Is Scuba Diving Bad For Your Health?

Scuba diving can be a great exercise with approximately 300-600 calories burned per hour, depending on water temperature. However, there are some medical risks involved with diving, such as drowning, decompression sickness, lung overexpansion, ear barotrauma, and marine life hazards. These risks can have various causes, and divers should be cautious and follow all safety procedures to promote good health.

The most common medical problems that scuba divers can suffer from are sunburn, seasickness, and dehydration, which are minor conditions that can arise from diving. However, diving can have significant effects on the body, including increasing blood pressure, which could be detrimental to most people’s health. When it comes to medical concerns, it is best to discuss them with a doctor and get a medical check-up at least once.

Recreational scuba diving is generally considered good for most people’s health, just like swimming is good for health. However, diving may produce subclinical damage to the brain, spinal cord, inner ear, retina, and small airways of the lung. The risk of cardiac-related death while diving is 10 times higher in divers over age 50 than in those younger than 50.

Diveling does entail some risks, such as decompression sickness (DCS), arterial air embolism, and sinus and ear squeezes. If you are considering diving for the first time, it is essential to be in good health, especially your heart and lungs, and to be able to swim and be comfortable. Diving sick can cause sinus and ear squeezes, while a chest cold can increase air trapping risk, just like smoking.

How many calories do you burn scuba diving?

Calories Burned While Scuba Diving So, can you actually burn calories while scuba diving? The answer is yes. Scuba diving can be a calorie-burning exercise. A typical scuba diving session can burn anywhere from 300 to 500 calories per hour. The exertion required to move underwater, the weight of the gear, and maintaining balance all contribute to calorie expenditure.

Factors Affecting Caloric Expenditure The number of calories burned during scuba diving can vary based on factors such as the diver’s weight, the depth of the dive, the intensity of the activity, and the duration of the dive. Heavier individuals tend to burn more calories, and deeper dives may require additional effort, resulting in higher calorie consumption.

Health Benefits of Scuba Diving Apart from the calorie-burning aspect, scuba diving offers numerous health benefits. It can improve cardiovascular health, increase lung capacity, reduce stress, and enhance flexibility. The underwater environment provides a unique and serene setting for physical activity.

What is the 1 3 rule in scuba diving?

In technical diving, the 1/3 Rule ensures divers have enough gas for the descent, return, and emergencies. It divides the total gas supply into three parts: one-third for the descent and exploration, one-third for the return, and one-third as a reserve, enhancing safety in challenging environments.

Whether you’re an experienced technical diver exploring deep wrecks and caves or a recreational diver enjoying the beauty of coral reefs, managing your gas supply is paramount for a safe diving experience. The 1/3 Rule is a fundamental guideline that helps divers allocate their gas effectively, ensuring enough supply for descent, exploration, and emergencies.

What is the 1/3 Rule?. The 1/3 Rule is an essential guideline in scuba diving, especially in technical diving, designed to ensure that divers have enough breathing gas for their underwater journey. According to this rule, a diver should divide their gas supply into three equal parts:

• One-third for the descent and exploration phase.
• One-third for the return to the surface.
• One-third as a reserve for emergencies.

What are the medical risks of scuba diving?

Although fatality rates are low, a variety of diving-related injuries and illnesses may occur, including:●Barotrauma, including arterial gas embolism (AGE)●Decompression sickness (DCS)●Nitrogen narcosis.

How healthy is scuba diving?

3. Lowers Blood Pressure. Once your body has warmed up in the water, scuba diving helps reduce your blood pressure. Which is lowered even more by taking slow and deep breaths as you dive.

Studies have shown that those who dive regularly have a lower risk of heart attacks and stroke. What better excuse do you need to go diving?

There will likely be times you’re swimming against the current as a diver or taking a long surface swim back to your boat, with some chop or swell thrown in the mix.

Rather than seeing it as a problem, you can smile to yourself knowing you’re building your aerobic fitness one fin kick at a time.

Is scuba diving bad for your health long term?

