Thursday, March 20, 2008

 

Glucose pre-dive drink may prevent decompression sickness

Decompression sickness is caused by nitrogen being released from the blood too quickly, forming bubbles which may expand and injure tissue or block blood vessels. Anything that reduces bubble formation should decrease the risk of decompression sickness.

Many factors increase the chance of decompression sickness, including dehydration. Researchers from the French Navy have found that drinking 1.3 litres of a saline-glucose drink an hour and a half before the dive decreased bubble formation. This provides an easy means of reducing decompression sickness risk.

The test was carried out on eight military divers.

Journal Ref: Br. J. Sports Med., February 28, 2008


What do you think of this news item? Start a discussion.
Bookmark with: del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit
| Slashdot   Slashdot It! | Facebook | StumbleUpon

--
Subscribe to SCUBA News (ISSN 1476-8011) for more free news, articles, diving reports and marine life descriptions - http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/news.html


Labels: ,


# posted by SCUBA News @ 4:38 pm
Comments:
Interesting. But what are the ingredients and how much do you need to mix such a drink?
# posted by Anonymous Diveheads : 6:02 pm
 
In the trial they drank 1.3 litres half an hour before diving. I couldn't do that because my bladder would burst with a semi-dry suit on but I could do it an hour before. The used a "saline-glucose beverage". I think that something like Powerade or Gatorade would do the trick as it has glucose and salt in it. It's only a guestimation though.
Interestingly, when I fainted at the gym, they gave me Powerade to recover and I've read about diabetic divers using powerade before a dive.
# posted by Anonymous Rog : 6:34 am
 
Post a Comment

<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?