Thanks for the replies folks. I did talk to my doc about SCUBA, and I learned that the commonly acknowledged risks are twofold-
1) bronchspasm / asthma attack underwater, triggered by the exertion of swimming, overbreathing, the effect of cold water, or the fact that the air is very dry.
2) hyperbaric injury due to air at pressure seeping behind mucous that pools at the base of the lungs, which must then re-expand upon ascent.
Doc thinks that 2) is only a theoretical possibility and not really a problem unless you dive with a steaming chest infection. Seeing as my asthma is well controlled and I can predict and episode of wheeziness a mile off, I've been signed off to do SCUBA - and indeed I haven't had any problems to date.
But I can imagine a situation in very deep single breath dives where the stickiness of mucous might cause trouble in highly collapsed lungs. This is what nobody seems to have any info on.
However it's reassuring to see that people do dive with asthma. In fact it's probably one of the better things one can do to improve it! Matt - it's similar thing with me: as soon as I started swimming and playing squash regularly my lungs got dramtically better. I only wish that more people with asthma could realise this instead of feeling sorry for themselves and actively avoiding excercise...
Bam bam, whenever it's bad, the method I use for mucous clearing is as follows:
1) loosen the mucous by hydration. i.e. have a long shower, drink lots of fluids & take steam inhalation under a towel if necessary.
2) do a series of "huff" coughs. That is, exhale sharply and forecfully at the END of an exhalation, using your diaphragm. This brings the mucous high enough that you can then cough it out in the normal way. This can sound distrssing to passers by so I usually leave it until I'm in the car on my own :-)
3) If you can feel that only one lung is blocked then do the above with the base of your tongue twisted to one side or the other. I guess that this must exert some sort of a twist on the passage of the air. I sometimes find that after 10 minutes of work like this, my lung capacity can suddenly increase, accompanied by a loud crack - it must surely be that portions of my lungs start off completely plugged, and then suddenly open.
I hope I haven't grossed anyone out here...
all best,
Pete
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