Scuba Diving Fatalities Due To Heart Attacks and Strokes Are Now A Leading Cause of Diving Fatalities [video]

As scuba diving becomes more popular and divers age, there has been a rise in the number of diving related fatalities due to heart attacks and strokes.

The fact that divers typically become certified and begin his or her diving career at an earlier age contributes greatly to this problem.  Younger divers a typically in much better shape physically upon certification. However, as time progresses and aging sets in, there is a tendency to not keep up with the appropriate level of physical fitness that is required to continue diving safely. The fact that divers subject themselves to more extreme underwater conditions exacerbates the problem even further.

Figures show that between 1989 to 2015, the proportion of diving fatalities worldwide involving 50–59 year-olds increased steadily from 15 per cent to 35 per cent.  Deaths in the over-60s soared from 5 per cent to 20 per cent.
Read more on telegraph.co.uk

It is very easy to not understand that you are no linger fit enough to continue diving. Dr. Buzzacott, as quoted in an article on telegraph.co.uk, stresses the importance of routine fitness assessments in addition to maintaining the proper blood pressure and cholesterol levels as key steps in avoiding underwater heart attacks and strokes.

 

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Furthermore..

Researchers looked at a huge databank in the US, covering 736 million people, of whom 113,892 said their main hobby was scuba diving.

Around one third of the divers were aged 50 or older, and many had risk factors that made them more susceptible to suffering an underwater heart attack.

Around 54 per cent had smoked cigarettes at some point in their lives, compared with 46 per cent of non divers. Nearly half of divers were overweight (48 per cent) compared with 43 per cent of non divers and one third had been diagnosed with high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
Read more on telegraph.co.uk