Posted by BillP on May 11, 2001 at 03:56:18:
In Reply to: Red blood Cell Rigidity???? posted by Steve on May 10, 2001 at 21:50:09:
Steve, this hypothesis gets tossed around by certain people, but if you ask them to come up with EVIDENCE to support their assertions they come up short.
1) The only "evidence" that I have seen that support this idea is George Irvine, Bill Mee, and Jarrod Jablonski say it's so therefore it must be true. They're great guy's, but where's the OTHER evidence?
2) The only "evidence" that I have seen that show that nitrogen is the culprit is George Irvine, Bill Mee, and Jarrod Jablonski say it's so therefore it must be true. Bill Mee quotes a study to support his view that actually does more to show that HELIUM affect blood cells rather than nitrogen. These same advocates of the theory still claim that helium is just fine though. (The study Bill Mee quotes is really irrelevant to the point he's trying to make, and it comes to different conclusions than he suggests, but you'll see it used to support the idea anyway.)
3) I have found no "evidence" that this "effect" affects recreational divers AT ALL.
You would think that if this idea really was generally accepted current thinking it might be mentioned in at least one dive medicince/physiology text and there would be "many" studies published in the scientific literature documenting the effect. But such is not the case.
You'll probably see several people come along and claim that the assertions must be true. But you're right. Keep asking them for the EVIDENCE and they'll eventually say that you're being unreasonable and they'll have no more to do with you. That should tell you something.
Regards,
Bill