NAUI Master Scuba Diver 136 Diving Physiology food to provide salts and minerals, a condition called water intoxication can result, with serious health consequences. Take water pills (diuretics) only under physician supervision. Things That Go Bump You may experience the usual bumps, cuts, and scrapes of diving, bites and stings from marine animals, and spend time continuously exposed to warm, wet conditions that make a comfortable environment for germs to grow. Swimmer’s ear is an uncomfortable infection of your external ear. Your external ear is the part of your ear that you can see and stick your finger into. Swimmer’s ear is almost always bacterial, but occasionally fungus will like your ears, too. Swimmer’s ear bacteria live in your external ear all the time. Normally they do not cause a problem unless you give them a chance. Your ear canal cleans itself from your eardrum outward, like a little conveyor belt. Cotton swabs and fingers interrupt your automatic cleaner and push debris, which swimmer’s ear bacteria like to eat, back into your ear canal. If you strip away your natural protective wax from your ear canal and leave your ears moist after diving, you make conditions good for bacteria to grow. For plants, fungus is the main cause of disease. For humans, however, few fungi cause harm, even though many kinds of fungi live on the surface of your body and on clothing and shower surfaces all the time. These fungi are normally not able to multiply enough to cause problems unless you keep body areas warm and moist. Common places are your feet, causing athlete’s foot, and your groin and inner thigh, producing jock itch. Other areas are fingernails and toenails, and less commonly, your scalp, armpit, beard, or almost anywhere else. Effects: The classical response of body tissues to a bump, bite, sting, scrape, or cut is inflammation characterized by warmth (calor), redness (rubor), swelling (tumor), and pain (dolor). Swimmer’s ear hurts. It can hurt when you chew, turn your head, and push or pull on your ear. Athlete’s foot and jock itch will itch, redden, and burn. Your skin may blister. More often it will crack and scale. First Aid: Clean and disinfect cuts, punctures, abrasions, bites, and other intrusions, and keep them clean, dry, and covered. Don’t pour fresh water on jellyfish stings, use salt water to rinse off remaining stingers. Apply R.I.C.E. - Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation to bangs and bruises, but do not elevate limbs with marine bites or stings. For more on first aid for stings, see Chapter 2 on “The Diving Environment.” For open wounds, get a tetanus booster if you have not had one in the last 10 years. If the wound is dirty (with dirt, feces, soil, or saliva), some recommend a booster if you haven’t had one in 5 years. Treat swimmer’s ear by pouring plain white vinegar in your ear to kill the bacteria. Alcohol or peroxide also work, but since they can eventually strip away your protective ear wax, don’t use them repeatedly in a short period of time. Because swimmer’s ear does not involve your middle ear, decongestants have no effect. Treat fungal infections with antifungal preparations, and continue treatment for the full period of time, prescribed by your physician, which varies with need sometimes up to ten weeks. See your diving physician for repeated or severe diving infections, or if a deep cut is over a thin, bony area, such as your shin. Prevention: Don’t touch, grab, or squeeze marine life. Shuffle your feet when walking on sandy ocean bottoms to avoid stepping on stingrays. Get a tetanus booster every ten years. Keep your inoculations for water-borne diseases current, such as typhoid if you travel to areas of incidence. To prevent swimmer’s ear, dry your ears after diving. Do not routinely remove ear wax or push things into your ear canal. Don’t use ear plugs for swimming, as they can irritate your ear canal and trap moisture in your canal, making the environment good for bacterial growth. To prevent athlete’s foot and jock itch, dry yourself and apply powder after diving. Wear clean, dry underwear and socks that are not tight. Don’t sit around in wet bathing suits. Putting germy feet into your shoes (without socks) can infect your shoes, then perpetually reinfect your feet. Shower shoes will not necessarily protect you in public showers. The shoes can infect you if you keep them wet and warm so that fungus can live on them. You might directly apply the fungus to
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