Severe Headaches When Diving Deep

[Rybee]

Hey Peeps - I've scoured the web for answers but can't really find an answer so I'm throwing this one out here for ideas.

I've been experiencing severe headaches when doing deeper diving lately. The first few times I shrugged it off and put it down to either coincidence or dehydration, but now it's becoming a problem. I've done over 150 dives without ever experiencing this, about 100 of which could be considered 'deep' - 18-30m range, and around 10 in the 30-40m range. A recreational 'fun dive' at 18 meters seems to be no issue at all, but 20+ minutes at 20+ meters is where I find it starts kicking in.

After the first 4 or 5 dives I started making a conscious effort to ensure that I'm sufficiently hydrated to try and rule out mere dehydration, but it's not really helped. The only thing I've really changed lately is that I've started to concentrate on air improving my air consumption so have deliberately been breathing more conservatively and slowly to use less air in general. On a 45 minute dive to 18-30 meters I've since found that I can save an extra 30bar or so - which I feel is a fair improvement and I'm happy with.

That said, after 20-30 minutes the headaches become severe but seem to reside within 60-90 minutes after surfacing. So after an hours surface interval I usually feel okay to carry on with the second, more shallow, dive. Though, I have called the second dive on two occasions now because I felt the headache was painful enough to start clouding my focus and judgement if I were to dive again.

There is never pain in my sinuses, ears, face or cheekbone area and I have no issues equalizing on descent or ascent. It is unipolar in nature, i.e. not one sided and always centred around the very middle of the top of my head. I'm looking at getting into Tec diving sooner rather than later but this is naturally concerning to me.

From what I've fathomed, the likely culprit so far would seem to be caused by a 'CO2 headache' which is described as

Carbon Dioxide Toxicity Headache

A dull pulsing head pain after diving is usually a symptom of this type of headache caused by carbon dioxide toxicity. This headache is caused by carbon dioxide build-up in the body. The increase in waste gas is usually due to hypoventilation (too little air intake). Hypoventilation usually happens when a diver doesn’t take large enough breaths from his / her tank or doesn’t breathe often. Simply put, not breathing enough to get rid of the carbon dioxide created in the body will eventually lead to this type of headache.

Carbon dioxide build-up is also caused by the usage of inefficient dive equipment, especially at depths below 30 meters (100 feet) where the gas density increases. This creates greater work of breathing, which leads to creating more carbon dioxide. Given that carbon dioxide is way more narcotic than nitrogen, sense dulling is a potential impact of excessive carbon dioxide build-up.

I'm going to try and rule this out tomorrow by breathing much more liberally to see if the pain reoccurs or not.
If it does, I guess I'm going to have to try and find the fine line between conservative breathing to improve air consumption, and the avoidance of a CO2 headache.

I just wanted to throw it out to you all for any other possible suggestions or things I should be looking for?

Thanks! Ry

 

[OMANDIVER]

Hey Peeps - I've scoured the web for answers but can't really find an answer so I'm throwing this one out here for ideas.

I've been experiencing severe headaches when doing deeper diving lately. The first few times I shrugged it off and put it down to either coincidence or dehydration, but now it's becoming a problem. I've done over 150 dives without ever experiencing this, about 100 of which could be considered 'deep' - 18-30m range, and around 10 in the 30-40m range. A recreational 'fun dive' at 18 meters seems to be no issue at all, but 20+ minutes at 20+ meters is where I find it starts kicking in.

After the first 4 or 5 dives I started making a conscious effort to ensure that I'm sufficiently hydrated to try and rule out mere dehydration, but it's not really helped. The only thing I've really changed lately is that I've started to concentrate on air improving my air consumption so have deliberately been breathing more conservatively and slowly to use less air in general. On a 45 minute dive to 18-30 meters I've since found that I can save an extra 30bar or so - which I feel is a fair improvement and I'm happy with.

