Health and the aging cave diver

[PsychDiver]

I'm pushing 60 and didn't take up diving until mid-50s. I snow ski, bike, paddle, hike, and like to do active stuff. Not much on the gym and haven't been able to get motivated enough for consistent running. Have a family history of coronary artery disease and would be surprised if something else killed me. I take the statins, but I'm not going to sit at home waiting for the heart attack to strike. If I die in a cave it wouldn't bum me out for myself but would bum me out for ruining it for my buddy. Same concern if I died during vigorous sex.

[TracyN]

I'm pushing 60 and didn't take up diving until mid-50s. I snow ski, bike, paddle, hike, and like to do active stuff. Not much on the gym and haven't been able to get motivated enough for consistent running. Have a family history of coronary artery disease and would be surprised if something else killed me. I take the statins, but I'm not going to sit at home waiting for the heart attack to strike. If I die in a cave it wouldn't bum me out for myself but would bum me out for ruining it for my buddy. Same concern if I died during vigorous sex.

LoL! That all depends on your partner. Could be quite a good ego boost to say that your skills in the bedroom were literally killer!

[shellmoundal]

Tracy, funny you have mentioned this. For those who know me I am a 68 year old male in excellent physical condition. I exercise on a daily basis, kayak fish in the ocean, and am an avid diver. Last September I did 25 dives in 5 days and felt great. I have an annual physical and have always been passed with flying colors. Mt cholesterol, blood pressure, and EKG have always been perfect.
This last December, one week after my weekly cave dive, I had a heart attack. No normal signs that I was having problems. Was at home on Saturday watching Alabama play Auburn and all of a sudden I was out cold. Found out that my main artery was 100% blocked. I was admitted to the hospital and received 2 stents.
You may look healthy, feel healthy, and eat right, but if your family history shows heart problems you best take notice. I did not but I was fortunate enough to have this heart attack on the surface.
I am having a stress test next week to evaluate the damage and to determine when I can enter the water again.
The age poll was done by me but not for the medical interest. Seems I need to go back and revaluate the results.
Listen to your body and take notice. This post is a very serious discussion; it my save your life.

[Michael F]

After reading John's story (OFG-1) sometime last year(?) I saw my GP and arranged for a Heart stress test. I didn't want to become another statistic or to have my family called from North Florida to report I didn't survive my last dive. Thanks for sharing your story John, I really don't know what possessed me to continue diving in caves at my age, without this information.

I'm 51, keep pretty busy, but not that physically active anymore, and wasn't really certain of the condition of my heart and circulatory system. I also worked on my dive buddy (same age) until he caved and had his own test completed. We both were fortunate to have passed with flying colours.

I know there are many things we could experience while cave diving that could have fatal results but I also know that by having successfully completed the Heart stress test, my buddy and I have greatly reduced the risk of becoming another statistic.

Don't we owe this to all of our loved ones?

[allen]

At 75 I have outlived my brother (64), my father (64), my paternal grandmother (72), her father (44), and his father (64). I think my strenuous lifestyle has something to do with this. I don't think I could keep up my 45 minute workouts 6 days a week if I didn't tell myself that I do them so that I can continue cave diving. Thus, my cave diving has kept me alive a lot longer that family history would lead one to expect.

[jason]

Yes. The frequency of exams increases with age. I made an error when typing quickly.

[FW]

At 75 I have outlived my brother (64), my father (64), my paternal grandmother (72), her father (44), and his father (64). I think my strenuous lifestyle has something to do with this. I don't think I could keep up my 45 minute workouts 6 days a week if I didn't tell myself that I do them so that I can continue cave diving. Thus, my cave diving has kept me alive a lot longer that family history would lead one to expect.

Sounds awfully familiar

[OFG-1]

Well, at 62, I have found that it is more difficult to keep any workout going, particularly with 2 bad knees. If you can think of any aerobic exercise that does not involve your knees, (and even sex requires some use of them) let me know. The knees are so bad at this point,I cant do a good looking frog kick, I cant keep the knees bent up for a long time. So I shuffle around, probably trailing silt like Pigpen in the Peanuts cartoon. So I am going to stay in bigger cave.