Conclusions. Negative effects of long-term deep diving include dysbaric osteonecrosis, decreased pulmonary function due to airway narrowing, hearing loss, and liver changes. There are studies that suggest neurologic effects of diving, but these studies have been criticized for flaws in design. Damaged cells similar to those found after exposure to ionizing radiation have been observed, but there are no controlled studies to verify that diving caused the cell damage. The severity of the effects and the point at which they manifest themselves in deep divers appears to be established. What remains unknown is the point at which these changes occur in sports divers and at what depths and times. Because no definitive scientific information is available, it can only be speculated that air bubbles will always travel to end organs, affecting them in some manner.

There have been reports of encephalopathy, impairment of cognitive function, and abnormal EEGs using this rationale as an explanation. However, the Divers Alert Network has stated: “The supposition of any damage to the brain rests on the occurrence of so called silent bubbles occurring in the blood or brain and spinal cord. That such bubbles do exist has been well demonstrated by Doppler technology in blood and tissue studies of animals’ spinal cords. Whether or not, however, these silent bubbles are the cause of changes in the brain is unproved…Divers should not be unduly concerned about {the Lancet study}. More research is needed, but the world is filled with many divers who have been diving for over 40 years who show no unusual deterioration in their abilities which would affect their quality of life…Certainly, (the study’s) results should not be discounted. However, in the absence of neurological decompression illness, many other studies in which divers were compared with non-divers, have failed to demonstrate that diving causes long-term neurological impairment or any functional abnormalities.”

