I'm not sure why nitrogen would be an issue at all. Nitrogen is at higher
concentration at higher pressure (where it enters body tissue and blood),
but once the pressure releases, the nitrogen drops right back to the lower
concentration. Nitrogen is inert in the body, doesn't metabolize, the diver
breathes it out as they ascend and the nitrogen leaves the tissues and
blood.
If a diver has a really high concentration of nitrogen during diving, that
would lead to nitrogen narcosis, and the diver's safety would be what was at
issue. Again, decreasing the pressure (ascending) relieves the narcosis as
the nitrogen leaves the tissues and blood.
If a diver developed decompression sickness (DCS), from repetitive dives,
this is a tremendous health issue. This person needs recompression, to
reabsorb the nitrogen, and then slow decompression to allow the diver to
exhale the excess nitrogen.
How many cases of DCS are seen yearly? And, of these, how many are
breastfeeding women? And, if there are a lot of incidents of decompression
sickness, why are people not better educated on the repetitive dive tables?
Proper dive planning will prevent decompression sickness... (uuughhh,
physics....)
Best wishes from a lake diver (where NOBODY would stay long enough to
develop DCS!)
Sam Doak
<<
DAN Medic Followup EmailThis has been an issue discussed numerous times on
LACTNET but I wanted to share a correspondance I received..
I wrote to the medical board of Diver's Alert Network out of Duke University
Medical Center about the need (if any) to do a research study on breastmilk
and post-dive nitrogen levels since there is no evidence published on this
topic, and how the lack of information leads to women being told to never
breastfeed after diving, or to dump for XX ( insert erroneous time table)
amount of time after diving, or to only shallow dive ( these are the ones I
have heard recently).
"We can state that there is no scientific data available on this subject.
There were and are no plans for any controlled randomized studies. The
reason is quite simple. Any gaseous nitrogen that might be contained in
breast milk after diving poses no hazard to the child. The gaseous nitrogen
is ingested enterally. There is no mechanism in which the nitrogen can cross
into the child's circulatory system to be able to cause any injury. This is
really no different that the child swallowing air along with the breast milk
during feeding. Another example is any individual consuming a carbonated
beverage. We sincerely hope that this information is useful. We are always
willing to speak with healthcare providers as a matter of education. If we
can be any further assistance do not hesitate to contact DAN. "
But if anyone should want to do a study anyway, I do have a willing cohort!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mirine R. Dye
Florida Keys Healthy Start Coalition
www.KeysHealthyStart.org
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