Matthias Zeitler asked:


Scuba diving is considered by many to be just another recreational sport that implies no risks but only having fun while swimming under water. The truth is that diving offers a lot of benefits to those who practice it but the sport also includes various issues, from accidents that can happen under water to physical conditions. Some may say that scuba diving medicine is a complicated domain but no matter how difficult it can be, the instructors and the divers should be aware of many of the major points that scuba diving medicine brings to our attention.

Our organisms suffer a number of modifications when they are under the waters at various depths. Compression is one of the things you will have to deal with while swimming for scuba diving. From this point of view, the speed of descent and the depth of the diving are very important factors. In order to be properly prepared to visit the world that you can find at various depths under the waters you need to know how to adapt to the conditions that you will find there. You will confront with various water pressures so you must be able to manage with the equipment so you will breathe correspondingly with the depth you are at. The purity of the oxygen you breathe under water should vary according to the depths; otherwise, you can end up by confronting with some unwanted complications.

Scuba diving medicine comes to help with diverse problems and diseases that can affect people who practice the sport while something goes wrong. Affections such as hypoxia can occur when people don’t use the pure-oxygen apparatus in the proper way and it implies a lack of oxygen so the patient is recommended to inhale pure oxygen among other treatments. Hyperoxia caused by the excess of Oxygen or hypercapnia characterized by CO2 toxicity are some other complications that can occur when it comes to compression while scuba diving.

The decompression of dissolved gases can also be a major concern for divers and scuba diving medicine comes with treatment in these cases too. The affection is named the decompression sickness and the symptoms are improved with the help of a chamber for decompression.

The differences of the pressure under water can be very harmful to the diver if he or she is not able to handle the equipment in the proper way or when other complications occur. These are some of the cases where scuba diving medicine does its work. Years of research made the domain reach a point where it can solve many major affections caused by improper scuba diving. Besides the physical state of the individual, the psychological state is important as well as situations such as being panicked under the water can lead to harmful things for that person. for both physical and psychological problems that may occur while practicing this sport, scuba diving medicine can bring the needed solutions.

Monica Keller asked:


One large clinic that performs LASIK procedures has a very creative advertising approach. On their Web site, they advise people never to look for bargains when they are shopping for parachutes, scuba gear or laser eye surgery. They also wisely counsel interested parties to compare apples to apples when pricing LASIK surgery.

The cost of vision correction, however it is approached, depends on a number of factors. The specific procedure that’s best for you, the location and overhead of the clinic or outpatient surgery center, the physician’s experience, the length of the recovery period and the cost of post-operative pain relief—these are all variables in the complicated price formula. For example, more experienced surgeons may charge higher fees, while some might simply have bigger rent payments in their part of town. As with any other purchase, do your homework and get the facts.

The total cost, of course, will also depend on the particular “vision correction package” that you are purchasing. Many doctors include both pre- and post-operative care in the deal, and offer warranties lasting from 90days to the patient’s lifetime. The great diversity of approaches means, as the clever advertiser said, that you need to compare apples to apples. A “low” price that does not cover follow-up visits, pain medication or other necessities will not, in the long run, be a better bargain than a “higher” price that does include all of these things. Be as careful and exacting in this part of your research as you were when looking into the medical aspects of the LASIK surgery.

On average, the cost for LASIK eye surgery in the U.S. is between $1,500 and$2,000 per eye. By shopping around, you will find any number of doctors and clinics that charge less, as well as those that charge more. And although it’s understandable that you want find the best price, remember that you also have to think about reputation, quality, aftercare and service. Of course, once you decide on the clinic and the LASIK surgeon, you will face another set of decisions that you must make before undergoing the treatment.

If you do not wish to pay for the procedure in cash, there are various financing methods you can employ. If you do decide to finance your LASIK eye surgery, you will then have another investigation to pursue—finding the best deal for financing. Most doctors and clinics will offer some kind of financing plan, whether or not they are the lender, and you will have to decide if their interest rate and monthly payment are the best deal for you.

Naturally, you can finance the LASIK surgery cost yourself by using a credit card, a portion of your homeowner’s line of credit or taking out a loan through a bank, finance company or paycheck advance lender. A simple comparison of interest rates and “total loan cost” will yield a winner in short order.

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peterhutch asked:

Barotrauma is physical damage to body tissues caused by a difference in pressure between an air space inside or beside the body and the surrounding gas or liquid. Barotrauma typically occurs to air spaces within a body when that body moves to or from a higher pressure environment, such as when a SCUBA diver, a free-diving diver or an airplane passenger ascends or descends. Boyle’s law defines the relationship between the volume of the air space and the ambient pressure. Damage occurs in the tissues around the body’s air spaces because gases are compressible and the tissues are not. During increases in ambient pressure, the internal air space provides the surrounding tissues with little support to resist the higher external pressure.

