What are the effects on our body during a scuba dive?
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In previous months we saw how the body is equipped with systems that allow it to live perfectly well at normal atmospheric pressure. In particular, we talked about the effects that climbing to high altitudes can have on the body.
Today, instead, we want to talk about the effects that going down into the deep sea can have on our body*, for example when scuba diving.
When divers descend to great depths, they are subjected to greater pressure, which rises quickly as a result of the weight of the seawater (at just 10 m deep the pressure has already doubled!).
This pressure can cause nitrogen narcosis or "rapture of the deep", whose symptoms vary according to the depth reached. At 45 m deep, divers may experience a feeling of euphoria and intoxication, similar to that felt after a few glasses of wine. At greater depths they become weak and clumsy, and at 100-120 m they lose consciousness.
These symptoms are thought to be caused by reduced excitability of the neurons when N2 (nitrogen), which is highly fat-soluble, dissolves in their lipid membranes.
Another problem that can occur when diving is decompression sickness or the "bends", because the victim is often literally bent double by the pain it causes.
This can happen when divers rise quickly to the surface after staying underwater for a long time, and therefore have a considerable amount of N2 dissolved in their tissues. The rapid drop in PN2 (nitrogen pressure) causes N2 to come rapidly out of solution and form gas bubbles, like the CO2 bubbles that form when we open a bottle of champagne.
Decompression sickness can be prevented by rising slowly to the surface or by decompressing gradually in a decompression chamber, so that N2 can be released slowly through the lungs without forming bubbles.
*source: "Fondamenti di fisiologia umana" by Lauralee Sherwood.
In previous months we saw how the body is equipped with systems that allow it to live perfectly well at normal atmospheric pressure. In particular, we talked about the effects that climbing to high altitudes can have on the body.
Today, instead, we want to talk about the effects that going down into the deep sea can have on our body*, for example when scuba diving.
When divers descend to great depths, they are subjected to greater pressure, which rises quickly as a result of the weight of the seawater (at just 10 m deep the pressure has already doubled!).
This pressure can cause nitrogen narcosis or "rapture of the deep", whose symptoms vary according to the depth reached. At 45 m deep, divers may experience a feeling of euphoria and intoxication, similar to that felt after a few glasses of wine. At greater depths they become weak and clumsy, and at 100-120 m they lose consciousness.
These symptoms are thought to be caused by reduced excitability of the neurons when N2 (nitrogen), which is highly fat-soluble, dissolves in their lipid membranes.
Another problem that can occur when diving is decompression sickness or the "bends", because the victim is often literally bent double by the pain it causes.
This can happen when divers rise quickly to the surface after staying underwater for a long time, and therefore have a considerable amount of N2 dissolved in their tissues. The rapid drop in PN2 (nitrogen pressure) causes N2 to come rapidly out of solution and form gas bubbles, like the CO2 bubbles that form when we open a bottle of champagne.
Decompression sickness can be prevented by rising slowly to the surface or by decompressing gradually in a decompression chamber, so that N2 can be released slowly through the lungs without forming bubbles.
*source: "Fondamenti di fisiologia umana" by Lauralee Sherwood.
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