Scuba Diving and Bodily Functions

[NavyGuyAN]

What about the urge to burp?...lol every time I dive I have the urge to burp even at depth. I dont recall ever swallowing the air that I breathe but was curious if any other divers had experienced this..

 

[Herb-alaska]

I attended a great dive medicine lecture awhile back and the Doctor who is very into dive medicine and was our Fire Dept Dive medical director explained it in very easy simple terms I will try to convey that here

Your body is like a sponge where you have liquid in your tissues and when you are under extra pressure that liquid is pulled from the tissue and absorbed into the blood stream. Your blood volume then rises and your body says wait you have to much volume and then tells your kidneys to make urine to reduce the volume. You then have to pee.

When you surface your body pressure is reduced and your body then reabsorbs some of the fluid which reduces your blood volume and then your body says your volume is low which is dehydration and so your body says your thirsty.

While your blood volume is depleted your vein structure is constructed so you are in a increased risk for DCS as nitrogen comes out of gas form and into bubble. This is why you need to stay hydrate before and after a dive. You need to rebuild that blood volume so that your veins do not constrict and any bubble formation is able to pass.

Now the poop I would think that it is simply the extra pressure on the bowels moves the fecal matter through your system and giving you the feeling of needing to void I would also think that the breathing pressurized air you may have potential to swallow air which then ends up in the GI track as gas which would again give you the feeling of needing to void.

Hope this helps and I hope that I explained it right. I am in no way from a medical background I just walked out feeling like I understood it better than I did when I walked into the meeting

 

[jewelofnile69]

I burp and sneeze a lot when diving. LOL! The first dive I did where I was down at about 35 feet it freaked me out but now it happens plenty. LOL!

 

[Scuba_Noob]

Sometimes when I really have the urge, I wish I was wearing a wetsuit. Then I remember that I'm diving in 7 degree Celsius (45 degree Fahrenheit) water and I'm glad I'm wearing a drysuit, even with that inconvenience.

Thanks for all your answers. Most of them make sense and help me feel that I'm not the only one!

 

[Boingo]

Sounds like it's time for someone to design a wetsuit with a flap in the back. How's your buoyancy?

 

[drdaddy]

Two kind of wetsuit divers - 1-those that pee in their suits & 2-those that lie

I never pee in my suit.

 

[vladimir]

HERE's a nice piece from DAN on immersion diuresis. It isn't pressure-related, but more time and temperature. It's the concept underlying what I call "Brekke's rule", because a nice DM named Brekke once told me, "Go pee before you get in your dry suit, whether you think you need to or not."

I'd like to trust DAN's guidance, but the author thinks the verb form of immersion is emerge:

The phenomenon you describe is known as immersion diuresis and occurs whenever the body is emerged in water.

A blend of immerse and submerge, I guess. Let's hope he didn't attend an American medical school.

Wikipedia, for what it's worth, thinks immersion diuresis is pressure-related as well as temperature-related:

Immersion diuresis is a type of diuresis caused by immersion of the body in water (or equivalent liquid). It is mainly caused by lower temperature and by pressure.
....
The pressure component is caused by the hydrostatic pressure of the water directly increasing blood pressure. Its significance is indicated by the fact that the temperature of the water doesn't substantially affect the rate of diuresis.

 

[Grover48]

I am surprised no one has mentioned Warhammer.

 

[hilljo88]

There should be a fine for ever referring to "war....r".