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Roy, You said: >Isn't the issue actually one of the effect of either nitrogen or oxygen's >effects on the synaptic pathways? Yes ! There are those who contend that O2 is as narcotic as N2 yet diving with Nitrox seems to reduce narcosis in spite of the elevated O2. We are trying to figure out how this can be if O2 is, in fact, narcotic. We are interested in mechanisms and pathways as well, of course. No qualified professionals have entered the discussion yet so we are just throwing ideas around at this point. John may have debunked my armchair hemoglobin theory by pointing out that the hemoglobin is saturated even at 1 ata. but I have not totally abandoned the basic idea yet since the same thing might be happening by other means. Also, the hemoglobin story is more complex than the simplified picture we get in most diving texts. I'm looking into the idea fruther but this stuff makes my head hurt so I have to go slow or what's left of my brain will boil off. I suspect that maybe the O2 is kept from these nerve tissues by being held or tied up elsewhere at least for a shot time. There remains the possibility, of course, that O2 is not narcotic itself. >If nitrogen's effects are generated by loading into lipid structures, namely >myelin tissues, oxygen loading may have a very different mechanism >(and outcomes). Yep ! Any ideas ? We sure could use some authoritative professional input here. If it turns out that O2 is not narcotic under the exposures we can expect to face (including trimix dives) then we are spinning our wheels here. If it is narcotic then the nitrox question is interesting. Chuck -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send list subscription requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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