While you read this article, your brain figures out how deep and fast you need to breathe. Breathing underwater makes this simple act much more complicated.
So, what are the effects of scuba diving on your ability to breathe, what happens when your workload surpasses your capacity?, and How to manage breathing while scuba diving? Keep reading to know.
When Workload Exceeds Capacity
When practicing any exercise, carbon dioxide (CO2) is produced. In the breathing process, your body inhales oxygen (O2) and exhales carbon dioxide (CO2). When your tasks go beyond what your breathing capacity to exchange gases, CO2 builds up in your blood causing hypercapnia.
The symptoms of hypercapnia include panic, confusion, or even loss of consciousness. None of these symptoms are good news underwater.
In scuba diving, many factors, such as swimming in inadequate buoyancy, strong currents, poor streamlining, and inefficient finning can lead to hypercapnia and overexertion.
Practice and planning are vital to help you avoid overexertion. Improving finning, buoyancy, and streamlining has a role in reducing the energy required to move through the water.
Get feedback from your dive buddy or instructor on the actionable techniques to improve these skills. In addition to that, considering environmental factors such as tides and currents when planning a dive has a great role in making it easier and more enjoyable.
Managing Work of Breathing
When there is insufficient elimination of CO2, hypercapnia can happen. This often happens due to harder or restricted breathing. The greater the breathing workload, The less effectively you remove CO2 and the more likely you are to develop hypercapnia.
The amount of breathing resistance you face can be affected by your equipment. Scuba regulators consist of mechanisms, valves, and hoses that move gas, with each part slightly increasing breathing resistance. Complex machines such as Rebreathers typically create more breathing resistance compared to open-circuit systems.
Clean and maintain your scuba diving equipment as the manufacturer suggests to minimize breathing effort as possible. This guarantees that all the parts are working as designed without any additional resistance.
Some regulators may have features like Venturi valves (represented as the “dive/predive” switch) or adjustable resistances. Experiment in a safe setting to balance ease of breathing with minimizing free-flow risk.
Another factor to increase the breathing workload is the density of the breathing gas you. Like humid air feeling heavier than dry air, gases at depth are harder to breathe than at the surface.
While descending, the gas is compressed, its density and work of breathing increases, while CO2 elimination is reduced. Research conducted by Gavin Anthony and Simon Mitchell have conducted a research in which they found when the density of gases exceeds 6 g/L (air is nearly 1.29 g/L at the surface), a rapid increase in the risk of CO2 retention happens.
There are two ways to reduce the risk caused by gas density. First, adhere to the limits of your training; deeper dives carry more risks than shallower ones. Second, when deciding to dive deeper, you should learn the proper way to use appropriate gas blends, like those with helium, from a certified dive instructor.
Accepting the power of breathing underwater comes with the responsibilities of controlling our breathing effectively, which is a task that our brains handle on land without any effort. Remember to reduce the production of carbon dioxide (CO2) by having good buoyancy besides streamlined equipment and efficient kicks. Also, ensure you can eliminate any buildup of CO2 with well-maintained equipment as well as a gas blend appropriate for the planed depth.
