Blood pressure & Diving
I understand that diving with blood pressure is dangerous, but is it still so when you are taking medication. I have logged more than 1000 recreational dives but have recently started taking medication. Covercyl 5mg.
The reason I ask is I had planned on doing a commercial course.
Thanks in advance for replies
Alan
Hello Alan,
Diving with high blood pressure per se is not dangerous (within reasobale limits) but the issue with elevated blood pressure is two fold:
1) High blood pressure causes damage to other organs and results in the heart working harder than normal.
2) Some anti-hypertensives (blood pressure lowering medications) can adversely affect diving performance
The medications specifically to avoid include the beta blockers (restrict the capacilty of the heart to increase its rate at high work loads) and diuretics (lower the blood volume potentially increasing your risk of DCI).
Coversyl is an ACE inhibitor and should be ok for diving. For commercial diving you would probably not be allowed to go into saturation diving but other forms of commercial diving should be ok. (please note that this is not formal medical advice and you should discuss your particular situation with a Diving Doctor face to face).
Regards Glen