Posted by mike on April 23, 2001 at 23:04:56:
In Reply to: Re: has gotten nasty CO2 headaches.... posted by Steve on April 23, 2001 at 16:19:36:
i've not heard of that being a big deal /w/ diving. (although anything that involves the blood vessels that supply the brain may cause headaches whether O2, CO2, diving or non-diving related. Maybe in some individuals hypoxia would be the case, but even so, what are the details? how do they manifest themselves? Where is the clinical evidence that it is indeed hypoxia that is causing the headache, and not excess CO2?
when i did my DF stroke habits, i was kicking against surge or current, F%&@ing with camera controls on an ikelite housing, while hand-holding a strobe, and skip-breathing. So the exertion to consume the O2 and produce tons of CO2 was definitely there. I've been in hypoxic environments (20,000 feet above sea level in the Andes) /w/o any supplemental oxygen, doing hard exertion (summitting 6000 meter peaks) and i've experienced nary a headache the entire time (except during the layovers in Miami and Dallas), so if O2 deprivation was a problem, it should have manifested itself there (but again, pressure at depth may add another variable entirely).
you may want to check www.scubaboard.com for some more informed opinion than i can provide. look for the Ask Dr Deco thread or one of the diving medicine threads.