Older divers at greater risk for heart attack?

[billt4sf]

Of interest -
http://rubicon-foundation.org/dspace/bitstream/123456789/4032/1/15796313.pdf

General articles -
Heart Problems and Diving

DAN Divers Alert Network : Cardiovascular Fitness and Diving

See also -
Rubicon Foundation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

European Underwater and Baromedical Society

Best,

Doc

Resurrecting an older thread here....

I am an "older" diver -- I'm 62. So I am interested in knowing the potential for a heart attack underwater and whether a stress test is in order. I have no symptoms, and exercise regularly, but so what? Lots of people are asymptomatic but have arteriosclerosis, right? And yes, we could die from a heart attack in bed, but the survival rate from a heart attack in bed HAS to be ALOT better than that underwater!

I read (or at least scanned) the articles listed above, and looked at the DAN website, and I still could not find out what percentage of diver deaths are due to heart attack for divers over, say, 60. I think that would be very useful information, if only to encourage my Doc to give me a stress test, which he seems reluctant to do.

Thanks,

Bill

 

[MalibuJerry]

In order to answer this question you need the following data: how many recreational divers are over age x? How often do they dive? Where do they dive? What kind of diving do they do? What percentage of the population of similar physical attributes and lifestyles (smoking, exercise etc.) are they? Between the two, is there a difference in the rate of heart attacks? (not deaths because you are less likely to survive a heart attack under water than in front of a hospital.) Then you might have a chance of saying that diving a certain way or frequency is associated with more or fewer heart attacks. No one to my knowledge has done this. For the question about technical divers, there are so few over age 50 and so little data that this is totally unknown and likely to remain so.

That leaves us with the earlier answers (which were quite good). Getting old increases the chance of death. Life is about managing risk. It is also about enjoying the time we have here. I think I'll go diving.

 

[billt4sf]

In order to answer this question you need the following data: how many recreational divers are over age x? How often do they dive? Where do they dive? What kind of diving do they do? What percentage of the population of similar physical attributes and lifestyles (smoking, exercise etc.) are they? Between the two, is there a difference in the rate of heart attacks?

I was not asking that. I am asking -- of the divers over age 60 that die diving, what percentage have suffered a heart attack?

I agree with your other conclusions.

- Bill

 

[Dr. Lecter]

Older divers at greater risk for heart attack

In other news,

Water wet

Sky blue

Burning ammo dumps more likely to explode

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Well I'm not really super old yet but I'm getting there and the reality of getting older is there.
All I can say is I eat as right as I can, I work out, I keep my alcohol consumption way down, I keep my weight in check, and stay as active as I can, plus I have a physical job which I can out work many people way younger than me.
So far so good at the doctor, he says all my readings are excellent.
I don't know how much plaque I have built up because there's never been a reason for them to do a dye test to see.
If it turns out my arteries are plugged solid and I die tomorrow of a heart attack while diving so be it, at least I was having fun when it happened and I tried to do everything I know to prevent it, minus stopping diving which isn't going to happen.

Maybe diving takes out more people with heart attacks because when diving, especially shore diving in adverse conditions, stopping or resting may not be an option. People may have to push themselves over and beyond what they are capable of to get out of or avoid a hazardous situation.

 

[billt4sf]

Very funny. But it doesn't intend to answer my question, which is a reasonable one I think.

- Bill

 

[sphyrnidus]

Bill, your doctor doesn't want to give you a test because these tests don't have predictive value. You can take one today and still die of m i tomorrow.
Besides the assumption that survival out of the water is better, is debatable as cpr is not very succesful outside a hospital setting.
Diving is not very strenous, the worst part is carrying the equipement to the water.
I'm 60 btw and dive twice every weekend, in summer time at least.

 

[billt4sf]

Bill, your doctor doesn't want to give you a test because these tests don't have predictive value.

I'm not so sure. A friend of mine just had an elective triple bypass. Well, he does have a very poor family history.

Besides the assumption that survival out of the water is better, is debatable as cpr is not very successful outside a hospital setting.

Maybe so. I had never heard that. Why, then, is it so emphasized as a first response?

Diving is not very strenous, the worst part is carrying the equipment to the water.

I have found that diving is most of the time very relaxing but occasionally very strenuous, indeed!

I'm 60 btw and dive twice every weekend, in summer time at least.

Me, too.

Anyway, if the data are available, I'd like to know what they are, then decide for myself what to do or not to do. I generally prefer more information to less.

----------------------------------------

So back to my original question: Of those who died in a scuba accident, what percentage had a heart attack? By age group.

- Bill

 

[cbm32]

Older people (I am 58 so not talking about me here yet ) are more likely than youngsters to have a heart attack if they are put in a very stressful situation. Diving can present you with a stressful situation at any time, even if you have planned your dive well and your equipment is functioning properly (I assume I don't have to list all of the things that can wrong like unexpected currents or down wellings or close encounters of a scary kind with eels or sharks or whatever). So diving has the potential to put you in a stressful situation and trigger a heart attack. However, there are a LOT of other things that can put you in stressful situations (like being married or being in an accident or trying to deal with school administrators ). So we all have to make our choices in terms of what things are worth doing even if they may put us under stress.

IF rental equipment is faulty (like a poorly tuned reg that makes breathing about as easy as sucking a boiled egg through a straw or a BCD failing at depth or some such thing) one could blame the dive op for not having rental equipment that is functioning properly. I have no idea if that is the case here or if it is a frivolous law suit.

 

[DandyDon]

Maybe so. I had never heard that. Why, then, is it so emphasized as a first response?

Because it's still worth a try, better than giving up without trying and occasionally does help, but from: CPR: Are we doing it wrong?

Some research suggests that, when done correctly, CPR more than doubles your chances of surviving a cardiac arrest outside the hospital. The gloomy “on the other hand” is that those chances aren’t very good. The statistics vary tremendously, but studies in large cities have found that only about 1 in 20 people who have a cardiac arrest outside of the hospital survive — even if they receive CPR.