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Br J Ind Med 47:519-523, Aug 1990.15.Lehnigk B, Jorres RA, Elliott DH, et al: Effects of a single saturation dive on lung function and exercise performance. Int Arch Occup Environ Health, 69:201-208, 1997.16.Murrison AW, Glasspool E, Pethybridge RJ, et al: Neurophysiological assessment of divers with medical histories of neurological decompression illness. Occup Environ Med Nov 51:730-734, 1994.17.Todnem R, Nyland H, Skeidsvoll H, et al: Neurological long term consequences of deep diving. Br J Ind Med 48:258-266, 1991.18.Peters BH, Levin HS, Kelly PJ: Neurologic and psychologic manifestations of decompression illness in divers. Neurology27:125-127, 1977.19.Palmer AC, Calder IM, Hughes R: Spinal cord degeneration in divers. Lancet 2:1365-1366, 1987.20.Morild I, Mork SJ : A neuropathologic study of the ependymoventricular surface in diver brains. Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine 21:43-51, 1994.21.Mork SJ, Morild I, Brubakk AO, et al: A histopathologic and immunocytochemical study of the spinal cord in amateur and professional divers. Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine 21:391-402, 1994.22.Elliott DH: Long-term sequelae of diving. J R Soc Med 82:79-80, 1989.23.Todnem K, Nyland H, Kambestad BK, et al: Influence of occupational diving upon the nervous system: An epidemiological study. Br J Ind Med 47:708-714, 1990.24.Todnem K, Vaernes R: Acute and chronic effects of deep diving on the nervous system. Tidsskr Nor Laegeforen 113, 36-39, 1993.25.Andrews G, Holt P, Edmonds C, et al: Does non-clinical decompression stress lead to brain damage in abalone divers?. Med J Aust 144:399-401, 1986 Apr.26.Edmonds C and Boughton J: Intellectual deterioration with excessive diving (punch drunk divers). Undersea Biomed Res 12:321-326, 1985 Sept.27.Vaernes RJ, Klove H, Ellertsen B: Neuropsychologic effects of saturation diving. Undersea Biomed Res 16:233-251, 1989 May.28.Vaernes RJ, Klove H, Ellertsen B: Neuropsychological Effects of Saturation Diving. Undersea Biomed Res:233-251, 1989, May 16.29.Reul J, Weis J, Jung A, et al: Central nervous system lesions and cervical disc herniations in amateur divers. Lancet 345:1403-1405, 1995 Jun 3.30.Polkinghorne PJ, Sehmi K, Cross MR, et al: Ocular fundus lesions in divers. Lancet 2:1381-1382, 1988.31.Scholz R, Hofmann H, Duncker G: Mass screening of blue color vision in divers with the desaturated Lanthony-15-Hue Test. Fortschr Ophthalmol 88:505-508, 1991.32.Day RT: Pupil cycle time in the long-term neurologic assessment of divers. Undersea Hyperb Med 21:31-41, 1994.33.Kania B and Krzyzak J: Comparative investigations of changes in the ocular fundus of divers. Klin Oczna 92(5-6):92-93, 1990.34.Holden R, Morsman CD, Lane CM: Ocular fundus lesions in sports divers using safe diving practices. Br J Sports Med 26:90-92, 1992.35.Doran GR, Chaudry L, Brubakk AO, et al: Disturbed liver function in divers – further enzymological evidence. Abstract No. 90, Undersea Biomedical Research Supplement to Vol 17, Joint Meeting on Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine, August 1990.36.Stuhr LE, Maehle BO: The effect of losartan on cardiac function, mass and morphology in rates after repeated hyperbaric exposures. Scand J Clin Lab Invest 57:253-261, 1997, May.37.Ahl’en C, Iverson OJ, Risberg J, et al: Diver’s hand: A skin disorder common in occupational saturation diving. Occup Environ Med 55:141-143 1998, Feb.38.Fox DP, Robertson FW, Brown T, et al: Chromosome aberrations in divers. Undersea Biomed Res 11:193-204, 1984.39.Todnem K, Skeidsvoll H, Svihus R, et al: Electroencephalography, evoked potentials and MRI brain scans in saturation divers: An epidemiological study. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol 79:322-329, 1991.40.Brubakk AO: Central nervous system changes in professional divers as evaluated by MRI. Abstract No. 125, Undersea Biomedical Research Supplement to Vol 17, Joint Meeting on Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine, August 1990.41.Rinck PA, Svihus R, de Francisco P: MR imaging of the central nervous system in divers. J Magn Reson Imaging 1:293-299, 1991.42.Wilmshurst PT, O’Doherty MJ, Nunan TO: Cerebral perfusion deficits in divers with neurological decompression illness. Nucl Med Commun 14:117-120, 1993 Feb.43.Shields TG, Duff PM, Evans SA, et al: Correlation between 99Tcm-HMPAO-SPECT brain image and a history of decompression illness or extent of diving experience in commercial divers. Occup Environ Med 54:247-253, 1997 Apr.44.Broome JR: Brain damage in divers. Br Med J 314:1761, 1997.45.Staff RT, Gemmell HG, Duff PM, et al: Decompression illness in sports divers detected with technetium-99m-HMPAO SPECT and texture analysis. J Nucl Med 37:1154-1158, 1996 Jul.46.Todnem K and Vaernes R: Acute and chronic effects of deep diving on the nervous system. Tidsskr Nor Laegeforen 113:36-39, 1993 Jan.47.Harrison JA: Early diagnosis and pitfalls in diagnosis of aseptic bone necrosis in divers. Proc R Soc Med 70:486-487, 1977.48.Harrison JA: Aseptic bone necrosis in naval clearance divers: Radiographic findings. Proc R Soc Med 64:1276-1278, 1971.49.Harrison J: Aseptic bone necrosis in divers. Br J Radiol 45:393, 1972.50.Elliott DH: The role of decompression inadequacy in aseptic bone necrosis of naval divers. Proc R Soc Med 64:1278-1280, 1971.51.Elliott DH: Incidence of osteonecrosis in Royal Naval divers. pp. 7-8, in Beckman EL, Elliott DH (eds): Dysbarism-related osteonecrosis, Washington, DC, US Dept, HEW 1974.52.Divers Alert Network: DAN responds to Lancet article – Long-term consequences of diving. J Underwater Education:27-28, 1996 Fall.

What is the average lifespan of a diver?

Commercial divers and underwater welders face unique challenges in their line of work, with a significantly higher risk of fatal injury compared to the average worker. Studies have shown that the average lifespan of a diver welder is notably lower, ranging from 35 to 40 years.

