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Larry "Harris" Taylor wrote in article ... >The presence of CNS lesions has been debated for decades ...and evidence is >beginning, at least in my opinion, to show a trend towards acceptance of >this as a real phenomena. > >Some things to consider (in addition to the recent Lancet and BMJ papers >that got so much hype in the sport literature) while the medical community >gathers and debates the evidence. > >The SPUMS study (Sutherland) reported pychological changes in divers post >DCS hits > >Calder (in the 70's) reported spinal lesions in the autopsies of commercial >divers who died of non-diving related events ... divers who had never >REPORTED a DCS hit. > >Many in the commercial diving industry believe that loss of memory is a side >effect of a diving career. > >One diver I know suggested that if anyone doubts the existence of nervous >tissue damage, they should go to any meeting of divers that routinely dive >deep (a specific organization was named, but I am too tactful to mention it >here(g)) ... while at the meeting note how many people walk funny, have >persistant pains, talk much slower than they used to, and have short term >memory defects. You must be talking about TDI. Several TDI members use a different gait than the walk---it looks similar to the one used by the deep diving marine mammals they have chosen to mimic as closely as possible, the elephant Seals. In fact recently, a tech diving Zoologist has suggested reclassifying a sub species of these horrifyingly large and heavily blubbered mammals as the "Gilliam Seals", however his peers feel this association may potentially result in much higher mortality rates for these animals, while deep diving. This species has already shown the short term memory loss, and seem to be totally unaware of the present deep diving deaths of their brethren. Some have even suggested that the extreme depths some of these huge lumbering beasts have been found in, resulted from a planned dive to 600 feet, and then narcosis assisted by absolute total stupidity, allowed them to continue on down to 2000 feet deep, as they forgot where they were, and just kept swimming down. Those that survive these deep dives, particularly the Gilliam Seal sub species, have such small cranial capacity that it is now postulated their survival is partially a result of being able to completely cut off blood flow to their tiny brains, and control of their huge mass then reverts to a tiny pea sized nerve ganglia, located near the base of the spine, right by the posterior opening of the Alimentary canal----while this ganglia was once thought to be no more than hemmoroidal tissue, it does appear as though the Gilliam Seals can think with it----and their behavior at great depth , not to mention in social settings, is a powerful argument in favor of this theory. . > >Also note that DAN is primarily an educational organization serving the >diving community ... medical research is an entirely different matter .... >while some aspects overlap, DAN is not set up primarily as a research >institution. > >Finally, I think the best course of action for divers is to ASSUME the >medical community will eventually establish a link between diving, >microbubbles and CNS damage. With that assumption in mind, then we, as >divers, should dive in a manner to minimize our risk of bubble formation. >The primary defense (aside from short, shallow dives) is in long slow >ascents (many diving physiologists believe that a rapid ascent is proximate >cause of excess bubbles) > > Not to mention ending the idiocy of treating No Stop or so called, No deco dives, as dives that you can return straight to the surface from. Sure, this will be ok for the 20 foot deep dives, but the tourists we see in Florida who come here from all over the US, have a tendency to do 60 to 80 foot dives and go straight up to the surface on their ascent---often even when they have had it suggested to them by the dive master that everyone should do a 3 to 5 minute safety stop. ....they think safety stop is not mandatory. If we called it a mandatory deco stop, maybe their confusion would be less likely. If people saw how different the Doppler shows up from a direct ascent, versus a 5 to 7 minute hang, after a 60 to 80 foot dive, they would suddenly believe in the "deco stop", as the end of each dive. Regards, Dan Volker South Florida Dive Journal http://www.sfdj.com/ The Internet magazine for u/w photography and mpeg video -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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