Tag Archive
Warding Off Vampires While Diving
Hi Doc, A mate and I have been meeting at the local pool each week to practice some static apnea, and my breath-hold time has steadily improved. Occasionally though, I have a week where I can't even match the time I started with a couple of months ago. I realize there are many factors at play here, like how much recent exercise I've had, and how much sleep, alcohol, caffeine, etc., but I've noticed that on the two occasions I've had really poor breath-hold. times it's been after a delicious dinner of spaghetti and garlic bread the night before. I seem to remember a sign in the local hospital asking people coming in for surgery not to eat garlic the night before, and I've often wondered what effect garlic has on my cardiovascular system. Is it a potent substance I should avoid before, say, deep decompression diving? Thanks, PB *** Hi PB, Along with its ability to deter vampires, a large number of health benefits have been claimed for garlic over the years, from lowering cholesterol to fighting cancer. Very few appear to have a legitimate basis; the majority remain inadequately studied or appear ineffective. Here's how the National Institutes of Health Division of Complementary and Alternative Medicine views garlic: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/natural/patient-garlic.html As regards to your questions, garlic has mild anti-clotting activity. Therefore, excessive bleeding may be a concern, so patients preparing for surgery may be asked to refrain from eating it starting a day to a week (depending upon the source) prior to the scheduled procedure. This is of particular concern for those who also are taking other products that may predispose to bleeding. Taken in anything resembling normal concentrations, garlic is not a "potent substance" (other than for the effects eating it has on the breath) and there is no apparent reason for the diver with a normal blood-clotting profile... More »
Sex, Drugs, Rock n’ Roll and Diving
There are few opportunities in life that allow almost complete and unmitigated indulgence in whatever interests you, but over the years my career in professional diving has occasionally hit a home run in serendipitous situations. For example, I was actually asked by the U.S. Navy in 1971 to volunteer to smoke copious quantities of marijuana, then perform mundane tasks underwater such as assembling pipe puzzles, taking some psychological tests and tying a few simple knots in brightly colored lines of various diameters. As it turns out, several of the Apollo astronauts were getting sick in the weightless environment of space, so some genius in a white lab coat decided it would be worthwhile to explore the anti-nausea benefits of pot to mitigate the space sickness side effects. The Navy was brought in to help with divers who would get stoned and then undertake sort of a "day in the life" of an astronaut, but underwater. All this while belching clouds of bubbles and trying to ignore how terminally amusing the antics of the sluggish Virgin Islands sea cucumber could be while under the influence. Of course, I had nearly fallen to my knees in my rush to be the first to volunteer for this dangerous but strategically necessary experiment. Call me a patriot, but someone had to do America's dirty work while everyone else was back home protesting. I'd hesitate to suggest that our gonzo dive team had "The Right Stuff," especially since we frequently had trouble driving home after a day's work. But we made up for our lapses with unbridled enthusiasm that impressed the scientists. Then a year later, I got a call asking if I would consider taking a four-week assignment to supervise the ocean scenes in an "adult" film to be shot in Virgin Gorda. Apparently, there would be... More »
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