Q1_Winter_2017_AlertDiver

59 / 116

Galapagos Maldives Silver Bank
Saba/St. Kitts Turks & Caicos
Unique liveaboard experiences!
USA/Canada: 1.800.322.3577
+1.307.235.0683
N
LIVEABOARD DIVING FLEET
| 57
and fish farms employ a significant number of divers,
and while the offshore industry has developed health
and safety protocols in diving over several decades,
there are emerging areas in aquaculture in which the
methods and procedures are still evolving.
Our fitness-to-dive project studies the impact of
hyperbaric exposures on the circulatory and central
nervous systems of humans and animal diver models.
While the fitness-to-dive project is primarily concerned
with occupational saturation diving, we have done smaller
projects that are relevant to the recreational community.
If we understand the biological processes that push
the body toward DCS, we will be better able to develop
interventions. These biological processes are likely
gradual, meaning that at some point the body reaches a
limit at which it can no longer compensate. I believe that
gaining a detailed understanding of the progression to
symptoms and learning more about the long-term effects
of extensive diving is of great potential benefit to the
diving community.
Occupational divers make provocative dive profiles
under sometimes extreme conditions. Greater
understanding of the physiological impact of these
extreme profiles can help to educate recreational divers
and promote safer diving behavior. The long-term effects
of diving are not necessarily bad. As with other forms of
exercise, there may be health benefits, but changes that
involve the immune system should be followed over time
since they may alter disease risk. Knowledge of immune
and inflammatory responses to different situations in
diving may affect the way divers’ medical evaluations are
done. The human body is the most complex and beautiful
piece of machinery, and there is still so much we can
learn about it if we ask the right questions. AD
Most cells in our body contain deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), a
complex molecule that contains the necessary instructions to do and
build things the body needs for development, function, maintenance
and adaptation to changes in the environment. Before these
instructions can be followed, they must be copied into a “readable”
form called ribonucleic acid (RNA). These RNA transcripts influence
everything from the structure of cells to what proteins are made.
DNA is organized into genes. As environmental conditions
change, some genes may become more or less active (upregulated
or downregulated). Activity can be measured by identifying both
the type and quantity of all the RNA transcripts present in a cell.
Changes in gene expression can provide insight into how a cell
normally functions in given conditions. It may also shed light on
how deviation from the norm could lead to disease, whether it is
cancer or DCS. Although most cells in the body contain the same
genetic instructions, not all cells follow or read the same part of the
manual. Cells that make up the immune system, for example, have
a completely different structure and function than cardiac cells.