Barotrauma can manifest as a pneumothorax, with a tension pneumothorax being the most feared complication in mechanically ventilated patients. The continuous application of positive-pressure ventilation serves to perpetuate the passage of air into the extra-alveolar space, eventually causing a tension pneumothorax if untreated. In these patients, bedside detection of a pneumothorax can be difficult because of the noise from the equipment usually needed for mechanical ventilation. Decreased breath sounds on the side of the pneumothorax is an initial finding. After tension develops, accumulating air displaces the mediastinum and associated structures away from the pneumothorax (contralateral). This process includes contralateral displacement of the trachea.

Symptoms of barotrauma include “clogging” of the ear, ear pain, hearing loss, dizziness, ringing of the ear (tinnitus), and hemorrhage from the ear. Dizziness (or vertigo) may also occur during diving from a phenomenon known as alternobaric vertigo. It is caused by a difference in pressure between the two middle ear spaces, which stimulates the vestibular (balance) end organs asymmetrically, thus resulting in vertigo. The alternobaric response can also be elicited by forcefully equalizing the middle ear pressure Politzer maneuver, which can cause an unequal inflation of the middle ear space.

The air pressure in the middle ear is usually the same as the air pressure outside of the body. The eustachian tube is a connection between the middle ear and the back of the nose and upper throat. If the eustachian tube is blocked, the air pressure in the middle ear is different than the pressure on the outside of the eardrum, causing barotrauma. Many people experience barotrauma at some time. Barotrauma commonly occurs with altitude changes, such as with flying, scuba diving, or driving in the mountains. If you have a congested nose from allergies, colds, or upper respiratory infection, barotrauma is more likely. Blockage of the eustachian tube could also be congenital (present before birth), or may occur because of swelling in the throat.

The most common example of barotrauma occurs to some air travellers. As a plane descends to land, the air pressure becomes higher nearer the ground. This pushes the eardrum inwards. If the pressure inside the middle ear is not equalised quickly, then you can get ear pain. Other situations where air pressure may quickly rise outside the ear is during scuba diving, diving to the bottom of a swimming pool, or rapidly descending in a lift (elevator).

Ear barotrauma is caused when the eustachian tube gets blocked and your body is not able to equalize the air pressure inside and outside the eardrum. Ear barotrauma is usually not severe or dangerous and is easily treatable, but occasionally there are complications such as loss of hearing, ear infection, dizziness, or a perforated (punctured) eardrum.

Chris Chew asked:


As a professional fitness personal trainer, people often ask me, “Hey Chris, I am going for a holiday vacation. Can you teach me how not to gain weight during my holidays?” or “I am going for my honeymoon and I always gain weight when I go on vacation, can you tell me how to lose holiday weight without spoiling my honeymoon?”

Actually the answer to holiday weight loss or preventive weight gain is very simple. Choose the holiday vacations with plenty of physical activities. Instead of going to the usual tourist sight seeing trips abroad, choose holiday activities that require you to burn calories and yet have fun. Yes, you can have a fun and lose weight on holiday vacations.

Here are a few vacation holiday activities where you can have fun and yet keep your weight in check :-

Holiday Cruise - Your first thought would probably be how you could possibly lose weight going on cruises? It may escape you that most vacation cruise ships have sports facilities built in. You find tennis courts to gyms with full equipments and fitness gym instructors to boot. Some may even conduct weight loss classes on board the cruise liners.

If you care going on a honeymoon cruise, what better way is there to lose weight and keep fit with your beloved partner?

Scuba diving - Have you ever noticed that most scuba diving instructors have well toned muscles and attractive bodies? This is because they scuba dive almost every day with novice divers sometimes up to 3 times a day including night dives.

As a scuba diver and a former diving instructor myself, I know that the sport of scuba diving can be physically demanding for someone who is unfit and the activities during diving trips can burn plenty of calories. For instance, you need to lug your own scuba gear, climb up and down the boats with the heavy equipment and sometimes even swim against strong currents.

On top of that, the tan you get from sun exposure gives you a healthy glow and muscle toning illusion. So you to want control your holiday weight gain? Then go scuba diving. If you are not a diver, then take up a course while on holiday.

Winter Skiing - Skiing down mountain slopes require a lot of muscle work, coordination and flexibility. Can you imagine how many calories you can burn during your winter skiing vacation?

Weight loss camps - Enroll yourself in a weight loss camps. These camps are usually situated on beautiful mountain resorts or in exotic beach resorts.

Use your creative imagination to easily come out with more holiday vacation ideas that can help you lose weight or at least not gain holiday weight.