My first experience with Nitrogen Narcosis!

[jeckyll]

....

What? Nitrox means that you have more oxygen, which in turn means you have less nitrogen. How does that not lessen the effects of Nitrogen Narcosis? Nitrox gives you an equivalent air depth less than the actual depth you're diving. That gives you an equivalent narcosis level to the EAD not the depth you're at. If I'm diving 32% to a depth of 95 feet, my EAD is 77 feet. My narcosis level is also equivalent to what I would experience on air at 77 feet. That's pretty significant.

My understanding is the O2 has similar narcotic effects to Nitrogen in the water.

The EAD is really due to the way that O2 is metabolized and the related reduction in potential bubble formation and tissue loading. My understanding is the only He is proven to reduce narcosis as it removes both O2 and Nitrogen

 

[Dive-aholic]

It's not quite the same. Nitrogen is soluble in fat tissue. Oxygen is not. Oxygen is an active gas in respiration. Nitrogen is not.

From this article:

So is oxygen narcosis fact or fiction? The scientific data available do NOT support the conclusion that oxygen is narcotic. They also do not and can not show that oxygen has no narcotic effect. Oxygen might somehow be involved in the entire question of narcosis and performance but it is clearly not more narcotic than nitrogen. The narcotic gases are all chemically inert in the body. In contrast, oxygen is one of the most chemically active substances in nature. Finally, divers are able to reliably detect narcosis at partial pressures of nitrogen far less than those required to produce reliable scientific results. Thousands of divers claim that high pO2 nitrox results in less narcosis than air at the same depth.

 

[drbill]

Narcosis can be a strange beast. I am one of those who is fortunate not to experience serious effects even into depths well beyond the rec limits. An individual's physiology, previous diving experience, and other factors can affect it so what one experiences one day at a given depth may not be duplicated on another dive under the same conditions.

I dive 250-350 dives a year. I am told the body of frequent divers often adjusts to higher nitrogen loads than those of occasional divers. Although I can detect mild narcosis at depths below 100 ft, I have never experienced any debilitating effects to depths of 200 feet. However, on my last dive to that depth I was well aware of an unusually "high" level of narcosis and remained at depth for less time than I had planned.

 

[bruce119]

Well I did my AOW Deep today. We went to 100 ffw I had no problem didn't bother me a bit that I noticed any way. Our instructor had us do tic tack doe on a slat 4x's. I was the odd one and had the instructor for my buddy. He tried to trip me up by intentionally setting me up to win I caught it and beat him. A few others in the class got a little narked and had some trouble with that simple exercise. I'm happy to say I had a great experience and a good dive with no noticeable effects.

We dove the Hudson Grotto that's a deep sink hole my first time a cold dark experience total back as night down there.
Had a lot of fun good day.

 

[jeckyll]

It's not quite the same. Nitrogen is soluble in fat tissue. Oxygen is not. Oxygen is an active gas in respiration. Nitrogen is not.

From this article:

Interesting, thanks for the link.

 

[drbill]

So to answer your question directly, no, you cannot build up a tolerance to nitrogen narcosis.

Please don't dive deep air.

PerroneFord, I'd have to respectfully disagree with you on this issue. Although I can't cite them off hand I am certain there have been diving physiology studies that indicate this is possible, although it may require a high frequency of diving to do it.

Dr. Bob Given was one of those who dove deep often on air in the 50's-70's. I had a long discussion with him recently about this subject. He did some of the "early" diving physiology studies and was one of the founders of the AAUS.

Personally I would never recommend to others to dive deep on air. I don't know their physiological response or stress responses. However, I feel quite comfortable doing it with the proper equipment.

 

[Dive-aholic]

Bret Gilliam has done studies. The book I recommended in an earlier post, Deep Diving, refers to many of these studies and is a great narrative of the effects.