Decompression Sickness Research Paper

"The Bends" is also known as decompression sickness or caisson sickness. When a person is scuba diving, the water pressure increases as he or she goes down further. As depth increases, the pressure of the air breathe must also increase, causing more of the air to dissolve in the bloodstream of that person. The main components of air are oxygen, which is continuously used by the body, and nitrogen, which isn't used by the body, so when a diver ascends or rises too quickly to the surface, the pressure decreases and the blood can no longer hold all that nitrogen dissolved in it. The nitrogen forms bubbles in the blood and enter into the joints, such as the elbows and knees, and causes pain in those areas. In worst cases, extreme pain can cause
the diver to "bend." That’s why it is important for divers to ascend slowly, so that the nitrogen can escape into the lungs and can be breath out without causing any harm. Symptoms of the bends usually show up within 90 minutes of diving, but it can also take as long as 2 days. Minor cases can cause itching, rash, joint pain, and even skin discoloration, while extreme cases can cause extreme pain in joints, headaches, seizures, heating problems, nausea, vomiting, back and abdominal pain, vision problems, and chest pain. Decreased pressure allows more gas molecules to be present in the air with very little being dissolved in the solution (bloodstream). On the other hand, increased pressure forces the gas molecules into the solution, relieving the pressure that is being applied, causing fewer gas molecules to be in the air and more of it in the solution. In order for divers to breath underwater, they must inhale highly compressed air in deep water, so that more nitrogen will be dissolved in their bloodstream. The nitrogen gas should not diffuse out of the blood too quickly.
While scuba divers breathe pressurized gas while diving, marine mammals do not.
Marine mammals perform single deep and long dives without decompression sickness symptoms. Diving behavior should result in tissue accumulation of nitrogen, increasing the risk of decompression sickness, however, despite performing repeated and long dives, diving mammals have rarely been reported to suffer from decompression sickness during natural dives. Their physiological adaptations help to reduce nitrogen concentrations and risk. They have a compressible ribcage and stiff upper airways, so increasing pressure at depth would compress the lungs and force air into the upper airways, which reduces gaseous exchange during a dive leading to lungs to be adequately supplied with blood, but the blood is not supplied with air. Therefore, this prevents nitrogen uptake during breath-hold dives for marine mammals. Along with this respiratory adaptation in marine mammals, other possible physiological adaptations include: increased tissue and blood nitrogen solubility (mammals living with elevated blood and tissue levels), the use of a nitrogen-absorbing tissue, changes in cardiac output and varying blood flow distribution as part of the dive-response, and behavioral
adaptations.
Diving after flying does not create a decompression problem by itself since flying actually leaves a person with less gas in the tissues.
The issue is from the person's fitness. Air travel can leave divers fatigued, improperly nourished, dehydrated, stressed, and disorganized. Long-distance travel makes the problem worst, particularly when multiple time zones are crossed. The deeper and longer dives result with more residual nitrogen, affecting the person more, so these cases require longer pre-flight recovery time. Fatigue and disorganization can affect performance and safety, so the person needs to make sure he or he is well rested and ready for flight. If the person is traveling on a shorter flight or have easy travel where he or she can be properly nourished, hydrated, well-organized, then it is less of a worry to have that recovery time. Going to altitude takes a person to an area of lower outside pressure, meaning nitrogen still dissolved in the blood can come out of the solution as bubbles if the pressure reduction is not slow enough to let the body diffuse the gas. Staying at ground level before going to altitude to do a "decompression stop" is the best solution and avoid
risks.