Blog: "Scuba diving in the sea makes my LongCOVID symptoms/PEM almost disappear. For the third time."

[Jonathan Edwards]

How come people that have been in avalanches frequently report not knowing which way is up or down? A common survival tip is to drool and let gravity tell you which was you’re oriented.

I think that may be because they cannot move so they cannot test their semicircular canal and otolith function by finding differences on movement. The organ is likely to accommodate when static.

 

[ChronicallyOverIt]

How come people that have been in avalanches frequently report not knowing which way is up or down? A common survival tip is to drool and let gravity tell you which was you’re oriented.

Maybe they’ve been knocked about so much that their sense of direction is temporarily out of order.

Ahh my old AST-1 training coming in handy.

AN avalanche can take you 1000’s of meters with hundreds of pounds of snow on top of you. Have you ever seen a skier tamahok down a run? They look like an axe being thrown down a hill. Now imagine that with 1000lb of snow on top and zero visibility. It’s impossible to hold orientation. This plus avalanches mostly happen on steep hills above 35 degrees.

The spit thing is mostly a myth, if you’re so far buried and upside down you won’t be able to move. Spitting isn’t going to help, the snow will hold you down you won’t be able to dig yourself out even if you knew which way was up. If you can dig yourself out and move enough to see your spit you’re near the top and probably don’t need to spit to see where you’re at.

 

[Alinda]

Whatever he has, he's mildly affected. If he was moderate, he wouldn't just go on holiday and entertain the idea of taking part in physical activities.

I think generally people consider severe long covid = mild ME/CFS. So moderate long covid is still too mild to be considered ME/CFS

 

[MrMagoo]

He's sharing his own personal experience. He's not giving unsolicited advice, or suggesting that pwLC or ME/CFS try this.

A refreshing change!

 

[MrMagoo]

I think generally people consider severe long covid = mild ME/CFS. So moderate long covid is still too mild to be considered ME/CFS

Really? I hadn’t heard this.

 

[Alinda]

Really? I hadn’t heard this.

It's how the private clinic I go to considers/uses it, and I have seen people online use the same scale. But no idea if there is anything "official" about it..

 

[Venicequeenf]

Being in the cool water (not swimming, but just being inside) made me also feel much better (at least when I was moderate) which is probably due to the high compression being good for my strong POTS, and maybe the cool water (20-25 deg C) calming the ANS

 

[MrMagoo]

It's how the private clinic I go to considers/uses it, and I have seen people online use the same scale. But no idea if there is anything "official" about it..

Genuinely wasn’t aware and that’s good to know. It also explains why some LC people are being so certain they don’t have ME/CFS and some say they have both.

 

[nafione]

I think that may be because they cannot move so they cannot test their semicircular canal and otolith function by finding differences on movement. The organ is likely to accommodate when static.

The inner ear functions like a gyroscope/accelerometer, but like all gyroscopes the inner ear is subject to drift or error which accumulates over approximately 30 seconds in our case. Our orientation in space relies on occasional updates from other sensors (our eyes mostly) to correct for drift/error in the gyro (inner ear). 2 problems in an avalanche: you're probably tumbling, which is enough to fool any but the most sophisticated sensor, plus you lose visual reference for long enough that the inner ear loses its calibration. The problem is well understood in both manned and unmanned flight.

As for speculation why diving might help Mr. "I have PEM but it's definitely not me/cfs" increased partial pressure of o2 is another possibility. Breathing nitrox at those depths increases the partial pressure nearly 5 fold versus being on the surface breathing air, or equivalent to breathing pure o2 on the surface. He says the effect of diving is better than oxygen therapy at home fwiw.