Effects of a 12-Week Special Diving Training Plus High-Fat Diet on Some Decompression Sickness-Related Cardiovascular Indices in Young Professional Male Divers

Decompression Sickness (DCS) is common in diving. DCS can threaten the driver’s health and cause embolism. This condition is developed by forming and increasing the size of the external and intravascular bubbles due to the enhanced pressure of the total dissolved gases in the blood and body tissues. Some research suggested that the cardiovascular system is involved in the bloodstream after embolism. Additionally, studies addressed heart rate variability as a simple physiological index related to stress reduction. Moreover, this defect in heart rate variability is associated with intravascular conditions. One of these therapeutic and preventive strategies can be to meet the nutritional and nutritional needs of divers. Nutritional considerations during exposure to high–pressure and hypoxic environments, as well as the environmental challenges encountered by divers, and their diet should be specific and accounted for. Nutrition might impact a diver's performance and health. Besides, changes in the response of some cardiovascular markers may affect the status of diver's disease. Thus, the present study aimed to investigate the effects of a 12–week special diving training plus a high–fat diet on response to some cardiovascular indices related to DCS in young professional male divers.

This was a quasi–experimental study with pretest–posttest and a control group design. In total, 21 professional divers were randomly divided into 10–subject groups of experimental (aerobic & anaerobic plus diet) and control (special diving exercises). One session of acute high–intensity diving was conducted at depths of 40 for 30 minutes and heart rate, blood pressure, and blood flow velocity was recorded before, at 80% of HRmax, and 15 min after acute high–intensity diving. To measure heart rate and blood pressure, we used the Littmann medical device Classic American Model and ChoiceMMed 21 Pulse Oximeter Model C21 (Made in China) and Germany's ME80 Model Beaver Heart Rate Monitor and Made of Pulmonary Heart Rate Practice (Denmark). Blood velocity was measured by Doppler Duplex ultrasonography the obtained data were analyzed using two‐way repeated–measures Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) at the significance level of 0.05.

The current study results revealed that a high–fat diet increased heart rate (p=0.021) and Diastolic Blood Pressure (DBP) (p<0.001). However, the mean Systolic Blood Pressure (SBP) in the high–fat diet group was lower than that in the normal diet group (p<0.001). Furthermore, the rate of blood flow in the first, sixth, and twelfth weeks was significantly higher in the experimental group, compared to the normal diet group (p<0.001). The obtained results indicated that high fat intake increased heart rate; the mean heart rate in the diving group with a high–fat diet was significantly higher than that in the diving group alone or those with the normal diet. The mean SBP of the diving group with a high–fat diet was lower than that of the diving group with a normal diet. The mean DBP of the diving group with a high–fat diet was higher than that of the normal diet group. Finally, the rate of blood flow in the first, sixth, and twelfth weeks was significantly higher in the exercise group with a high–fat diet, compared to the normal diet group.

The collected results indicated that a high–fat diet adversely impacted cardiovascular adaptation induced by acute high–intensity diving training in response to heart rate, blood pressure, and blood flow velocity in professional divers.