A good dive medical includes several components that a medical professional should inspect. General examinations include visual acuity, cardiovascular fitness, visual acuity, barotrauma, and gastrointestinal function. Doctors may recommend additional tests to evaluate your diving abilities. If you have ever had ear infections, it's important that you speak with your dive doctor. Even if you do not have any ear infections in the past, a dive medical will give you all the information that you need.
Cardiovascular fitness:
Before pursuing diving as a hobby or a career, it is vital to evaluate your cardiovascular fitness. This may sound like a simple task, but it is not. For example, you shouldn't sign up for a diving course if you can't even walk a block! You should be exercising for 20 minutes at least four to five days a week. Even walking for a mile is not enough.
Examining gastrointestinal function
Because ischemic colitis is possible during a diving expedition, it is crucial to check the digestive function of divers. Belching and abdominal discomfort are common symptoms in divers. However, very little information is available on the serious gastrointestinal complications that can result from diving. Some rare gastrointestinal conditions have been reported, including gastric rupture due to intra-gastric air expansion and massive pneumoperitoneum, which results from lung barotrauma. However, mesenteric vein thrombosis, acute ischemic colitis, and hemorrhagic colitis have never been linked to scuba diving.
Examining visual acuity
Diver physicals are used to verify that divers can perform the skills required and to evaluate a diver's eyesight. To assess if a diver's vision is good, a diving professional will ask the diver to fill out a visual acuity questionnaire. The test is designed to measure a person's vision acuity and distance vision.
You should check for barotrauma
If you plan to scuba dive, it is important that you take extra precautions in order to avoid barotrauma. Barotrauma, which comes from the Greek word baros, which stands for pressure, and trauma, that stands for injury, is what you get. Dive pressure can cause damage or rupture to the eardrums. You can get this condition if you are suffering from a cold, congestion, or while diving. It can also cause vomiting and pain.
Asthma screening
Before diving, it is a good idea to consult your physician if you suspect you may have asthma. Asthma symptoms can worsen or wax and wane, and they can even get triggered by diving. Asthma treatment can be provided by your doctor with oral steroids. To protect yourself, keep some inhalers aboard your dive boat. Your physician can also run an exercise test to evaluate your asthma, and perform a lung function test to determine the severity of your condition.