Advice on headaches/nausea please!

[Mindies78]

Hi there,

I am a fit and healthy AOW diver who started off great, but on my last several dives I've been plagued with headaches and nausea. I am always hydrated, eat good food(not too close to dive), have no problems with sinuses or ears and never get any form of motion sickness. I have always been very relaxed underwater (usually consuming about the same amount of air as the guide) but recently have been getting headaches towards the end of dive and surface with terrible nausea and sometimes vomiting. Generally it clears within a couple of hours and I can dive again, but on my last dive (2 days ago) I was too ill for the rest of the day.

One odd piece of information that might be a factor is that (being a female with an ample chest) I find wetsuits are very tight across the chest and I wonder if my lungs could be too squashed and my breathing might be affected? One theory I've heard is that there might be pockets of carbon dioxide trapped in my lungs...

It's really taking the shine off my diving and making me lose confidence - can anyone help??

Cheers

 

[dzonokwa]

Sounds like nasty polluted air. Where are your tanks being filled? I noticed you are a new diver. Check out the location of the compressors. Is there diesel fuel or car exhaust, etc in the area? Are your symtoms occurring at different dive operators? Are other divers experiencing similiar symptoms? As far as your wetsuit is concerned ..... If you are not comfortable, you are going to find one that works or have one custom made. Don't ever compromise on your comfort when diving.
Best wishes and good diving!

 

[TSandM]

If you are a new diver, and matching gas consumption with the dive guide, my guess is that you are seriously underventilating -- maybe skip breathing? CO2 retention, which is a result of inspiratory and expiratory pauses that are too long (which results in great gas consumption figures, but at the cost of not getting rid of enough CO2) causes headaches and nausea.

I'd pay attention to your breathing pattern for a dive or two. Make sure you have little or no pause at the end of each breathing cycle. See if that helps.

 

[Cave Diver]

I'd echo what TSandM said, assuming that no one else is having the same problems. If so, then it may be a contaminated air source.

If not, you might try making a conscious effort to pay attention to your breathing. Instead of trying to suck a full breath in then exhale, try to exhale slowly and fully, taking about twice as long to exhale as inhale, then just let your lungs slowly fill back up.

 

[Peter_C]

The first time I went warm water diving was the first time I experienced bad headaches. I believe two things contributed to them. One was my trim. By the end of the dive I was head heavy and being head down did not leave me feeling very good. The other thing as TSandM suggests is skip breathing causing them. I learned to just breathe as much air as I needed and not worry about consumption. Having nice regs that breathe super easy also helps.

I did one other thing to help alleviate headaches and that was to switch to nitrox basically 100% of the time. If I dive nitrox I almost never get a headache.

 

[DandyDon]

I'm a cynic about untested air too, but skip breathing is more common with new divers, and - taking your endowment hint in mind, your wet suit could indeed be part of the problem. Might also ask on the Women's forum for opinions.

 

[Ghanguss]

If you are a new diver, and matching gas consumption with the dive guide, my guess is that you are seriously underventilating -- maybe skip breathing? CO2 retention, which is a result of inspiratory and expiratory pauses that are too long (which results in great gas consumption figures, but at the cost of not getting rid of enough CO2) causes headaches and nausea.

I'd pay attention to your breathing pattern for a dive or two. Make sure you have little or no pause at the end of each breathing cycle. See if that helps.

+1. I used to get headaches and changing my breathing pattern fixed it. I now breath as cave diver explained and rarely get headaches.

I sometimes get nausea while surfacing. Usually on square profiles like boat dives. I think its the reverse presure in my sinuses. On shore dives I never get it, so I need to slow my ascent rate to reduce the effect.

 

[sashaz]

I am also fairly new, but my husband has been diving a lot, and had a similar problem a while ago. In his case, he found that if he would surface much slower, at say 20 feet per minute, the headaches disappeared, and he did not at all feel tired after the dive.
Just another thought.

 

[Peter_C]

I am also fairly new, but my husband has been diving a lot, and had a similar problem a while ago. In his case, he found that if he would surface much slower, at say 20 feet per minute, the headaches disappeared, and he did not at all feel tired after the dive.
Just another thought.

Slow that down a little more even at 10 feet per minute, starting at half depth to the surface, and he may feel even better. Research ratio deco.

 

[Mindies78]

Thanks for the ideas everyone! I'm going to rule out contaminated air (just because it was with three different dive companies and no-one else was affected) but will definitely consider the 'skip breathing' issue. I thought I was breathing fairly normally, but it sounds highly likely that I'm not exhaling for long enough and getting rid of CO2.

I will also consider getting a wetsuit custom-made for me, to ensure diving comfort. I might talk to some other women and see if anyone else has encountered this.

All your advice is much appreciated!