around 2gal of water. I drink one cup of coffee in the morning as well. If I am going diving, it's generally not any different. I bring two 40oz bottles for a two-tank charter and will usually have them both down by the time we're done. My level of water intake clearly isn't required for everyone, and for some people it's probably too much.

It all depends on how many showers you earn every day, in my opinion.

As usual, YMMV.

 

[Superlyte27]

Do you think DCS is the biggest risk to a cave diver who drinks only alcohol?

Depends on the cave diver. Way too many other variables. He dives sober, albeit dehydrated

 

[TSandM]

It's good to be aware that the primary fluid loss on a diving day is just, plain water. Unless you are in an extremely hot and humid environment, where sweating is profuse, your primary losses are the water it takes to make urine, a little sweat, and respiratory loss. All are hypotonic (meaning they are more dilute than body fluids are). Gatorade is much more concentrated than the fluids you are losing, so it's not a bad idea, if you are going to use it, to dilute it somewhat (half and half, or more).

 

[DandyDon]

My normal day includes drinking a 40oz Klean Kanteen bottle 6 or 7 times, which is around 2gal of water. I drink one cup of coffee in the morning as well. If I am going diving, it's generally not any different. I bring two 40oz bottles for a two-tank charter and will usually have them both down by the time we're done. My level of water intake clearly isn't required for everyone, and for some people it's probably too much.

It all depends on how many showers you earn every day, in my opinion.

As usual, YMMV.

I done hard work in a heat wave on the farm when I drank 3 gallons some days, but for most - I think 2 gallons in a day could be dangerous. For dive days, 2 or 3 quarts is more reasonable.

 

[Crowley]

TSandM laid it all out - serious dehydration may contribute to a diver's predisposition to DCS, but is not in itself a significant contributory factor. As in: if you were seriously dehydrated whilst also making a dive that pushes some limit somewhere, and you got bent, then being dehydrated may have aided the onset of symptoms.

Given that I live and work in a climate where it can hit 50 degrees C in the daytime and remain over 30 at night - and in a tourist resort with a lot of bars - if dehydration were a serious issue we would have to get every diver to pass some form of blood test before getting on the boat in the morning. For the type of diving we do, a little bit of cotton-mouth in the morning is nothing to worry about. If a diver suffers the after-effects of a bit too much sun, then we plonk them in the shade with a bottle of water infused with rehydration salts and in every case to date, this has been sufficient. Of course we would not allow them to go diving, but in pretty much every case, that person has not wanted to continue anyway.

Please note I am in no way, shape or form suggestion that it's okay to drink heavily the night before diving or suggest that dehydration is not something to be more seriously concerned about in more extreme cases. Sunburn is also very common here - and serious cases can be life-threatening, but most cases just mean you turn a bit pink. Rather, I'm saying that - for the average dive that we do - there's no need to go to any length to ensure you are at optimal hydration status prior to diving. Mostly I find this just makes people want to use the lavatory more frequently - not always an option in a drysuit...

When it comes to the literature of death and doom - I think that since dehydration *may* have some small impact regarding DCS, it's therefore not incorrect to say that "being dehydrated is possibly not good for your health, so try to avoid it". I'd rather have a diver back out of a dive because they were feeling a "bit light-headed" after sunbathing, rather than wait for their tongue to start blistering before they call it a day.

For the record - I keep myself well hydrated, although cotton-mouth happens from time to time. Beer is involved in the evenings, a huuuge mug of coffee in the mornings, and between 3 and 5 litres of water per day which is necessary to deal with the heat. Part of my reason for this is because it makes sense, and part of the reason is that 2 years ago, my flatmate (also an instructor) got bent, and the physician's diagnosis was: "dehydration".... (true story)

Cheers

C.

 

[James R]

I done hard work in a heat wave on the farm when I drank 3 gallons some days, but for most - I think 2 gallons in a day could be dangerous. For dive days, 2 or 3 quarts is more reasonable.

This reply makes me think you only read the first sentence or two in what I posted. I clearly stated my level of water intake isn't required for everyone and for some it's probably too much.

A typical day, diving or not, for me and you are probably quite different. What you think is "reasonable" and what I know I need to take in (based on my daily activity level) aren't even close.

I usually start my diving day off with a workout - and by workout I don't mean sitting on an exercise bike reading the NY times and drinking coffee with an average heart rate of 80. I would not go so far as to assume what you do the morning of a dive day, but I doubt I would see you at the gym at 0600 in Coz. Am I wrong?

 

[DandyDon]

This reply makes me think you only read the first sentence or two in what I posted. I clearly stated my level of water intake isn't required for everyone and for some it's probably too much.

A typical day, diving or not, for me and you are probably quite different. What you think is "reasonable" and what I know I need to take in (based on my daily activity level) aren't even close.

I usually start my diving day off with a workout - and by workout I don't mean sitting on an exercise bike reading the NY times and drinking coffee with an average heart rate of 80. I would not go so far as to assume what you do the morning of a dive day, but I doubt I would see you at the gym at 0600 in Coz. Am I wrong?

Oh, I read it all, and agree to the extent of my knowledge on your details. I'm not into working out more than 3 times a week, and never on a dive trips. Thanks for adding info on your dive trips to justify the intake.

 

[Vt diving]

First off, I would not say dehydration is one of the major risks for DCS. It is often listed as a contributory factor, but there is actually not a tremendous amount of information to support it having a huge role. DCS patients can be intravascularly volume depleted, but some of that is due to the fact that they have been diving, and some of it is due to the fluid shifts involved in the disease itself. It is undoubtedly advisable to avoid significant dehydration, but I think you are overdoing it.

Fluid basically exists in three "compartments" in the body: There is the fluid contained within the blood vessels and lymphatic channels, which is called "intravascular" volume. There is the fluid inside of the cells (intracellular), and the fluid that exists in the spaces between the cells (interstitial). The body loses fluids through urine, sweat, and a small amount through the humidity of expired air. (It can also lose fluid through diarrhea or vomiting, if you are ill, but I'm assuming if that, if you have those things, you've likely scrubbed the day's dives.) The initial source of fluid loss is from the intravascular space. If volume depletion becomes sufficiently severe, the body begins to mobilize interstitial fluid and eventually intracellular fluid. By the time you get to the third space, you're like a cholera patient -- I would guess no one is ever on a dive boat if they're mobilizing intracellular fluid to keep their blood pressure high enough to stay conscious.

What's important is that the intravascular space is VERY easy to replete. Whatever you drink goes directly there, absorbed from the blood vessels lining the digestive tract, even in the stomach. As anybody who has made the error of buying a large Diet Coke on a road trip knows, it doesn't take long for ingested fluids to show up as urine -- you can see an effect in as little as 15 minutes. Interstitial fluid takes longer, and intracellular losses can take twelve to 24 hours to replete, depending on how severe they are, but again, people who are that dehydrated are just plain SICK.

At any rate, unless you are ill, or have been on a drinking binge for the last week before your dive trip, there really is no reason to start any kind of aggressive hydration program days in advance. Simply drinking normally or generously during the diving day will suffice; monitor your urine output and color, and as long as you are urinating reasonably frequently, and the color is light, you are hydrating enough.

If you are intravascularly depleted by being dehydrated prior to doing some diving? Would that have an effect on nitrogen bubble size due to say a bad dive? I ask because i remember reading some where that the larger the bubble size the greater the possible damages??? And perhaps that is what they mean by being well hydrated for safe diving?