A good dive exam should cover a number of different areas that a doctor should be looking for. General examination procedures include checking cardiovascular fitness, gastrointestinal function, visual acuity, and barotrauma. Additional tests may be recommended by doctors to assess your diving skills. If you have had any ear infections in the past it is important that your dive doctor be consulted. Even if you do not have any ear infections in the past, a dive medical will give you all the information that you need.
Checking out cardiovascular fitness
It is important to assess your cardiovascular fitness before you decide to pursue diving as a hobby, or even as a career. Although it may seem easy, this is not an easy task. For example, if you cannot walk a block, you should not sign up to a diving course. You should instead exercise for 20 minutes four- to five times per week. You may need to walk a few miles.
Examining the digestive function
A scuba dive physical should include a thorough examination of the gastrointestinal function. This is because ischemic complications can arise during diving expeditions. Belching and abdominal discomfort may be experienced by divers, but little is known about serious gastrointestinal complications. Rare gastrointestinal conditions, such as gastric leakage due to intra-gastric pressure expansion and massive pneumoperitoneum (which results from lung barotrauma), have been reported. However, scuba diving has not been shown to cause mesenteric blood clotsis, acute Ischemia colitis, or hemorhagic Colitis.
Examining visual acuity
Dive physicals assess the abilities of divers and evaluate their vision. A questionnaire about visual acuity will be administered by a professional diving instructor to help determine whether a diver can see well. While the objective is to assess a diver's distance and near vision, the test also measures a person's visual acuity.
You should check for barotrauma
Scuba diving requires you to be extra cautious in order to prevent barotrauma. The word barotrauma is derived from the Greek words baros, meaning pressure, and trauma, which means injury. Dive pressure can cause damage or rupture to the eardrums. This can happen if the diver is suffering from congestion or a cold. This can cause symptoms such as nausea and vomiting.
Checking for Asthma
Before going on a dive vacation, your physician should be consulted if you believe you might have asthma. You can experience asthma symptoms that can get worse or worse, and even trigger by diving. Oral steroids can be prescribed by your doctor to treat your asthma. As a precaution, you should keep a supply of inhalers on board your dive boat. A physician can run an exercise test for asthma to assess the severity of your condition, as well as a lung function test.