NO more headache when using Nitrox

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There is a possible pathophysiologic mechanism here, in that one of the theories of headache is vasodilation (which is why many of the migraine meds are vasoconstrictors). Oxygen is a vasoconstrictor. So, if your headaches are related to vasodilation (which CO2 headaches are thought to be), then the elevated O2 in the Nitrox might counteract that to some degree. Not saying that's what's happening, just that there is a logical thought process that could support it.
 
Interesting, are you a Doctor ??, do you think that is possible to have a Right to left shunt problem and not suffer from headaches or migraines ??

I think I will show this document to my doctor see if he think it will be appropriate to make a Transthoracic contrats echocardiography, if I want to get down the path of Technical Diving it is a valid test to do discard this out of the way, I don't want get bend and fuc*** my live and the ones around me.





I am an anesthesiologist, so yes. I also review articles in dive medicine and lecture for AddHelium. They have a "science" section on their website on which we post what we think is interesting and educational for divers.

---------- Post added April 23rd, 2015 at 12:31 PM ----------

 
There is a possible pathophysiologic mechanism here, in that one of the theories of headache is vasodilation (which is why many of the migraine meds are vasoconstrictors). Oxygen is a vasoconstrictor. So, if your headaches are related to vasodilation (which CO2 headaches are thought to be), then the elevated O2 in the Nitrox might counteract that to some degree. Not saying that's what's happening, just that there is a logical thought process that could support it.

If that is the case, is Tec diving still an option I can try to pursue ?, I guess Air bottle deco's can't be in the menu, that will make my headache worse, and the 50+O2% will alleviate or eliminate them.
 
Another possible avenue.... Do you get all your air from the same place? Is the nitrox blended at that same place?
There are different purity requirements depending on if the compressor is air only or air/nitrox.
I would expect a headache during the dive with poor air quality, but ya never know.

Might try getting tanks from another source or asking for Nitrox at 25%(or anything close to 21%), and see what happens.
 
I don't think very many technical divers either execute their dives or decompress from them on air, Remy.

I'm not sure we have diagnosed what is going on with your headaches at all. Headaches can be related to CO2, to barotrauma, to stress, to visual stimuli, to viral illnesses, to foods . . . get the picture? You'd have to keep a very careful journal of your diving headaches to be sure that you winnow out a wide variety of causes before concluding that the headaches were caused by diving and relieved by Nitrox. And even if that's true, if they are relieved by Nitrox, hooray! It's a simple and relatively expensive way to prevent a headache. What the actual mechanism is is less important than the fact that YOU experience the effect. It's like me and Nitrox fatigue. Yeah, it might be placebo effect, but I don't care. Placebo effects are real to the patient!
 
Another possible avenue.... Do you get all your air from the same place? Is the nitrox blended at that same place?
There are different purity requirements depending on if the compressor is air only or air/nitrox.
I would expect a headache during the dive with poor air quality, but ya never know.

Might try getting tanks from another source or asking for Nitrox at 25%(or anything close to 21%), and see what happens.

Well different Dive shops, but here on the Island there is a company that fills different shops with banked gas, it can be that all the places where I rented tanks have the same provider, I will need to ask.

---------- Post added April 23rd, 2015 at 06:56 PM ----------

I don't think very many technical divers either execute their dives or decompress from them on air, Remy.

That is clear to me, but even that it can be possible in case of short Deco dives, if my problem persist, I will opt to use Higher O2%

I'm not sure we have diagnosed what is going on with your headaches at all. Headaches can be related to CO2, to barotrauma

I understand that, but more things that are pointed out, better I can approach my Doctor an tell him my situation, what Claudia mention it can be a possible pre-existing condition that I have that I was not aware that I had, even that I don't suffer from migraines in normal day to day live.

What I was thinking is that CO2 is affecting me, but of course not sure about it, but it may be dangerous if I end up using trimix as the O2% can be same as air or lower, It is a possibility for me to be at risk at Technical Depths related to the PPCO2 ???

It's like me and Nitrox fatigue. Yeah, it might be placebo effect, but I don't care. Placebo effects are real to the patient!

Do you mean you feel less fatigue after diving with Nitrox ?
 
Back to my post... if you have less headaches with increased O2 its displacement or or your "normal" air source has higher CO2 which would lead me to investigate if the compressor used is eating oil, or drawing from a CO2/CO rich source.

People get nitrox in 2 ways: partial pressure blend or or they preblend via a nitrox/trimix stick before compression. Even the "O2 clean certified" people go through a Hyper stack and the mix is PP or post blended/compressed after the stick and the the monoxide is converted to CO2 by the monoxycon sieve thus the CO2 again increases. You need to displace, or lower your CO2 intake.. pretty simple. O2 at depth is also narcotic... dammed any way you go so air quality is paramount. If you are unsure of the quality the best bet is to displace with He or O2. I bet you'll feel just as well if you run 21/35..etc as you do with EAN. Nitrox is just easy and cheap.. lowering CO2 is a bit harder and unless you are a technical person I doubt any shop would be able to convince patrons to pay extra for CO2 pre-scrubbing.

