What wound responsible caffeine use be?

[BillP]

I found a study that shows that caffeine actually reduces the risk of seizures due to oxygen toxicity in rats.

Pretreating rats with caffeine before subjecting them to hyperbaric oxygen at ~5 atmospheres (equivalent to diving on pure oxygen to ~130' or air to ~630') slowed the onset of seizures.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov:80/entr...eve&db=PubMed&list_uids=8574677&dopt=Abstract

 

[bluebanded goby]

Thanks to BillP for his very helpful post, and also to all the others for their replies in this thread.

To give my own answer to AndeeGee's question of why this is an issue or why would I care about my caffeine intake, it seems as though I regularly see case studies in DAN's magazine where a diver was well within no-deco limits, wasn't doing an aggressive schedule of multiday repetitive diving, etc, but still got a (usually mild) hit of DCS or "the bends." When interviewed, he/she said, "Gee I guess all I was drinking that day was coffee." So the implication being that the diver's dehydration status was the only factor to explain an otherwise unexpected hit.

It sounds as though I can safely enjoy a coffee or two on the boat as long as I continue to chug bottled water. I had always suspected what BillP mentioned in one of his replies -- that consuming a caffeine drink like coffee or cola doesn't leave you overall with less water in the body, it just doesn't hydrate you as effectively as drinking water or Gatorade.

 

[Uncle Pug]

bluebanded goby once bubbled...
It sounds as though I can safely enjoy a coffee or two on the boat as long as I continue to chug bottled water.

And that is why I recommend a p-valve for drysuit divers. Without it the temptation is to refrain from drinking.

 

[AndeeGee]

I take it a p-valve is to pee out of?????

 

[rcohn]

I know regular users develop a tolerance to some of the effects of caffeine. Is any tolerance developed to the diuretic effects of caffeine, reducing its dehydration potential in heavy users?

Just curious, I rarely drink caffeinated beverages and never on dive trips.

Ralph

 

[Uncle Pug]

AndeeGee once bubbled...
I take it a p-valve is to pee out of?????

Do a scubaboard search on p-valve.
Depends for the gals.

 

[AndeeGee]

I had a bit of a mooch round and found the answers I was looking for. thanks