Does the body get better at removing nitrogen?

[BikerBecca]

This is a really interesting question and I would love to see some sort of medical study done on the original poster's question.

My answer is entirely anecdotal and based solely on just my personal experience.
I am in good shape and very active, but I didn't start diving until I turned 50. Diving in the cold waters of Monterey Bay I had a heavy steel tank and tons of weight on me. I thought I was going to have a heart attack just walking to and from the beach during shore dives with all that weight on me. Then, because I got completely addicted to diving immediately, I would often call in sick on Monday if I did too much diving that weekend because I could not stay awake, especially if I was doing deep dives.

Fast forward to now and I don't even feel the weight of my gear and I am never tired even after a record setting, for me, 10 dives in one weekend. I am also an avid cyclist and used to race. I've noticed my speed and endurance while cycling has become truly amazing since I started diving every weekend.

Like I said, totally anecdotal and only applies to my experience, but you may be on to something. I know my body has gotten stronger and faster and has greater endurance since I started diving.

That's my 2 cents.

 

[dmaziuk]

Spisni study: A comparative evaluation of two decompression procedures for technical diving using inflammatory responses: compartmental versus ratio deco. - PubMed - NCBI used inflammatory markers to gauge "decompression stress", whatever that is. This whole "immune response" deal may be becoming the next doppler ultrasound...

 

[Storker]

Spisni study: A comparative evaluation of two decompression procedures for technical diving using inflammatory responses: compartmental versus ratio deco. - PubMed - NCBI used inflammatory markers to gauge "decompression stress", whatever that is. This whole "immune response" deal may be becoming the next doppler ultrasound...

While immune response may => inflammatory reaction, the latter <> the former.

I thought that had been established - even here - a long time ago. Oh well.

 

[blake7]

Another interesting article in Alert Diver about the biological processes and gene expression related to the body's response and acclimatization to diving.

Alert Diver Winter 2017, Pages 54-57

You may need to click the "Visit Page" button in the upper right to get the images to load.

 

[dmaziuk]

Where I work they're trying to use metabolic profiles in similar ways: the idea is the changes in metabolic profile detectable by modern methods can point to problems long before those become a clinical diagnosis. The huge advantage is that having a diver spit into a toaster-sized device is infinitely cheaper than doppler ultrasound. Once the machines are developed and mass-produced and all that, you could put one on every boat and collect enough data to run real statistics on.

 

[tarponchik]

Where I work they're trying to use metabolic profiles in similar ways: the idea is the changes in metabolic profile detectable by modern methods can point to problems long before those become a clinical diagnosis. The huge advantage is that having a diver spit into a toaster-sized device is infinitely cheaper than doppler ultrasound. Once the machines are developed and mass-produced and all that, you could put one on every boat and collect enough data to run real statistics on.

I was involved in this so called early diagnostics too and figured out this is pretty much a hoax. Too many false positives ruin any clinical value, but as long as you can scare someone enough to pay for the removal of his/her not-so-vital organs like prostate or cervix "to avoid cancer", this business model pays off.

 

[dmaziuk]

That's OK: we'll just train a neural network and it will filter out them pesky false positives. Because, you know... it's in the cloud.