All ppm standards for O2 clean are max 1000ppm CO2 so a passing certificate really does not mean much...as global warming and CO2 rises I imagine we'll see more and more of this. The only way around this it to prescrub the air. Back when people did deep air CO2 was around 300ppm... now its twice that.
 
My experiences with diving and headaches are a little different than yours, but I figured I'd throw it out there.

I suffer from regular headaches, and and as such, I regularly start dives with one. My experience is that diving will either reduce or eliminate headaches every time, and that the higher the partial pressure of oxygen, the faster and more completely the headache goes away and the better the chances are that it stays gone once I've surfaced. The use of nitrox or 100% makes a very noticeable difference. On one dive I dove air as bottom mix, and 100% on deco. I had a headache that had retreated to a light background annoyance during the dive, and that was making a comeback on the way up. Once I switched to 100%, it went completely away after 6-7 minutes.

Hard to say what the mechanism at play for me is, but high ppo2s have a profound effect on my headaches! I also have my doubts on the placebo effect, simply because when I started diving people I respected said that nitrox wouldn't make me feel any better after a dive, and that anyone who said so was feeling exactly that, a placebo effect. I believed them... right up until my experiences told me otherwise.
 
Ahh.. Dreamdive/Claudia.. thanks for that. That read like something Ebersole wold have written and it looked like it hinted around his PFO study but never came right out and mentioned such.

The paper also mentioned that the headaches were correlated to the profile, but for the small shunt group I guess. I remember listing to Ebersole's speeches but I don't think I remember him mentioning headaches as he was all about the doppler data.

Every now and then this forum proves to me its value.. thanks for that. Now, in light of my previous statements it sounds like a persistent headaches has me taking a tangent. IMO if I was the gent with these headaches I'd be careful with my profile and pay better attention to it and the symptoms searching for correlation, and at the same time perhaps check the shops air analysis to check for CO2 and practice good breathing habits.

Here is a cool one on PP CO2 and relates CO2 to density as well which lends me to think trimix is good no matter for the CO2 displacement (my theory), and the potential sensitivity due to density ... which explains to me why I can dive deep on OC, but at 135-138ft on CCR with air I hold back less I become a stumbling fool. Is it from density, higher loop PP CO2, or perhaps my PO2 setting.. not sure, but its what happens to me at 138ft on CCR with air diluent around 1.2po2. If I hover at 130-135ft I'm fine because I know at 138 I become stupid which has me on the fence because on OC I'd be ~1.1'ish, and when on mix I'm clear as can be... so density/displacement/retention.. ...just go with mix I figure.

https://www.globalunderwaterexplorers.org/carbon-dioxide-narcosis-and-diving

Here is the scenario I play in my head:

assuming my gas is 550ppm like in Cozumel:

I'm assuming that 0.055% is treated just like O2 so at 1ata lets call it ppCO2=.055

That number is telling me that I'm breathing 0.055% CO2 at ~1ATA and if pressure increases I'll have an increasing ppCO2, like we do with everything else.



Now, at 5ATA I'm breathing a ppCO2 of 0.23 which is logical as its the same with every other gas.

Just a brain-fart here: I'll wager if the air to the compressor was scrubbed of CO2 so that whatever CO2 existed was the result of monoxycon conversion if it would be less narcotic, and without the helium penalty at moderate depths. I'll wager its the argon and CO2 in the gas that is more narcotic than the N2. At moderate depths say 130-160 I wonder how much more "clear" a diver would be if just air was scrubbed of CO2 & argon. My gotcha is that we constantly scrub on CCR, so I'm not sure how this plays into the equation but that there is some magical ppCO2 that affects us just as there is with N2, and the saving grace woud be that lowering the ppCO2 would extends the PN2 narcotic depth.


Now if you are on 10/50, and you have 40% of that .055 then you are at .022 1ATA, then you can negate the ppCO2 effect as no sane person wold go much deeper to worry about it. I bet you don't feel narked at 300' on 10/50 with a ppCO2 0.22 and you dont blackoutt from CO2 poisoning. As long as the ratios work out it seems ppCO2 is always negated on deep dives.

This all flys in the face of EAN of course because the point is to lessen the deco obligation at moderate depths... what to do...my whole point is I'd like to hear if anybody has ever tried to lower the PPCO2 as combining that with EAN would be the best bet for extending the narcotic depth as well as maintaining shallow recreational NDL obligation. Thus, we could see if its the CO2 sensitivity, assuming good breathing habits, as lowering the PPCO2 to surface level at max MOD would negate the density/sensitivity factor of CO2. Then if dude gets headache... close the PFO.
 
Newbie to the site here, so apologies for dragging up an old thread, just wanted to put my 2 penneth in on the subject.

I suffer from Chronic Cluster headaches on a regular basis. I have been fortunate to not suffer with one whilst diving, I have on the surface interval, but never whilst underwater.

One of my therapies for when I do have a cluster attack, is that I have 100% O2 at home which I set to deliver O2 at 15 litres per min, via a closed mask. This constricts the blood vessels in my brain, so taking the pressure off my facial nerves and clearing my attack.

I would presume breathing in air, or a Nitrox mix, via a condensed means, would , in effect work in a slightly weaker way to my treatment.
 
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