> Here's the problem.
> 
> Asthma means you have an obstruction in your airways. If you take a
> spirometer test you'll notice that you do not score as high as you
> should because of the obstruction.
> 
> Oxygen is a vaso-constrictor. This means it closes off the blood vessels
> with exposure. Lengthy exposure to high ppO2's can cause your lungs to
> swell, shutting off the blood/gas transfer.
> 
> So you run several risks, most notably. 
> 
> 1) Decompression might become difficult because gas transfer isn't
> possible because your lungs are now screwed up. This probably won't be
> an issue for any short "bounce dive", including your deep air bounce
> dives (but they imply other obvious stupidity), but it may very well be
> an issue on lengthy dives.
> 
> 2) Asthma attacks are usually caused by an increased constriction of the
> breathing airway triggered by some sort of irritant. High ppO2's of
> oxygen could (in theory) act as a catalyst for an asthma attack. This
> would probably suck underwater.
> 
> Depending on the severity of your asthma you may wish to give up diving
> altogether, or at least seriously evaluate the type of diving you can
> safely participate in (if any). Find a decent pulmonary physician that
> knows something about diving and speak with them.
> 
> Ken

I may appear slow now, but this is important to me.....
Is diving with an elevated ppO2 having the same effect on my
body as 100% O2 on the deco? 
(Hopefully it has, cause then i know firsthand what to do.......)

Quitting diving is not an option, at least for the moment as i am 
having noproblems whatsoever during my dives. 400 logged this 
year, one third of them with deco-bottles.


Einar

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