Words by Lorie Laroche and Dr. Neal W Pollock Health is a state of overall physical, mental, and social wellness. Good mental health involves the ability to live to one’s full potential, to face normal life stressors, to work productively, and to be able to contribute to the community. …

  By Dr. David Sawatzky Rebreathers are becoming ever more common in the diving community, and in diving fatality records.  I wanted to write a column on rebreather fatalities but immediately realized that it would make no sense to most divers unless they had a good, basic understanding of …

By Dr. David Sawatzky In the last three columns I reviewed vision underwater, common refractive errors, and reading glasses/ contacts.  In this column I will finish the discussion of vision and diving by looking at various mask options for correcting your vision while under water. Do You Need to Correct Your Vision? Diving with a …

By Dr. David Sawatzky In the last column I reviewed common refractive errors and the effects they have on our vision both in and out of the water.  In this column I will continue that discussion by reviewing reading glasses, contact lenses and how they interact with diving. Presbyopia (far-sightedness associated with age) …

Visibility notwithstanding, dive masks are the solution… for human beings By Dr. David Sawatzky The eye is really just a complex, living camera.  The main parts of the eye are the cornea, iris, lens and retina.  The cornea is clear and has no blood supply.  It protects the eye …

By Dr. David Sawatzky A couple of years ago I started writing a column on healthy eating.  I believed it to be relevant to diving but there was very little research to clarify that relationship.  Recently, several interesting articles have been published on this topic so it is time to …

It’s rare in the recreational scuba enthusiast but deeper divers and pushing no-decompression limits can put you at risk By Dr. David Sawatzky The lesions of dysbaric osteonecrosis (DON) only occur in a few bones of the body.  They are found in the head and proximal shaft of the …

Will ‘diver’s rotting bone disease’ become more common as technical diving grows in popularity?  By Dr. David Sawatzky Dysbaric osteonecrosis (DON) was first identified in the 1940s and was found to be relatively common in the 1970s and early 1980s in some groups of divers but extremely rare in …

The rough and tumble of diving increases risk of bone fractures By Dr. David Sawatzky Osteoporosis is a very common bone disease that increases the risk of fractures and diving is an activity where trauma is relatively common. The condition is more prevalent as we age and divers are …

Diving Medicine By Dr. David Sawatzky I was recently consulted on the case of a commercial diver who presented with cold, white, painful fingers after walking outside on a cold windy day.  When the diver was questioned it was discovered that they often experienced similar symptoms while diving and …