After effects of smoking??

[hoochykoochy]

I recently started diving (last year) and am completely hooked. I have been smoking for about 18 years and have recently managed to kick the habit (3 months now). Obviously diving and smoking do not go hand in hand, although I'm sure there are plenty of divers who smoke. However, my aim is to get Nitrox trained to pursue wreck diving, but I have been told that smokers should definitely not dive using Nitrox (CO levels??), but my question is how long would the "effects" of smoking 18 years take to "leave" my body, to make diving, either using Nitrox or not, much safer?? Also, what are the risks with this??

 

[MantaRey]

glad to hear you gave that up. I'm not too sure about this sort of thing, but what I'm thinking of is you should do lots of aerobic exorcises. like swimming or running. to get back the strength in your breathing, since that's what smoking effects. your lungs probably aren't completely jelly or anything, so anything to make them stronger is always good.

 

[HarleyDiver]

If anything I think us EX-smokers who have abused our lungs so long benifit MORE from the extra O2 in Nitrox.

Any residual CO was gone from your lungs the day after you guit.
However the damage to your lungs is still there. Extra O2 is always a good thing , until you get TOO much, but that is covered in the class.

I say go for it. I use Nitrox & love it. Smoked for 25 years.

No I am NOT a doctor & this is NOT medical advice.. (insert standard disclaimer here)
Just Personal Opinion...
:wacko:

 

[DocVikingo]

To the best of my knowledge, you have been misinformed.

Unless otherwise directed by a knowledgeable pulmonlogist, I can think of no reason why an apparently healthy ex-smoker, or current smoker for that matter, cannot use nitrox.

Best regards.

DocVikingo

 

[Phish-phood]

Again not a doctor but studying environmental health.

All my research suggests that ex-smokers regain full lung capacity shortly after giving up smoking, as in a matter of weeks/months.

 

[ssra30]

The only setting where nitrox ie higher O2 content might hurt a smoker/ex smoker would be in some people who already develop
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. COPD is a chronic disease and the damage done to the lung is permanent, ie when you stop smoking, the lung does not get worse but it does not generally recover much either. Anyhow, in normal person, CO2 level is the main stimulus for breathing, ie when CO2 level goes up, the brain tell you to breath. In some COPD, CO2 level remains high constantly and the brain switch to O2 for breathing ie low O2 tells the brain to stimulate breathing. In this selected group of people, when they breathe higher O2 air such as nitrox, the body detect higher level of O2 and the brain can actually tell the body to stop breathing.
Similarly some people with obstructive sleep apnea can also retain CO2 and become very sensitive to O2 level so nitrox may be harmful as well.
However, most people with severe enough COPD or sleep apnea probably are already sick enough and already know that they already have the disease as they are not going to be completely asymptomatic and walk around and try scuba diving just for fun.

Actually, since I never had formal education in scuba diving medicine, I assume that breathing normal air under pressure is probably bad for those CO2 retainer as well. Eventhough they breath regular air with 21% O2, at depth, their oxygen partial pressure in their blood is probably a lot higher as well so again, there is a chance they may stop breathing even with just normal air. Just a thought.

 

[Saturation]

ssra30 once bubbled...
...Actually, since I never had formal education in scuba diving medicine, I assume that breathing normal air under pressure is probably bad for those CO2 retainer as well. Eventhough they breath regular air with 21% O2, at depth, their oxygen partial pressure in their blood is probably a lot higher as well so again, there is a chance they may stop breathing even with just normal air. Just a thought.

Kudos nevertheless, your medical reasoning in this area is quite in sync with current thinking on c02 retention and gas exchange.

In a nutshell, if c02 retention is severe enough, patient's can pass out in-water from acidosis induced by hyperoxic [high pp02] induced hypopnea [slow breathing]. There is some theoretical increase risk for enhanced 02 toxicity from c02 retention breathing high pp02. If a smoker can dive safely with air, s/he most likely can dive with nitrox.

C02 retainers often have emphsyema as a large component of their lung disease, and most do not have normal exercise tolerance. If you can pass the US Army physical, any amount of damage is likely insignificant.

See "new divers".

http://dive-med.org/

Most smokers with good exercise tolerance suffer from bronchitis, the 'smoker's cough' and its suspected that emphysematous patient's have a predisposition to damage their alveoli walls over those who only get bronchitis. Thus the term COPD, which effectively refers to a mix of bronchitis and emphysema. A COPD patient could have any mix of the two, the more emphysema, the more c02 retention they suffer.

Stopping smoking now prevents further damage to irreversible damage. Smoking a pack a day for 30 years doesn't not mean that smoker has suffered 3 times more lung damage as someone smoking a pack a day for 10 years, it could be less or more, you can find out only by doing a pulmonary function test.

Stopping smoking may allow the lungs to fully recover, if stopped early in one's smoking habit.

Damage depends on how well your body recovers from injury. The 10 year smoker person could be more sensitive, and the 30 year smoker more resistant, however, BOTH of them would have damage more than to someone who never smoked at all or was just exposed to second hand smoke.

Stopping smoking now and waiting as years pass reduces your risk for smoking related cancers.

 

[bluebanded goby]

Interesting discussion of CO2 retention. A question to Saturation: If someone is a CO2 retainer, would this usually show up in a low score on a pulse oximeter?

 

[Braunbehrens]

Note that there is some anecdotal evidence that smoking actually prevents dcs and allows people to hold their breath longer.

None of this has ever been studied, and it doesn't make much logical sense, but it has been regarded as true by 3rd world divers as well as some early commercial divers.

I was talking to one commercial diver, and he told me that after coming up from a dive they'd stick a cigarrette in his mouth, and asked him if he could taste it. If he could, it was assumed he wasn't bent.

Don't take this as a reason to smoke or even a reason not to quit, I just thought it was an interesting tidbit to throw into the conversation. Obviously smoking is very bad for you, as those of us who have quit can attest (we feel much better).

Doc is right in that not all people are affected the same way. My great-grandmother chainsmoked until the day she died, at the ripe old age of 105, and she was full of pss and vinegar until the end (or so I'm told). On the other hand I knew a guy who just keeled over at 45, I suspect from smoking since he looked otherwise healthy and was a heavy smoker. YMMV.

 

[ssra30]

Bluebanded Goby, most CO2 retainer that I saw have their pulse ox somewhere from high 80% to low 90%. Usually there have to be a significant lung damage already to develop CO2 retention. However not everyone with low pulse ox will be a CO2 retainer.