Causes of dizziness

[gehadoski]

Hi Doctor
Sometimes while I am diving I feel like dizzy and I am not OK. Sometimes it happen to me on 30m - 25m - 50m - 70m. I don't know what are the causes of this dizziness. I am not sure if this Narcosis or not. But I don't think that this is Narcosis cause I have a very good experiense in Nitrogen Narcosis.

I have something wrong in blood and I don't know if this have any effect on diving. The doctor told me not to eat any kind of beens. I hope you know what I mean.

 

[Diver0001]

Hi Doctor
Sometimes while I am diving I feel like dizzy and I am not OK. Sometimes it happen to me on 30m - 25m - 50m - 70m. I don't know what are the causes of this dizziness. I am not sure if this Narcosis or not. But I don't think that this is Narcosis cause I have a very good experiense in Nitrogen Narcosis.

I have something wrong in blood and I don't know if this have any effect on diving. The doctor told me not to eat any kind of beens. I hope you know what I mean.

Can I take a stab at this? I'm sure the real dr. will check in with ideas too.

The most obvious guess would be that you're getting a pressure or a temperature difference in your inner ears and the imbalance is causing to you feel dizzy. Moreover, if you had a problem (damage from a previous barotrauma or perforations) on your round-window or ear-drum then you could easily feel dizzy from that too.

Also given that you dive deep you might be using HE in your gas and when making a gas change you might be getting a kind of isobaric counterdiffusion in your inner ear. That would cause dizziness too but the chances of it being this are smaller.

What's wrong with your blood? The advice to avoid beans sounds like it would have more to do with buoyancy control. LOL

R..

 

[rmediver2002]

Pretty wide range of depths, does the dizziness occur on all or almost all of your dives?

How long does the dizziness last normally? (1-2 minutes or greater than 3-4 minutes)

Do you ever have trouble clearing your ears?

What type of suit do you normally wear? (neck seal?)

Could you be more specific about the problem with your blood?

Jeff Lane

 

[gehadoski]

Pretty wide range of depths, does the dizziness occur on all or almost all of your dives?

How long does the dizziness last normally? (1-2 minutes or greater than 3-4 minutes)

Do you ever have trouble clearing your ears?

What type of suit do you normally wear? (neck seal?)

Could you be more specific about the problem with your blood?

Jeff Lane

First of all thanks a lot for replying to my post.


1.The Dizzinress last only for 1-3 min not more than that
2. No I don't have any problem clearing my ear
3.My suit is Technisub 5mm with hood NOTE: I am diving in Egypt which means a tropical weather or in other words warm weather
4. The problem that I have in my blood. The red blood cells are broken down and Beans and all related components of food (from the same family) are breaking down the red blood cells, which is already broken. So this makes me turn blue and blood in the urine then coma and may be it will lead to death

NOTE : I don't know even the tast of the beans or any of these stuff.

 

[gehadoski]

Can I take a stab at this? I'm sure the real dr. will check in with ideas too.

The most obvious guess would be that you're getting a pressure or a temperature difference in your inner ears and the imbalance is causing to you feel dizzy. Moreover, if you had a problem (damage from a previous barotrauma or perforations) on your round-window or ear-drum then you could easily feel dizzy from that too.

Also given that you dive deep you might be using HE in your gas and when making a gas change you might be getting a kind of isobaric counterdiffusion in your inner ear. That would cause dizziness too but the chances of it being this are smaller.

What's wrong with your blood? The advice to avoid beans sounds like it would have more to do with buoyancy control. LOL

R..

I do appreciate you reply but there is nothing wrong with my ears. Will it be anything else. About my blood I am not a doctor so I don't know the scientific tearm of it

 

[rmediver2002]

Do you ever have multiple bouts of dizziness during the same dive or is it pretty much a one time thing?

How long have you been diving that suit? (were the symptoms present prior as well?)

Any other symptoms the day you experience the vertigo? (fatigue, shortness of breath, rapid heartbeat?)

Have you ever had any problems with blood pressure associated with your disease?

