Divers as Decompression Sickness Survivors: Exploring their Physical Exercise Involvement and Scheduling Efficacy

Physical activity in relation to the activity of diving, either before, during and after diving has been discussed widely the latest years. Traditionally, the common argument has been that divers in good, physical shape will have fewer decompression probl ems compared to divers in less good physical shape.Physical inactivity is now established as an independent risk factor for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in line with high blood pressure, high levels of blood lipids and smoking. We have demonstra ted that high intensity exercise 24 hours before a dive significantly reduce vascular bubble formation and prevent decompression sickness in rats (Wisløff and Brubakk, 2001) and man (Dujic et al., 2004). We have also shown that this mechanism is linked to the production of NO (Wisløff, Richardson and Brubakk, 2004) and that exogenous administration of NO can prevent bubble formation (Møllerløkken et al., 2006). Professional divers may differ from the general population in their motivations to exercise, b ecause they have a job that requires a lot of travelling and irregular working hours. Since exercising can reduce the risk on bubble formation among divers, it may be useful to know which variables are associated with exercise behaviour among divers.