Headache after free diving !!

[speedcraft18]

I always suffer from headache after a 4 hours freediving (spearfishing) session.its like a headache of a hang over from alcohol same same.,and will need a good sleep to feel better.

Before i used to go scuba diving and experience the same headache,but i found out that it was cause of my very slow ,deep and relax breathing.I dont consume so much air.i started to breath less deep,little faster but still relax and felt much better.

About 1 hour or 45 minutes before i go diving,i just eat a good bowl of cereal and milk,sometimes mix the milk with a scoop of protein.Is this good ??? Any reason for these headaches please?? my sinuses are ok !

thanks in advance
regards Albert

 

[trux]

Excess of CO2 may cause headaches. Make sure your surface times are sufficiently long, and that you have enough time to recover. But avoid hyperventilating for being able to dive more frequently ot longer.

 

[cebaztian]

DCS

It may sound stupid. How can a frediver get DCS?
How much abnormal levels of N we can ednure before seeing DCS symptoms is a highly individual thing.
DCS is not an absolute state. Like: I have it, or I havent got it. Its a slow progression of first smaller symptoms that hardly can be detected and in the end the clear signs and internally felt states.

Some of the minor symptoms:
Unusal fatigue
Numbness
Abnormal sensations
Deafness or ringing in the ears
Headache, dizziness or nausea
blurry vision

My belief is that many freedivers repeatadly have DCS, but never feel it or attribute the symptoms they feel to DCS.
The N is cleared by itself, but takes many hours.

DCS and apnea

Having said this, I think the likeyhood that YOUR headache is DCS or only DCS is very small. I think you have to eat more (maybe differently), keep your bloodsugar up while diving, and hydrate more (starting the night before).
Longer rests inbetween dives could be needed aswell.

Your body is telling you it doesnt like the treatment it is getting.

Sebastian

 

[bite ya]

Albert
I also suffer from headaches during my normal daily life and whilst freediving. Stay very hydrated starting the day before and the food you are eating before hand sounds fine. Hyperventilating definatly causes headaches (i use in my breath up's before static's) this is when i suffer the most! Next year i'm coming away from this and trying to build up a better natral tolerance to Co2.

Keep at it, change your diet around as ths would be key.

 

[nostres]

Hi

You got some good answers above related to diving itself.
I just have something to say about bowl of sereal.
It may cause big disagreement, I don't care but just think of it:

- cows milk was designed for baby cow, not so good for humans

- what nutritional value can cereal have? No protein, no fat,
some starch, sugar and colorful paints

(not my discovery, it just makes sense to me
mainly based on book by Canadian Kevin Trudeau)

 

[bite ya]

Of course its good for you, i usually have porridge which has loads of the right kinds on carbs in and which a scoop of protein powder its got every thing you need plus its easy to digest. :inlove

I think what you discribing is something like coco pops or something, they have all the nutritional values of water!

 

[trullalla]

i second trux theory. do you do short surface intervals, or do you do very long dives? do you have lots of contractions during your dives?

bite ya, hyperventilation (at least the kind we talk about here) doesn't usually cause headache. when you h.v. you lower your co2 and not the opposite. if you get headache at the end of your static, that's most likely because co2 build up. if you get headache during the breath up, then i don't know

linda

 

[robertonator]

I third the recommendation of taking longer surface intervals to rid of the headaches. And make sure to stay hydrated!

I have similar headaches and have found these to factors to be key.

HOWEVER;
The last time I dove was over a month ago. I got CO2 headaches, which is not an abnormal thing for me.

But to this day, they have not gone away. Anybody have any ideas as to the possible causes of this? The doc is clueless, and so am I. They aren't bad headaches, but they are slightly hindering. If you want more details let me know, but everything except for the pain checks out normal.


Thanks guys,

Rob

 

[cebaztian]

Hi
- cows milk was designed for baby cow, not so good for humans

Right, but what foods where created for humans by who?

Sebastian

 

[demasoni]

Right, but what foods where created for humans by who?

Sebastian

That's the beauty (or downfall) of humanity. We choose what we eat.

I think what Nostres and Kevin Trudeau is saying is that processed, commercial, pasteurized cow milk is horrible for you. Also, raw cow milk can be very dangerous and be loaded with bacteria. Cow milk in general contains casein which we can't digest anyways. Cow milk represents the greed and the thinking of the dairy industry gone awry (at least in the US) and I simply can't believe all the milk commercials and milk being pushed to kids from a young age.