Jeff Lane

 

[beche de mer]

1.The Dizzinress last only for 1-3 min not more than that
2. No I don't have any problem clearing my ear
3.My suit is Technisub 5mm with hood NOTE: I am diving in Egypt which means a tropical weather or in other words warm weather
4. The problem that I have in my blood. The red blood cells are broken down and Beans and all related components of food (from the same family) are breaking down the red blood cells, which is already broken. So this makes me turn blue and blood in the urine then coma and may be it will lead to death

So, you are experiencing transient dizziness at a variety of depths, lasting for a couple of minutes, and clearing spontaneously.

Vertigo after a dive is quite common, but vertigo during a dive, as you describe, is rather less so.

I don't have a definite answer to your enquiry, but I have a couple of comments.

The most common cause of dizziness during diving activities is related to the ear and pressure - possibly alternobaric, as Diver0001 suggested. In one survery:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Retrieve&list_uids=9687648&dopt=Abstract

- a significant of cases of dizzines were due to sensory illusions.

An initial step would be to have an ENT check.


The bean thing - we call the condition Favism - its a deficiency of an enzyme (G6PD) which causes the red blood cells to break down if certain foods - most famously fava beans - or certain medications are taken.

It's possible that you could have some inadverdent exposure to one of the agents which causes the breakdown. There are lots of them. This could result you being relatively anaemic, where there is insufficient haemoglobin available to transport oxygen. This could be a cause of dizziness during exertion.

List of possibly toxic medications here:

http://www.favism.org/favism/english/index.mv?pgid=avoid

A simple blood test would provide the answer to this possibility.

It's an interesting and unusual problem. Please keep us posted if you find the answer.

 

[pismodiver]

Just to clarify: When you say you feel dizzy, do you mean woozy, weak, disoriented? Or do you have the sensation of spinning?

 

[gehadoski]

Do you ever have multiple bouts of dizziness during the same dive or is it pretty much a one time thing?

How long have you been diving that suit? (were the symptoms present prior as well?)

Any other symptoms the day you experience the vertigo? (fatigue, shortness of breath, rapid heartbeat?)

Have you ever had any problems with blood pressure associated with your disease?

Jeff Lane

1. Its is pretty much one time thing. not most of the dives you can say that the ratio is 1:5 or something like that.
2. I have been diving in that suit since 2000.
3. I discovered that I have that disease when I was 6 month old. I ate beans. I turned blue so my mom and dad took me to the doctor and he said the I need to change my blood. So I changed my blood and then. they found that this is a geenatic problem. I inherited this from my grandmother. since that time I haven't try to eat beans again so I had no problem. Until I started deep diving.

 

[gehadoski]

So, you are experiencing transient dizziness at a variety of depths, lasting for a couple of minutes, and clearing spontaneously.

Vertigo after a dive is quite common, but vertigo during a dive, as you describe, is rather less so.

I don't have a definite answer to your enquiry, but I have a couple of comments.

The most common cause of dizziness during diving activities is related to the ear and pressure - possibly alternobaric, as Diver0001 suggested. In one survery:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Retrieve&list_uids=9687648&dopt=Abstract

- a significant of cases of dizzines were due to sensory illusions.

An initial step would be to have an ENT check.


The bean thing - we call the condition Favism - its a deficiency of an enzyme (G6PD) which causes the red blood cells to break down if certain foods - most famously fava beans - or certain medications are taken.

It's possible that you could have some inadverdent exposure to one of the agents which causes the breakdown. There are lots of them. This could result you being relatively anaemic, where there is insufficient haemoglobin available to transport oxygen. This could be a cause of dizziness during exertion.

List of possibly toxic medications here:

http://www.favism.org/favism/english/index.mv?pgid=avoid

A simple blood test would provide the answer to this possibility.

It's an interesting and unusual problem. Please keep us posted if you find the answer.

Thanks alot, you got the right name of it (G6PD). I am making a check on my blood every year. this year the doctor said (as usual) "your ratio is so little" actually I don't know the ratio of what, but all what I know that I can't take medicines that contain salfa or that kind of beans or what you called fava beans.
I don't know if you have a solution of this problem or not. but all the doctors said that there is no solution cause it is gienetic.