Posted by Wayne on December 14, 2001 at 09:34:38:
In Reply to: Subclinical DCS???? posted by Steve on December 13, 2001 at 15:54:32:
Urban Legend or Myth. Hmmm. Divers abhor a vacuum and the problem is that where there is a vacuum, we send stuff in and fill it up.
I have not seen any definitive work on the whole Subclunical DCS. It may exist, but I am not aware of it. I suspect that its percieved existence is pertpetuated to a degree by our reluctance to see diving as a safe sport without lingering after-effects. We have been trained in these times to look for subbtle damage that cannot be proved, but must be there (Second hand smoking kills how many thousands every year?). So whether it is brain lesions or blood cell rigidity, lots of folk here with our Puritan roots want to look for the hidden evil in all that is pleasurable).
It is impossible to disprove a sickness that has no proof. Remember all those who were mysteriously alergic to technology and its byproducts. They ran around it special cotton clothes and to visit them you had to bathe in rainwater and mud -- or something like that. Special rules were made to accomodate them including rules on wearing perfume in certain public buildings. I think they were crazy.
But in diving we tend to get tired and run down. Could it be long exposure to cold water? Pressure related illness? Who knows, but we all have felt it. It is easy to blame it on the pressure changes and since we get tired after the pressure is reduced, we can presume to call it DCS. Add the word Subclinical and you have a very technical way of saying that nobody can detect (or disprove) that you are sick.
Personally, I think (feel) there is validity to the broad Sub-DCS theory, as it does tend to explain a few things I have noticed such as the lessening of post-dive tiredness with nitrox. But without real research, it probably does still fall into the legend or popular myth category. At least the way most of us banty the term about.
In case anyone wondered about my thoughts on the matter...
Wayne