Hi all! I've been freediving for about a year now, last 5 months have been very busy with about 4-5 trainings per week in the pool and depth. I have a very good freediving trainer. A week ago I was warming up for my usual depth training by doing FIM static holds at about 20m and was starting to feel lightheaded. On my 3rd warmup static hold I almost fainted, when I got to the surface my lips were blue, I felt dizzy, my toes on my feet felt numb, muscles felt weak. So I decided to quit training that day, figured maybe it was one time thing, maybe I ate something wrong or didn't get enough sleep. Next week I had dynamic trainings in the pool and everything went perfect until on the weekend we went for depth training again. Same thing happened. I am 30, very active, play a lot of competitive beach volleyball and regularly do jiu jitsu. I do not smoke or drink. Do not have any medical conditions that I am aware of. My diet is very good, I really pay attention to what I eat so there's no way it's a problem. The only difference in my routine that has happened in the past 2 weeks is that I started taking BCAA and Iron vegetable supplements. Has anyone seen any similar conditions? I would be really thankful for any input you guys may have.
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Unexplained dizziness that I have experienced
- Thread starterTortuga
- Start date
Thread Status: Hello
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Tried diving again after not taking any supplements for 9 days with same symptoms. I did some test FIM to 10m, felt a little dizzy on the way down and the feeling of fainting on the way up right before the surface. I used my heart rate monitor this time. My pulse went from 75 to 45 within 30 secs. When I recorded my pulse doing static breath holds in the pool it usually took about 4 minutes for my pulse to drop down to 45 and below. So I thought that was a little odd. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Just some general weakness for the rest of the day, heart rate normal (no spikes). Next day I did pool dynamic training and everything went fine.
The most common cause of similar problems in freedivers is atrial fibrillation. It can be triggered by the diving reflex. The fact that deep diving induces the strongest activation of the DR would explain why these symptoms appear only during depth training. Check this thread: https://forums.deeperblue.com/threads/fainting-on-dry-land.103001/#post-943284
Try to palpate your pulse when it happens again, check if the heart rate is high and irregular. You must be very careful, you are at a high risk of black out. Don't dive deep until everything goes back to normal.
Try to palpate your pulse when it happens again, check if the heart rate is high and irregular. You must be very careful, you are at a high risk of black out. Don't dive deep until everything goes back to normal.
Thank you for your reply! I have read about atrial fibrillation before but have never observed high or irregular heart rate. Since I noticed symptoms for the first time about a month ago now, I've been monitoring my heart rate and pressure a lot. I will pay a visit to a sports clinic to do some stress tests on my heart, maybe that will show something. I am scared to do deep diving again before I find out the reason behind all these abnormalities.
Marcini I can't say I agree with you about Atrial Fibrillation. I have Atrial flutter which is the same as atrial fibrillation. It just means that the irregular heartbeat is in a regular pattern if that makes sense. I am told that 30 % of cases cannot be attributed to anything at all. There are others known causes such as alcoholism , diabetes and high blood pressure. It seems that once you have had a bout it is likely to return. Please see the website called the atrial fibrillation society. My irregular heart beat I believe was brought on by a chest infection. I had not dived for months before that. It is cause by the electrical current that goes from the brain to a node in the heart( the hearts natural pacemaker) this short circuits in the heart, going round in a circle either once, twice or three times. It can cause the heart to beat at 150, 250 beats per minute or if it short circuits three times actually slow the heart beat down. It is extremely common and known sufferers are T Blair and Barry Manilow, neither of which dive to my knowledge.
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Of course you don't have do be a freediver to have atrial fibrillation or flutter. The vast majority of people that suffer from this arrhythmia doesn't dive. However, it is also possible that your heart works normal and arrhythmia is triggered only by apnea. Diving response is the most powerful autonomic reflex known in humans. When it kick in (especially during deep diving) both sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves supplying the heart are strongly activated. Stimulation of these nerves is one of the factors known to induce atrial fibrillation. If you are lucky it resolves on its own when you start to breathe again.
So even when I dove with a heart rate monitor and it didn't show any spikes or any abnormalities do you think it is still possible for atrial fibrillation to be there?
Atrial fibrillation is usually accompanied by elevated heart rate but in some people HR remains normal or even decreases. So normal HR does not exclude it. I'm not sure if you are able to tell if your heart beat is regular by simply looking at the heart rate monitor.
Your symptoms strongly suggest brain hypoxia. Since you were not low on oxygen it had to be caused by insufficient blood flow. Considering the fact that neurological symptoms quickly resolved on their own we can exclude stroke, DCS or other similar causes. So the most likely reason is impaired function of the heart. Since you don't experience any problems during other types of physical activity it's unlikely that you suffer from any heart disease. The problem results from something that happens only when you dive deep. I can't think of any other cause than cardiac arrhythmia.
Your symptoms strongly suggest brain hypoxia. Since you were not low on oxygen it had to be caused by insufficient blood flow. Considering the fact that neurological symptoms quickly resolved on their own we can exclude stroke, DCS or other similar causes. So the most likely reason is impaired function of the heart. Since you don't experience any problems during other types of physical activity it's unlikely that you suffer from any heart disease. The problem results from something that happens only when you dive deep. I can't think of any other cause than cardiac arrhythmia.
I wish I knew a way how to test it to be sure. Everything does fit the description of Atrial fibrillation except for it actually being detected. My cardiologist suggest me to see a neurologist to have electroencephalogram test done.