Scuba diving is an extreme sport and it is important that you are as fit as you can be to reduce the risk of accident or injury. It is also important that you are able to react appropriately in case of an emergency and that you would be able to help others if they needed assistance. If you have a health issue or take medication it is important to understand how this might affect your diving, and how diving may affect you.
The following list has been compiled by DDRC Healthcare's Diving Physicians in response to various medical concerns and questions most commonly raised by divers:
If you cannot find an answer to your query after reviewing the information provided below or you need a dive doctor to sign off a diving medical declaration then you may wish to book a telephone consultation with one of our dive doctors.
This service is only available to UK recreational divers and we may need further information or to see you face-to-face so please arrange this well in advance of your diving plans.
Our dive doctors have also written a series of articles for BSAC Scuba Magazine and divernet.com on various fitness to dive issues:
- Blood vessels
- Can I still scuba dive with diabetes?
- Can you scuba dive if you have had a stroke?
- Diving and the menstrual cycle
- Diving into Mental Health
- Ear problems
- Inner ear damage from diving
- Obesity and scuba diving
- Seizures & Epilepsy
- Safe senior scuba
- Surviving IPO: A diver's perspective
- The bones
- The heart and Patent Foramen Ovale (PFO)
- The lungs and Immersion Pulmonary Oedema (IPO)
- The mind and depression