Nitrox the Wonder Gas

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Utterly worthless article. Lacks every single criteria needed for a controlled test.

Plus group mentality coupled with placebo effect means if one person invents an improvement others will decide they saw one too and write up.

........although i admit it maybe worth further investigation

 

[Twiddles]

Nitrox will make your spouse want to have sex with you!! Not a wonder gas my ***, heheheh. As far as the extended bottom times go. Yesterday, wife and I dove breakwater (ick, viz was not to good) had a nice guy walk up to us as we were reclining next to our gear before next dive and tell us that he had just finished diving at monastary beach and viz was fantastic. We decided to try it. Viz was absolutely fantastic, he had said 60', so I assumed 30' D ) and viz was actually 60' lots of fish, some jellies and the kelp forest / reef was great.

To the point our first dive 47 minutes, reason for surface air consumption not NDL. Second dive 42 minutes, reason for surface air consumption again not NDL. Longer bottom times as a reason is again probably a lot less of an actually reason as a perceived reason?

 

[Thalassamania]

"Fatigue" is one of those things that is very difficult to test for objectively. I was working on a project some years back and during our first field season we dove air. We got the work done, but we were making at least two dives a day to sixty odd feet, often three and rarely four. That first season we slept as much as we could. You took care of your gear, did the dives, put in a few hours in the lab and crashed hard. During a second season we went through the trouble of brewing our own NITROX-36. It was an entirely different experience, eight hours sleep did us fine.

 

[ianw2]

Don't know about the hair or teeth, but

I stand corrected.

Hmmm.....

Oh, Laura, sweetheart! :blinking: :10:

Ian

 

[mikeyjoe]

["There was no difference," says Bennett. "It's a placebo effect."

A placebo effect is real, for the person experiencing it. If you feel better, you feel better. If it is your mind or the gas in your tank, it doesn't really matter, the end result is you feel better.

I know many experienced divers who swear by it - good enough for me......

 

[Tigerman]

["There was no difference," says Bennett. "It's a placebo effect."

A placebo effect is real, for the person experiencing it. If you feel better, you feel better. If it is your mind or the gas in your tank, it doesn't really matter, the end result is you feel better.

I know many experienced divers who swear by it - good enough for me......

I agree that wether its imagination or not dosent really matter as long as you get the wanted result.

However, advertising the effects that cant be proven to be anything but placebo would be false advertising..

 

[Charlie99]

Utterly worthless article. Lacks every single criteria needed for a controlled test.

........although i admit it maybe worth further investigation

Hmmm. I wonder whether round robin or random pairing is the better experimental design for a controlled test. :14:

 

[String]

Hmmm. I wonder whether round robin or random pairing is the better experimental design for a controlled test. :14:

I wouldnt want to go in for blind or double-blind though. Scared to think what i'd end up with

 

[Richesb]

We've made more dives on both 21% than most have made total and now probably same on 32%.
I /we (girlfreind and I) agree Nitrox absolutely does leave you feeling less tired after repetitive diving day in and day out.

 

[halocline]

The only reason I would use Nitrox is the extended bottom time. I have used it just for that purpose. The Nitrox tables, depending on the mix, allow for REAL and SIGNIFICANT increases in bottom time and allow for a greater safety margin if dived on an air profile. I still don't understand why all the argung. Is this disputed----greater bottom times, greater safety magin as described? Please provide the documentation that proves Nitrox does not allow extended bottom times (vs air at the same depth) and greater safety margin if dived on an air profile.

N

Saying Nitrox is safer because it increases NDL is not really accurate. I understand your logic; if you dive an air profile on nitrox, you'll absorb less nitrogen, ergo it's safer. But, really what you mean is you're less likely to get DCS, which is different than "safer" because the incidence of DCS is so low already. Throw in the possibility of oxygen toxicity, as well as the potentially increased possibility of poor gas management due to increased NDL encouraging some divers to breathe down their supply more, and I bet you've offset the assumed increase in safety from DCS.

The only way to know if it's "safer" is to have statistics that show that over thousands of dives, and we don't. Plus, although I agree that theoretically one would think that the lower percentage of nitrogen would directly translate into less likelihood of DCS, that's also an assumption on your part. Nitrox is bound to affect the behavior of some divers; for example, some divers may believe they can stay down longer, and possibly be in placed in a situation where they rely on faster ascents. I believe you when you say you yourself feel safer diving an air profile on nitrox, but given many dives with many different types of divers, I have a feeling there will be little if any statistically proven higher safety margin. Certainly none has been shown yet.