It turns out that I need a freediving medical before I start my AIDA** with Saltfree in Chepstow in May. The problem? Panic attacks. Probably not what you want to experience 100ft underwater with no readily available supply of air. Strangely, it didn't really cross my mind that previously having experienced panic attacks (for around 2 years) would be a problem for freediving! In fact, the panic attacks were related to exactly the kind of "life" stress that many people use freediving to escape from. I'd only just stop short of prescribing freediving as a treatment for these kind of panic attacks ;). Being in the water is where I feel elated, free and peaceful, not panicked! I was snorkeling with my Dad on family holidays to Greece pretty much as soon as I could swim; my sister and I would have to be coaxed out of the sea at the end of the day. I started SCUBA diving when I was 14. I've never had even the hint of a panic attack underwater, despite having experienced some disorienting and stressful situations.
However, the necessity of a freediving medical means that I now have an invite to a place I've long wanted to visit...the London Diving Chamber.
The London Diving Chamber is a hyperbaric medical facility located within the Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth in North London. It provides expert treatment of Decompression Illness (DCI) and Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapies (HBOT). DCI is a general term that can be broken down into the two broad categories of Decompression Sickness (DCS, colloquially known as "the bends") and Lung Overexpansion Injuries.
Although it is reportedly possible to suffer DCS after freediving, it requires either very many freedives in a short period of time, or freediving to great depth, as in no-limits. Studies carried out on pearl divers in Polynesia, who were diving to depths of 30m+ forty to fifty times a day with short surface intervals, concluded that some suffered from symptoms of DCS. In relation to no-limits, you'll notice that in the video I posted of Herbert Nitsch's freedive to 214m, he makes a 1 minute decompression stop at 10m on ascent to avoid DCS. Generally speaking, recreational freedivers do not experience DCS.
Certainly, the vast majority of those presenting at the London Diving Chamber with DCS are SCUBA divers. As SCUBA diving becomes more and more popular, free hyperbaric treatment and medical advice such as that provided by LDC becomes increasingly important. Even when patients do not qualify for free NHS treatment, LDC will never turn away a diver in need - that's incredible. Click here to support their work. For more information about DCS, take a look at the information pages on LDC's website.
Dr Firth at the London Diving Chamber has been kind enough to waive the fee for my freediving medical in support of the 100ft Freedive Challenge! I'm really looking forward to meeting him and to learning more about LDC's work. If you have a burning question about freediving that you'd like to put to Dr Firth, put it in the comments box below. I'll try and ask him a few questions and will post the answers here on the blog :).
I'm going to be asking Dr. Firth about the effectiveness of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy for Multiple Sclerosis. Although the MS Society and MS Trust both state that clinical trials have failed to find any evidence that HBOT is effective, I know that there have been a number of reports that it can help treat some of the symptoms of MS.
I'm also going to be asking what physiological changes, if any, I can expect during my transformation into a mermaid ;), and whether there is any way for me to measure them and share with the group! TMI?
I start my Introduction to Freediving course with Mark Harris on Thursday, so watch out for a post about this later in the week...