I do ride my bike almost every day. I have learned several things. You cannot measure your fitness and health at 62 the same as you did at 52, or 42, or 32. It is just different. I have lost range of motion over the years that as much as I stretch, It just does not want to come back.

The obvious thing is not to try the same dive profiles at 62 as you did at 52. There are a lot of wet rocks to see at 120 feet deep, and they look about the same as the ones at 270. With a few exceptions, caves look about the same at 3000 feet penetration as at 6000. I do know a couple that really do not get interesting until you hit the first big rooms at 5000 or so, but they are the exception. I am not draggin a set of 120's and 4 stages down into a sinkhole anymore, so I will be happy with what is comfortable.

After the heart attack, several things changed. First, my sac rate went up. A lot. I don't know if it is heart damage from the attack, medications, or both. Second, my cold tolerance, which has never been great, is worse. I suspect the aspirin. Because of the cold, I am just not going to do any more 3-4 hour dives. The last 16 months, I have limited myself to 100 minutes or so.

Finally, the tinnitus in my ears is a lot worse than it was a few years back. Now I do not know if it is related, but my sense of fine trim adjustments has changed. It now takes a several seconds for me to "feel" slight changes in trim, where for years, it was almost instant. I am sure its related, but as a pilot, basic aerobatics such as aileron rolls, snap rolls, and Chandelles don't feel the same either, the visual adjustment to the attitude does not happen as quickly as 20 or so years ago. Anyhow, I spend more time and effort dicking with trim than I used to.

Now, I don't know what happened to Jack, but I have learned that there are vastly different warning signs and symptoms of heart disease. Some people have no symptoms, but in retrospect, I had things going on that should have raised warning flags. I was getting out of breath sooner, which I attributed to age. I had reflux and bloating, almost with anything I ate. Severe heartburn (I thought) with pain in the center of the chest which I was sure was bloat. My heart attack was asymptomatic enough for me to drive myself to work, go into my office for a few hours, and finally, the reflux was accompanied by pain down my left arm. I did not believe it, I drove myself to the hospital, which caused the admitting nurse great consternation, and I was severely scolded. Could I have got out of a cave? I would like to think I could. 3 days before the attack, I did 100 minutes in Emerald.

You guys going for stress tests, you should know that treadmill tests are only about 60% effective. They miss 40% of the problems, and give false positive and negative results. If you get a less than favorable result, and you did not fall out on the treadmill, try it again in a few weeks. At least that is what Martha Stewart, my cardiologist (no relation) told me.

[solocavediver]

On the positive side, I've always felt that (solo) cavediving (in the early days, without cave training) increases my life expectancy. The reason was first stated (I think) by Gordon Henderson:

"When making risk assessments, people tend to err in favour of the spectacular, and neglect the merely probable".

I get bored if an exercise regime isn't interesting. And I tend to stop doing it. Cavediving gives me a reason to keep fit that's interesting, a hobby that doesn't boring after a few dives. I do a few other things to keep fit, partly so that I can (say) wade thru 200 yards of swamp with my 2x steel 80 tanks and do a fun dive at Little Gator Hole when in Florida. I'm not sure there is any cavediver who is more likely to die in a cave than of something boringly cardiovascular. By cavediving, I have a risk of cave accident (thus lowering life expectancy) but by being fitter, reduce my risk of something cardiovascular (thus increasing life expectancy).

Overall, I strongly suspect that I'm a winner. (But as someone else mentioned, that's really because Jesus rescued me from the futility of this world, long before I got interested in caves).

[kensuf]

Second, my cold tolerance, which has never been great, is worse. I suspect the aspirin. Because of the cold, I am just not going to do any more 3-4 hour dives. The last 16 months, I have limited myself to 100 minutes or so.

Interesting. I've been on a blood thinner (plavix) since having a PFO closed in September and have found something similar. I've never been a fan of cold water, but I'm getting chilled on dives now that I didn't before. I'm only required to be on it for 2 more months, so maybe that will be better.

On the other hand, I've done close to 60 deco dives since being cleared to resume diving, including a couple of 250'+ dives, and had nary a niggle...