It drives me crazy like most commercially produced agriculture in this country - THE BUSINESS OF FOOD at the expense of the health of the country's citizens. It's these guys that create "food for humans" in a lab made into wonderful little packages and frozen boxes completely processed and made of who knows what (actually, usually some GMO corn by-product).

Ever wonder why so many Americans are obese and have a laundry list of health problems only to be "treated" by the equally horrendous pharmaceutical industry? Then they tell Americans that what they're doing is OK?

I'll get off my soapbox now and have a beer.

Oh yeah, this thread is about headaches after diving!

 

[nostres]

Right, but what foods where created for humans by who?

Sebastian

good question but,

I would say by creator, then
person2 would say God
person3 would say nature
person4 would say by nobody

so I won't because that would start another endless and pointless debate we don't need.

And Yes Josh, that's what me and Kevin think about milk and food industry

 

[nostres]

To diver with headaches, I forgot to mention that I used to have headaches after static. Couple years ago when I started doing tables, they would give me really hard time. But when our CO2 tolerance increases, our body must adopt to it somehow. No matter how "bad" static or tables I do these days I feel great.
Just a side note.
Of course I think You should use above advice about extending Your surface interval, this is easy fix, You'll see how You feel and You'll go from there

 

[jay cluskey]

your head ache during tables is co2 build up which is a sign you are working correctly.
the head ache during spearing and freediving is a sign of high co2 you need more surface time
headache after scuba diving is a sign of not breathing correctly , are you holding your breath to conserve air? if you are holding your breath you are increasing the risk of dcs
dive safe , take a freediving course, increase your knowledge of the physiology of freediving .

 

[robertonator]

I don't scuba dive, so I'm sure that's not it. To be honest, I dint have immediate access to acourse right now; I was hoping somebody here would have the knowledge, o at least somewhere start with the doctor.

Thanks

Rob

 

[jay cluskey]

sorry rob my response was to the initial post not yours .
i suggest you seek specialist advice because a doctor can only go of symptoms yo have, once he has exhausted all avenues the next step is a spcialist.
btw , i personaly would not be looking for medical advice from a dive forum for a problem such as yours .
your body is obviously telling you that it does not like something

 

[azapa]

Mentioned above, but HYDRATION is so important for me. On a 2 hour dive session if i don't pee more than once, I'm probably going to have a slight headache on leaving the water because of dehydration. A 4 hours spear session is very long. I would need to drink 1L of water before and about another 500cc during the session minimum.

The pee rule, for me, works well. No pee: sure headache. Peeing like a racehorse: no headache.

 

[wes]

On Freediving Headaches,

I have dealt with headaches alot as I train usually in the summer at 3,000 ft (1,000 m) so the air is thinner and harder to get rid of CO2. The following helps me alot.

For sure headaches are caused by too much CO2 + N in blood after freediving. Fixes:

Water:

When you drink alot the blood gets thinner and its easier for excess CO2 + N to get out. Drink alot.

Breath speed right after the dive:

The other thing that helps get CO2 and N out is to breathe faster as it increases the airspeed over the lung tissue and increases the ability for the blood in the lungs to purge CO2 and N. (If you don't believe this, try 6 slow deep breaths per minute for 3 min, then 6 fast deep breaths per minute for 3 min and compare results, same number of deep breaths over 3 min and very different results)

Breath technique right after the dive:

Shallow breathing leaves alot of stale air in lungs so doesn't help as much. Deep breathing helps mix up air in lungs. Also using snorkel make it harder to get fresh air in the lungs. Right after you do your recovery breathing after dive try rolling on your back with snorkel out after your dives and do quick deep breaths for 60 seconds. Try deep quick inhale and hold, count to 4 then deep quick exhale then deep quick inhale and count to 4 then repeat so maybe 10 breaths like this over 60 seconds. You should go past the point where you feel you need to stop so will dump a little "extra" CO2, then roll over and return to your normal breathe up with snorkel.

Oxygen

The ultimate is to breathe oxygen at 5m for 5 to 10 minutes to help recovery. All top freedivers do this and it helps alot. Obviously hard to organize.

For me headaches got worse as my CO2 tolerance improved as I pushed myself harder and had less impulse to breathe so felt I didn't have to breathe. This was very wrong and I think related to some of the "freediver depression" that happens with divers after 1-2 years of diving. Now after my dives I breathe alot very quickly, kind of like hyperventilating but different, then transition to very slow relaxed breathing before each dive.

I want to say too that you will get better health advice on diving from Deeper Blue then 99% of doctors will give. Its not because doctors don't know alot, they do, just not alot about freediving.

Cheers Wes Lapp