bones

[IndyScott]

Dose diving have any effect on your bones?
I am 34 years old,with 430 dives completed.
I just recently had a bone brake in my hand and the doctors said it should have not broke for what I was doing.
I just wander if diving effects your bone density

 

[madmole]

I hope not. I've done 2700+ dives since I was 11 and I'm 38 now. Have had my fair share of broken bones (enduro racing) and all have healed fine. All my legs seem to work (one is longer than the other though!!!!)

Bone Necrosis etc were only problems with commercial divers in the early days (60s-70s) when they were doing surface decompression (Bend & Mend).

All my X-rays have been normal. If there was anything wrong with your bones the hospital would hve noticed when they examined yours

 

[John Reinertson]

A particular type of bone disease called Osteonecrosis, where the bone afffected has part of its vital tissue die and then become brittle, is associated with diving, particularly commercial deep and saturation diving.

This is not likely to be the source of the problem in your hand, but it's impossible to know without more detail.

The brief weightlessness in diving does not increase risk for osteoporosis, as it's usually more than offset with the exercise of lugging that equipment around on land or the boat, and it's short duration.

Did your doc treating the hand mention osteonecrosis on the Xray?

Good luck
John

 

[artsprite]

John,
I don't want to step on your toes here, but research has found that it doesn't take deep diving to cause Osteonecrosis (ON).
Simpy breathing compressed air at depth can cause it.

ICUROK,
I would really consider ON as a possibility espcially since you broke a bone in your hand without good reason.

I have ON in my right knee. It doesn't show up in plain x-rays until it is at a later stage where more damage to your bones has been done. There are several things that can cause it and the most common is having taken some form of steroids. But diving is one of the causes. There is a loss of blood flow to the bone, and that part of the bone dies. Then in the case of joints, the cartilage falls off because it cannot grow to dead bone. If left alone, the bone continues to die and the lesion gets larger. When it gets to the last stage the bone actually collapses in on itself from having a dead space just under the surface of the bone. The only way to catch it before it does a lot of damage in your hand is to have an MRI. It shows up a lot earlier in them. Did you have pain in your hand before it broke? I belong to a support group for ON and their are some people who were scuba divers before they got it, and there are several people in the group that have ON in their hands. It might be helpful for you to communicate with some of them and compare notes. I don't know much about it in the hand. I have, though, done an awful lot of research about the disease in the hips and knees. It is rare to have it in your hand, but it can happen to any bone in the body. To go to the group that I am in, go to this website:
www.groups.yahoo.com
In the search blank, type osteonecrosis
You will be given a page with a list of support groups. The one I am in is the first one listed that simply says osteonecrosis.
It is unfortunately kind of confusing to try to read the posts from the group page, but you can get a yahoo e-mail addrss, and have the messages sent to that addy. It is very easy to see which ones come first then, so you can read them chronologically.
I hope you don't have ON, because it is not fun, and usually it takes some kind of surgery to take care of it. But the earlier you find out about it, the better your chances of curing it are. Maybe this will help you to find out if that's what causes the break or not. And, one more thing. It is a relatively rare disease, so some orthopedic doctors have never seen a case, or have just seen one or two. You will need to find one that knows about ON.

 

[Dr Deco]

Dear "IC":

I have not heard of any effects on the bones of recreational divers. Aseptic bone necrosis (ABN) can occur in deep-sea divers and caisson workers, but this is an occupational disease of individuals who undergo very significant decompressions on a weekly, if not daily, basis.

This disease, ABN, can also occur among non-diving individuals and the most common causes are steroid use and excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages.

Dr Deco :doctor:

 

[IndyScott]

Thanks for the info



Scott

 

[IndyScott]

Thanks for the info. The xray did not show any outer problems..



Scott

 

[tracydr]

Have your doctor order a bone mass density study. (most likely he'll order a dexa, which is good) What other risk factors do you have for osteoporosis? Steroids, inflammatory bowel disease,pernicious anemia or lupu,rheumatoid arthritis are far more likely risk factors than diving. In fact, I would think lugging all the equipment would more than offset any slight risk factor from the weightlessness itself. Do you have asthma or any other medical problems? Despite not having risk factors, if I have a patient (especially one as young as you) who breaks a bone for no good reason I automatically get a bone density test. Than, if it is even slightly decreased I would start you on foxamax if there are no contraindications. Continue to get weight bearing exercise (they now say walking doesn't count, but weight lifting or running both are great) and take your calcium!!:doctor:

 

[tracydr]

Here at Fort Sill we see a lot of army basic trainees and young privates with ON of the hip joint. I believe the computer/video generation and lack of mandatory physical education in the school system is contributing as the rate is on the rise, as is the rate of stress fractures.
I don't think this is your problem however it could be. What were you doing when this happened? Sometimes you can fracture from something seemingly minor just because the torgue/angle of leverage was just perfect to cause a break.
Hope you heal well and are able to get back to diving!:doctor: