Diving

[Molmo]

Hi

Does anyone dive with asthma?

[Lysistrata Administrator Community Ambassador]

I never have but I wanted to, and so looked into it a few years ago - this isn't an expert opinion or even someone who has done it, just what I learned from dive forums and websites.

Generally you have to declare if you have asthma and if you do, then it seems you usually need to be evaluated by a dive medicine specialist to see if they think it's ok (there is a medical form but your GP shouldn't really be signing off on this as it is a specialist area).

When I looked a few years ago, the general medical opinion is that it's probably ok for people with mild, well-controlled asthma with allergic triggers (you're unlikely to encounter those underwater), but not for people triggered by cold temperatures/temperature or pressure changes or emotions, as those could become a factor during a dive. They also don't want you to dive if you've needed your reliever in I think the last 48 hours.

I expect there are people with asthma who dive (I know there are competitive freedivers who have asthma, but I assume you're talking about scuba diving). However, especially in the case of the competitive freedivers, I expect they had specialist medical advice. I would seriously advise you not to be tempted to say you don't have asthma - you might well not be planning to at all so apologies if this comes over a bit strong, but I saw some people in online forums say they were just going to pretend they don't have it. Even mild asthma can be unpredictable, and that's on land.

I don't think with my severe and (at the time) poorly controlled asthma they would let me, but when I read up what can happen, I didn't want to! From Wikipedia (barotrauma page): Lung over-pressure injury in ambient pressure divers using underwater breathing apparatus is usually caused by breath-holding on ascent. The compressed gas in the lungs expands as the ambient pressure decreases causing the lungs to over-expand and rupture unless the diver allows the gas to escape by maintaining an open airway, as in normal breathing. The lungs do not sense pain when over-expanded giving the diver little warning to prevent the injury. This does not affect breath-hold divers [ie free-divers] as they bring a lungful of air with them from the surface, which merely re-expands safely to near its original volume on ascent.[2] So if your airways are narrowed with asthma, it's harder for the gas to escape and it can cause damage. This explains the asthmatic freedivers though - they don't need to worry so much about the air having to escape.

Snorkelling is fine though - so maybe look into that if diving isn't possible? I've really enjoyed it.

[Molmo in reply to Lysistrata]

HiThanks for taking the time to reply….it may have crossed my mind to just do it…..I snorkel when ever I can and used to dive in my early twenties, my asthma only really appeared in my 50s. Darn.

[peege in reply to Molmo]

Same here. I obtained my Padi certificate in my early 40s in Australia . My asthma was undiagnosed then . Part of the training was to prove you could swim a fair distance (might have been a mile, cant remember), I thought I was going to die just doing that & in hindsight don't know how I managed it.

Great replies to this post!.

[breathybea in reply to peege]

Yes, I remember they get you to do an open water swim on the PADI. Our instructor had us jumping off the back of boat and swimming to a buoy and back on the open sea. I guess that's as much about the instructors seeing you can do it safely? I found this a bit daunting too! My asthma means I don't feel like the strongest swimmer. Although, weirdly, I've always loved swimming under water. 🤷‍♀️

[Itswonderful]

I haven’t but I wanted to several years ago. You are asked to sign a medical declaration before the dive company will take you. They ask for a doctors letter if you have any medical problems. When I saw the doctor to ask for his blessing, he advised against it strongly, so I couldn’t dive. The doctor explained that the dry air in the tank would likely cause breathing difficulties and if this happened there would be a risk to life.

[runcyclexcski]

Divers use dry air (the air in the tank cannot be humidified). This is bad news for asthmatics (exercise-induced asthma is triggered by cold dry air). I used to see a sports medicine asthma consultant in the SF Bay Area who specialized in asthma in divers. I am not a diver per se, but this was his theme. There must be experts in the UK on this.

[ahfat41]

I have obtained my padi advanced certificate years ago. Last time I did scuba diving was 5 yrs ago Did not have any issues but my asthma is getting worse so might be an issue now.

[breathybea]

I did my PADI open water diving over a few days about ten years ago. Although at that time of my life, my asthma wasn't too bad. (I had a brown inhaler and would take the blue inhaler a couple of times per month perhaps?)

It was also on an island off the coast of Honduras and the cleaner air and warmer weather meant my symptoms were also pretty minimal there. Warmer waters may be better!

I found trying to convince my brain it was okay to breathe under water initially a bit distressing, but we trained in the shallow bay first, and the instructor was great and guided me through how to do it.

All the first parts of the course were all about safety and what to do in an emergency (hand signals, sharing air, etc.) The first underwater dive was at 30 ft to test out the emergency procedures safely on the seabed. It was all fairly gradual.

It's important to take extra care when coming back to the surface. It's not possible to just shoot right back up (e.g. in an emergency). It's possible to get the bends, which can also cause breathing difficulties, so it's essential to pay attention to how to properly inflate and deinflate the vest and how to stay calm, come up in stages and pause momentarily on the way. (I came up a bit fast, which made me feel a bit woozy!)

All in all, I found it to be a really incredible and actually quite calming and peaceful experience.

[Molmo]

Thanks for sharing, that sounds positive.

[risabel59]

Hi, I am also a diver with asthma. I can't dive at the moment as my asthma is not stable enough. I had to get a Dive doctor's certificate. However the most important thing to take into account is that small bubbles of air can get trapped in your lungs if you are at all symptomatic, which is very bad new if it is pressurised when it gets stuck and you rise to the surface and the air expands causing terrible damage. The other issue is compressed air quality which you have to be very careful over. I never dive if I have had to use my reliever inhaler in anger in the 3 days before a dive, this shows me that there could be problems. I am very cautious. However it is possible to dive with asthma as long as you don't do massive deep dives.Cheers R