The demanding physical requirements, exposure to hazardous conditions, and potential health complications associated with deep-sea diving and underwater welding contribute to this reduced life expectancy.

The life expectancy of deep-sea divers and underwater welders is influenced by various factors, including:

When should you not scuba dive?

Under certain conditions, diving can be strenuous. Respiratory and cardiovascular systems should be in good shape. All body airspaces must be normal and healthy. A person with heart trouble, a current cold or congestion or who has epilepsy, asthma, a serious medical problem, or who is under the influence of alcohol or drugs, should not dive.

If taking medication, consultyourdoctor before participating to this program.​

The purpose of the medical questionnaire that we will send to you once on site is to determine if a medical examination is necessary before participating in recreational diving activities.

Is scuba diving hard on the lungs?

As you descend, water pressure increases, and the volume of air in your body decreases. This can cause problems such as sinus pain or a ruptured eardrum. As you ascend, water pressure decreases, and the air in your lungs expands. This can make the air sacs in your lungs rupture and make it hard for you to breathe.

Condition Basics. What are pressure injuries from scuba diving?. Scuba diving can expose you to high waves and dangerous sea life. But the more likely dangers are those you can’t see. You can be injured if your body isn’t able to adjust to the increasing and decreasing pressure of the water as you breathe compressed air. Pressure changes can cause injuries when you drop down into the water (descend) and come back up (ascend).

Scuba injuries may be mild. But in some cases, they can cause serious problems or even death.

Types of pressure injuries. There are three kinds of injuries from pressure changes when diving:

Is scuba diving bad for your heart?

Pre-Activity Screening. Engaging in physical activity is beneficial for one’s health, but making the transition from a sedentary lifestyle to being physically active, or increasing one’s accustomed level of activity, may be associated with increased risk—especially in individuals with preexisting heart disease. Scuba diving typically involves moderate intensity physical activity, but situations can occur that require high-intensity activity. In addition, scuba diving challenges the cardiovascular system in a variety of ways that may be life-threatening for individuals with heart disease or a low capacity for exercise.

A common pre-activity screening tool is the Recreational Scuba Training Council (RSTC) Medical Statement and Guidelines. The RSTC questionnaire asks about your medical history, as well as symptoms and signs of chronic and acute diseases. If prospective divers have any of the listed conditions, they are advised to consult with a physician to obtain a medical evaluation of their fitness to dive. Most dive operators use the RSTC form to screen customers, and if you check any conditions that call for medical evaluation but cannot present documentation of a recent exam that has cleared you for diving, you may be unable to dive. So you should complete the RSTC Medical Statement in advance of any trip during which you plan to dive and, if necessary, obtain a written evaluation from a physician knowledgeable about diving medicine—and take it with you on your trip.

And remember that it is of the utmost importance that you be honest in filling out the questionnaire: You hold the keys to your safe participation in any physical activity, including scuba diving.

What is the biggest danger in scuba diving?

One of the biggest dangers of scuba diving is running out of air. This can be prevented by regularly checking your air gauge and never diving beyond your certified depth limit. Another potential hazard is ascending too quickly, which can cause DCS. To avoid this, scuba divers always ascend at a slow and steady pace, following the guidelines set forth by their dive master. With some knowledge and caution, diving can be safe and enjoyable for everyone.

Training is Important for making scuba diving safe.. Although scuba diving is a relatively safe sport, some risks are still involved. Make sure you are comfortable with the equipment before diving and be aware of your surroundings and what creatures you might encounter. Don’t touch anything while diving, as it could be dangerous. If you start to feel uncomfortable or scared, end the dive immediately. Always have someone with you when diving in case of an emergency. Choose a PADI open-water course to maximise your safety and enjoyment of scuba diving!

PADI open water courses are comprehensive and will give you the skills and knowledge you need to dive safely. With a PADI certification, you can dive confidently anywhere in the world. So what are you waiting for? Get started on your PADI open water course today!