Limited Release: Nitrox Diver Scuba Diving T-shirt (Available 4/18-21)

NITROX divers are a unique breed within the dive community.

Touting longer bottom time, less fatigue, and special equipment, we proudly parade around displaying the neon green and yellow banner denoting our tank full of "Voodoo Gas".

This tee pays tribute to all who breathe Enriched Air.

Get one before they're gone...

Does Scuba Diving NITROX Damage Blood Vessels?

There is new research suggesting in the affirm, but the study did utilize a very limited sample.

Repeat scuba dives appear to harm the endothelium, particularly when breathing the mix of gases popular with recreational divers, according to a small study.

With the low-nitrogen air mix called nitrox, endothelial function as measured by flow mediated dilation dropped significantly after each dive -- and didn't fully recover between dives, Emeline Van Craenenbroeck, MD, PhD, of Antwerp University Hospital in Antwerp, Belgium, and colleagues reported.

Endothelial repair mechanisms appeared activated as well in their study of 10 divers, presented here at the European Society of Cardiology's EuroPRevent meeting.

Based on the results of this small study, Van Craenenbroeck told MedPage Today that in his opinion the use of regular compressed air was safer for vessels.

Nitrox is popular because its lower nitrogen content allows divers to stay down longer and return to the surface faster with less decompression time needed, she explained.

But in the study, each dive with standard air reduced endothelial function by roughly 2 percentage points from around 5% flow mediated dilation at baseline (P=NS), whereas it dropped roughly 4 percentage points on the initial dive with nitrox and then, without returning to baseline, fell more than 2 percentage points on a subsequent dive two days later (both P<0.05).

"We already knew diving was bad for the endothelium," Van Craenenbroeck told MedPage Today, noting that one prior study suggested that endothelial function didn't return to baseline more than six days after just a single dive.

What effect these repeated dings to blood vessels function and repair mechanisms for frequent divers, such as military and professional divers, have on cardiovascular outcomes isn't known.

"There's no data on it," Van Craenenbroeck cautioned.

But she noted that it might be expected to lead to more atherosclerosis and coronary artery disease.

Still, divers have a choice in the gas mix they use and could attempt to protect their vessels by a preconditioning jog before going down into the water, since this method boosts oxygenation in soccer players and stimulates endothelial progenitor cells in healthy individuals, she suggested.

Continue reading...

iScubaPlan iPhone Application

Is this quite possibly the coolest iPhone application ever?

iScubaPlan is an iPhone and iPod Touch application that allows you to instantly plan recreational SCUBA dives. It does this by using the same test data that the PADI/DSAT recreational dive planning tables are based on.

With iScubaPlan, you can use Air and Nitrox, and plan any number of repetitive dives.

Metric and Imperial are supported.

A couple of us at Neutral Dive Gear downloaded the app a few weeks back, and dig it.

Your thoughts?