The effect of physical fitness in diving has been reported anecdotally for decades. Recent work by a French group gives a quantitative perspective to this factor. There was a definite trend that as the fitness of the diver increased as measured by maximum oxygen uptake, the Doppler detectable gas bubble load post dive decreased.
For divers, this means just one more reason to stay in good physical shape.:muscle:
Dr Deco :doctor:
The abstract follows:
Carturan D, Boussuges A, Burnet H, Fondarai J, Vanuxem P, Gardette B. Circulating venous bubbles in recreational diving: relationships with age, weight, maximal oxygen uptake and body fat percentage. Int J Sports Med 1999 Aug;20(6):410-4
Decompression sickness (DCS) is recognized as a multifactorial phenomenon depending on several individual factors, such as age, adiposity, and level of fitness. The detection of circulating venous bubbles is considered as a useful index for the safety of a decompression, because of the relationship between bubbles and DCS probability. The aim of this work was to study the effects of individual variables which can be assessed non invasively, on the grades of bubbles detected 60 min, after diving by means of Doppler monitoring, in a sample of 40 male recreational scuba divers. The variables investigated were: age, weight, maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) and percentage of body fat (%BF). Bubble signals were graded according to the code of Spencer. The relationships between the bubble grades (BG) and the variables investigated were studied. This work showed that bubble production after hyperbaric exposures depends on several individual factors. Relationships with P < 0.01 were found between Bubble Grade and the variables: age: p = 0.486, P = 0.0024; weight: p = 0.463, P = 0.0039; VO2max: p = -0.481, P = 0.0027; except for %BF: p = 0.362, P = 0.0237
The effects of age, weight and VO2max are more significant than the effect of %BF. We concluded that to take into account such variables in decompression tables and diving computer programs should allow to adapt the decompression procedures to individual risk factors and reduce the DCS probability.