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>If you check on sudafed it states that sudafed has a SIDE (not >overdose) effect of seizures, apprehension, aniziety etc. sounds like >other things we talk about . > >We have circumstantical evidence that it has been involved in a couple >of fatalities. We published this about three years ago. In addition we >had numerous reports from folks who had problems while using sudafed. >Both Patti and I have had a bad experience on dives wgen using sudafed. >Jim Lockwod had a rather bad situtation on deco on a dive using >sudafed. He almost toxed in a rather safe zone. With his background it >had to be the sudafed. > >I find it hard to beleive that anyone would choose to use sudafed when >this published side effect Look it up in your PDR. I'm in complete agreement. My last comments were really directed to the problems using the drug *as intended*. The side effects are a whole other area and can be just as problematic (at depth maybe deadly!). In the pharmacology of drugs they speak of idiosyncratic effects and synergistic effects. The idiosyncratic effects are those things that seem to effect that one poor SOB in thousands or even millions. Something about their genetic make-up or phase of the moon or something. They're so numerically rare it's tough to plan or anticipate for them (or even be sure they result from the drug itself or something else). But, the synergistic effects...those are the ones that get ya! Those are the ones where 2+2=5 and the whole is *greater* than the sum of it's parts. For alot of folks, an antihistamine *on dry land can make them a little groggy (says so on the label...don't run heavy machinery and the usual legaleez to cover their six). Now just looking at one effect that involves divers... Say you're a diver at depth. And say you're usually pretty resistant to the narcosis effects of N2, but you now have an antihistamine onboard. Might the two potentiate each other? I don't think this is rocket science. I doubt that two bad things that can adversly effect and dull the central nervous when taken together comes out as a *good* thing. Now if I have a cold and I take an antihistamine and I get a little groggy I'll just take a nap. If I'm a techdiver at 300 feet in a cave with a crisis on my hands could I afford those fractions of a second or even whole seconds it'll cost me?... The real problem here is something we call in aerospace medicine "get home-itis"...when an aviator is so motivated to complete the mission that he'll ignore or down rate some risk factor with himself or his aircraft in order to justify flying when he shouldn't. It's easy for me as a novice recreational diver to say "Hey, my ears are clogged or I have a cold or I just am too tired to go diving" But many of you folks are professionals in the literal sense of the word. You do this for a living! It ain't so easy for you to walk away from a dive! There are schedules to keep, on projects that cost real money to you and to your clients. You are highly motivated to dive. And that's one reason that *smart* people do dumb things.(you read the statistics and ask "now what was that guy thinking?" That's how!) It's probably not just the pros either. If a tourist has plunked down a grand or so on a dive vacation and they're a little stuffy that day... Hey, we're all human. Show me anyone who hasn't rationalized doing something "less than prudent". We used to joke on the boat that an aircraft that was "down" for night carrier quals always seemed to be working just fine when it came time to fly it off to go home at the end of a cruise! ;-) Take care. Robb Wolov
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