Dave Zimmerly
Contributor
Searching the web on DCI articles, I came upon this site:
http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/8864/8864.excerpts.html
"Decompression sickness is not the only difficulty that faces the diver. Even just immersing the body in water up to the neck causes physiological changes. When you are standing upright on the seashore, there is a pressure gradient down your body due to the force of gravity, which causes the blood to pool in your legs. If you now immerse yourself in the sea up to your neck, this effect is counteracted by the external pressure of the water so that about half a litre of blood shifts upwards from the legs to the chest, distending the great veins and the right atrium of the heart and increasing your cardiac output. One consequence of stretching the atrial wall is that it alters the level of two hormones that influence water uptake by the kidney, and thereby stimulates urine production. This explains why you so often, and so annoyingly, need to pee just after entering the water."
Can any doctor types out there confirm this?
Regards,
Dave (aka "Squirt")
http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/8864/8864.excerpts.html
"Decompression sickness is not the only difficulty that faces the diver. Even just immersing the body in water up to the neck causes physiological changes. When you are standing upright on the seashore, there is a pressure gradient down your body due to the force of gravity, which causes the blood to pool in your legs. If you now immerse yourself in the sea up to your neck, this effect is counteracted by the external pressure of the water so that about half a litre of blood shifts upwards from the legs to the chest, distending the great veins and the right atrium of the heart and increasing your cardiac output. One consequence of stretching the atrial wall is that it alters the level of two hormones that influence water uptake by the kidney, and thereby stimulates urine production. This explains why you so often, and so annoyingly, need to pee just after entering the water."
Can any doctor types out there confirm this?
Regards,
Dave (aka "Squirt")