That said, after 20-30 minutes the headaches become severe but seem to reside within 60-90 minutes after surfacing. So after an hours surface interval I usually feel okay to carry on with the second, more shallow, dive. Though, I have called the second dive on two occasions now because I felt the headache was painful enough to start clouding my focus and judgement if I were to dive again.

There is never pain in my sinuses, ears, face or cheekbone area and I have no issues equalizing on descent or ascent. It is unipolar in nature, i.e. not one sided and always centred around the very middle of the top of my head. I'm looking at getting into Tec diving sooner rather than later but this is naturally concerning to me.

From what I've fathomed, the likely culprit so far would seem to be caused by a 'CO2 headache' which is described as



I'm going to try and rule this out tomorrow by breathing much more liberally to see if the pain reoccurs or not.
If it does, I guess I'm going to have to try and find the fine line between conservative breathing to improve air consumption, and the avoidance of a CO2 headache.

I just wanted to throw it out to you all for any other possible suggestions or things I should be looking for?

Thanks! Ry

See a dive doctor, I recommend the London Dive Chamber or Midlands Dive Chamber particularly if you intend to start technical diving. Do not on any account try and regulate your breathing other than to breath deeply and regularly. If you want to improve gas consumption get a club member or instructor to help with buoyancy and trim.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

One very good way to tell if it is CO2 is to get on oxygen when you get on the boat. If it resolves quickly, that is really a strong indicator for CO2.

Trying to conserve air to the point where you feel pain is... well.... I'm trying hard not to get banned again.

 

[Rybee]

See a dive doctor, I recommend the London Dive Chamber or Midlands Dive Chamber. Really.

I really was considering this as I was worried it was something a little more sinister. Unfortunately I moved away from England in August and am going to be living in Thailand for the foreseeable future. A good doctor is hard to find, a doctor with a special interest in diving is almost mythical.

 

[Rybee]

One very good way to tell if it is CO2 is to get on oxygen when you get on the boat. If it resolves quickly, that is really a strong indicator for CO2.

Trying to conserve air to the point where you feel pain is... well.... I'm trying hard not to get banned again.

Thanks for the tip, I have easy access to O2 so will try that in future if need be.

I wouldn't say I'm consciously preserving air to any point in which I feel my breathing has become uncomfortable, forced, strained or the complete focus of my attention whilst diving - that's obviously both stupid and futile. I've merely been making more of a conscious effort to stop just bonging through my air and try and take it a little easier with longer inhales and exhales as opposed to short sharp gasps.

 

[OMANDIVER]

Th

I really was considering this as I was worried it was something a little more sinister. Unfortunately I moved away from England in August and am going to be living in Thailand for the foreseeable future. A good doctor is hard to find, a doctor with a special interest in diving is almost mythical.

they are always happy to chat on the phone if you have a concern. They are both divers and doctors.

 

[PfcAJ]

2 things:

Stop trying to modulate your breathing. Just breath. If your body wants to take a breath, take a damn breath. It knows best. When you start trying to outsmart billions of years of evolution you're going to lose.

Do you own your own tanks? A bad gas fill could contaminate them and you'd have problems going forward. If you're renting tanks then never mind.

But for real. Just breath. Don't try to do anything.

 

[Dan]

Try Nitrox.

I used to dive with air for 20-30 m depths, 3-4 times for a week liveaboard trip, got tired & headache by the end of the day. With Nitrox, those problems were gone & had more energy by the end of the day. I even had a 12-day trip without missing 40 dives in a row, while others were either skip for being tired or headache or just like to rest & enjoy the boat ride. I do enjoy the boat ride too, but the diving even more, especially being able to do it 3-4 times / day & paying $300-500/day for the trip.

 

[MasterChief D]

+1 for London Diving Chamber and have a chat with Dr. Ollie - if all else fails, you can always write to him as he has a diving medicine column in a UK diving magazine

 

[northernone]

I had bad headaches from co2 buildup, fixed my breathing patterns matching YouTube videos dirt diving until it felt natural and I'm head ache free.

Hope it's that easy a fix for you.

Dive safe,
Cameron