do scuba diver absorb too much salt??

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Aaanyhow.... Thanks all for confirming that the "over-salted diver" is nonsense!
Again, as an extremely experienced diver (from a family of doctors!), I was pretty sure it was nonsense.
However, ("moderators" please note!) for the sake of verifying and keeping an open mind I put it out there! ;-)
 


A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

Moderators had no problem with danrab's original post starting this thread.

A mod post was added to danrab's post to stop those who don't think twice before responding to danrab's inquiry.
 
My experience of 40 years ago.
At the time I was still practicing free diving.
A free diver can stay in salt water several hours, compared with the 30-40 minutes of the single dive per day, deep and with short deco, which was typical for a scuba diver of the time.
So the exposure was much longer.
The osmotic effect of staying submerged in salt water for several hours was quite evident and confirmed by dozen fellow freedivers of my club.
Salt does not pass the skin barrier, but water instead does.
So you loose a lot of water through your skin and become easily dehidratated.
Usually free divers do not carry fresh water with them.
We learned the hard way how this is unhealthy. So we started carrying a bottle of drinkable water with us.
It is an impedment, but it avoids to become too much dehidratated.
Now, back to scuba diving.
In many parts of the world, and thanks to smaller depth, Nitrox, diving computers and much smaller tanks, nowadays also a scuba diver can spend 4 or 5 hours each day in salt water, experiencing the same problems.
So it is very important to drink a lot before and after each dive.
And, in my opinion, one needs to drink just water, as this is what is lost and must be reintegrated.
Instead when you loose water in other sports, for example running, you are sweating a lot.
This does not only expels water, but also salts. Hence a runner should not drink just water, special "sport drinks" have been developed for reintegrating the lost minerals.
If a scuba diver drinks such "salty" sport drinks instead of plain water, this is the mechanism causing to become "too salty".
Now, I am not a MD. So please can some of the people here with a proper medical education confirm that for a diver it is important to drink a lot of plain water, and instead it is better to avoid these "salty" sport drinks?
 
Yes, however, some people, the holier-than-thou know it alls, are not quite as "well intentioned" as much as "I know betters", full of pseudo-science and half-truths ... this happens to be one of those. And given the experiences of the last couple of years, there seems to be legions of these around...
If you are sure she is one of "those" people, just tell her to bug off until she finds peer reviewed evidence
Hence a runner should not drink just water, special "sport drinks" have been developed for reintegrating the lost minerals.
I prefer homemade sausages and some strong cheese, followed closely by cold beer/s.
 
In many parts of the world, and thanks to smaller depth, Nitrox, diving computers and much smaller tanks, nowadays also a scuba diver can spend 4 or 5 hours each day in salt water, experiencing the same problems.

On scuba you also lose a lot of water to the air you breathe.

And, in that DM's defense, this could feel like absorbing salt.

Salt crystals form on the skin as it dries, leading to "over-salted diver". But only on the outside.
 
...I have a newbie DM (she's a bit of a case!) trying to tell me that divers shouldn't salt their food as we get enough salt via our frequent diving and "become salt desensitized" due to all our diving... I tried not to laugh and etc... But looked it up anyhow. I can't seem to find the slightest shred of evidence about this anywhere! (big surprise!) So if anyone out there knows about this, please let me know!
...
I would ask her where she got her information & perhaps consider looking there. That being said, my expectations are similar to yours. My experience does not support her assertion. ...but I would still check her sources before fully discounting her statement.
 

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