Asthma And Scuba Diving - Understanding Asthma And Scuba Diving

Asthma is a long-term breathing disorder which can be controlled with proper treatment. Unfortunately the disease cannot be cured completely. Asthma badly affects as many as 1 in 5 children and 1 in 10 adults today. Asthma is even the cause of many lost school days and a lot of time off work. People with asthma attack have episodes of shortness of breath which can be brought on or made worse by certain trigger factors. Shortness of breath is due to narrowing of the breathing airways within the lungs as a result of inflammation and muscle spasm.

Every breath people take draws air into the windpipe which is known as trachea. The trachea splits into two further tubes called the bronchi, which then divide into smaller and smaller airways called bronchioles, eventually leading to small air sacs called alveoli. In the air bags or alveoli the oxygen in the air passes into the bloodstream. Carbon dioxide, at the same time, produced in the tissues of the body moves from the blood into the air sacs and then out of the body. Asthma attack is due to constriction and inflammation of the small airways. In this disorder, there is a special type of inflammation which narrows the small airways and makes them twitchy and very susceptible to any environmental changes. The air passages also become blocked with sticky mucus, and this blockage can come on very quickly.

During an acute asthma attack breathing becomes harder, even at rest. There may be continuous cough or wheezing, which is a musical noise when asthmatic people breathe.

Scuba is the Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus developed by Jacques Costeau. A whole new world of underwater exploration has been opened up by Scuba, without the heavy diving gear with air pipes to the surface. In the last 20 years there has been an incredible increase in the use of scuba equipment for recreational purposes. But there are some dangers of scuba diving. In fact, most of the sporting activities have risks and scuba is no exception. The chance of dying in scuba diving is somewhat higher than boxing and over 40 times higher than playing football or water-skiing. Most of the dangers in scuba diving are to do with pressure. A diver of scuba breathes air into his or her lungs at a pressure the same as that of the depth of water in which the diver is swimming. Pressure rapidly increases under water, and at 30 feet depth, pressure is double that at the surface.

If the scuba diver inhales into his or her lungs from a scuba cylinder while at 30 feet depth and then comes to the surface, the air in the chest expands as the air pressure falls. The expanding air pressure will need to escape, usually through the mouth or nose, bubbling its way to the surface. If any of the air passages become closed as generally can happen in asthma, the air cannot escape and will expand within the lungs, eventually causing the lung to burst. The consequences of this can even be life threatening. Scuba diving is a particular risk for asthmatic people. Some of the typical trigger factors of asthma attack are present in scuba diving. Use of any other kind of underwater breathing system also carries the same risks.

• Felicia Byrnes
• 14/01/2009, 2:59 PM
• 0 Comments