The Effects of Chronic Weightlessness on Limited of Stability and Dynamic Balance in ‎Breath-hold and SCUBA Divers

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Sport Sciences, Kish International Campus, University of Tehran, Kish, Iran

2 Sports Science Department, Kish International Campus, University of Tehran, Kish, Iran

3 Department of Sports Medicine, Faculty of Physical Education and Sports Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Purpose:
Water immersion built a new environment in which weightlessness puts unknown demand on somatosensory system such as altered sensory integration due to the improper proprioception afferent. This condition can lead to an imprecise function of human postural balance system. But studies focused on the short-term effects of water immersion instead of truly long-term adaptations. So, the aim of this study was to investigate if chronic exposure to microgravity environment can lead to balance deficits and furthermore, to assess potential differences between two types of diving which is breath-hold and SCUBA.
Methods:
11 breath-hold divers (BHD), 13 scuba divers (both types of divers must have diving experience for at least 4 years) and 22 non-divers (ND), without any history of recent injuries or history that affects balance control, recent were undergone Functional reach test (FRT) as well as Y balance test (YBT).
Results:
There were no meaningful differences among experimental groups in limited of stability (p=0.860) and all groups were highly stable in FRT. But in other research criteria, BHD group were significantly had a better ability to maintain their balance during YBT task (p=0.004), while that SCUBA group found to have a poor ability in this matter versus BHD (p=0.001) and ND (p=0.001) groups.
Conclusions:
Our findings suggest that BHD and SCUBA divers have a normal ability in order to do functional reach tasks, but by increasing movement demands, SCUBA divers have been faced with balance difficulty more than BHD divers. Hence, according to the obvious difference between BHD and SCUBA divers, along with showing a meaningful difference by ND group, it seems that adding balance training to the routine BHD and SCUBA divers’ program, should be beneficial in order to improve their balance ability.

Keywords


  1. Bowen RL. The Pearl Fisheries of the Persian Gulf. Middle East Journal 1951; 5(2): 161-180.
  2. Lindholm P, Lundgren CE. The physiology and pathophysiology of human breath-hold diving. J Appl Physiol 2009; 106(1): 284-292.
  3. Kim MY, Choi S, Kim WJ. Health Status of Haenyeo Who Visited the Emergency. International Journal of Bio-science and Bio-technology 2015; 7(6): 33-40.
  4. Kim MY, Choi S, Kim WJ. Health Status of Haenyeo Who Visited the Emergency. International Journal of Bio-science and Bio-technology 2015; 7(6): 33-40.
  5. Shahnavazi M, Salari B, Fekrazad R. The Effect of Scuba Diving on Microleakage of a Class II Composite Restoration: An In-Vitro Study. InHealthcare 2021; 9(6): 768.
  6. Lindholm P. Loss of motor control and/or loss of consciousness during breath-hold competitions. Int J Sports Med 2007; 28(4): 295-309.
  7. Malou Strandvad S, Davis TC. The Disappearing Act: Geometries of free-diving. Performance Research 2016; 21(2): 125-37.
  8. Ridgway L, McFarland K. Apnea diving: long-term neurocognitive sequelae of repeated hypoxemia. Clin Neuropsychol 2006; 20(1): 160-76.
  9. Ostrowski A, Strzała M, Stanula A, Juszkiewicz M, Pilch W, et al. The role of training in the development of adaptive mechanisms in freedivers. J Hum Kinet 2012; 32: 197-210
  10. Dalecki M, Dräger T, Mierau A, Bock O. Production of finely graded forces in humans: effects of simulated weightlessness by water immersion. Exp Brain Res 2012; 218(1): 41-47
  11. Money KE, Cheung BS. Alterations of proprioceptive function in the weightless environment. J Clin Pharmacol 1991; 31(10): 1007-1009.
  12. Hilbig R, Gollhofer A, Bock O, Manzey D. Sensory Motor and Behavioral Research in Space. Springer International Publishing; 2017.
  13. Koohboomi M, Norasteh AA, Samami N. Effect of yoga training on balance in elderly women. J Kermanshah Univ Med Sci 2015; 19(1): 1-8.
  14. Glass SM, Rhea CK, Wittstein MW, Ross SE, et al. Changes in Posture Following a Single Session of Long-Duration Water Immersion. J Appl Biomech 2018: 1-7.
  15. Bock O. Joint position sence in simulated changed-gravity environment. Aviat Space Environ Med. 1994; 65(7): 621-626.
  16. Daleki M, Bock O. Changed Joint position sense and muscle activity in simulated wieghtlessness by water immersion. Aviat Space Environ Med 2013; 84(2): 110-115.
  17. Parkhurst TM, Burnett CN. Injury and proprioception in the lower back. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther 1994; 19(5): 282-295.
  18. Strzalkowski ND, Lowrey CR, Perry SD, Williams DR, et al. Selective weighting of cutaneous receptor feedback and associated balance impairments following short duration space flight. Neurosci Lett. 2015; 592: 94-98.
  19. Pinsault N, Fleury A, Virone G, Bouvier B, et al. Test-retest reliability of cervicocephalic relocation test to neutral head position. Physiother Theory Pract 2008; 24(5):380-391.
  20. Vuillerme N, Pinsault N, Bouvier B. Cervical joint position sense is impaired in older adults. Aging Clin Exp Res 2008; 20(4): 355-358.
  21. Roren A, Mayoux-Benhamou M-A, Fayad F, Poiraudeau S, et al. Comparison of visual and ultrasound based techniques to measure head repositioning in healthy and neck-pain subjects. Man Ther 2009; 14(3): 270-277.
  22. Chen X, Treleaven J. The effect of neck torsion on joint position error in subjects with chronic neck pain. Man Ther 2013;18(6):562-567.
  23. Clark NC, Röijezon U, Treleaven J. Proprioception in musculoskeletal rehabilitation. Part 2: clinical assessment and intervention. Man Ther 2015; 20(3): 378-387.
  24. Schwiertz G, Beurskens R, Muehlbauer T. Discriminative validity of the lower and upper quarter Y balance test performance: a comparison between healthy trained and untrained youth. BMC Sports Sci Med Rehabil 2020; 12(1): 73.
  25. Alshehre Y, Alkhathami K, Brizzolara K, Weber M, Wang-Price S. Reliability and Validity of the Y-balance Test in Young Adults with Chronic Low Back Pain. Int J Sports Phys Ther 2021; 16(3): 628-635.
  26. Duncan PW, Weiner DK, Chandler J, Studenski S. Functional reach: a new clinical measure of balance. J Gerontol 1990; 45(6): M192-M197.
  27. Takahashi T, Ishida K, Yamamoto H, Takata J, et al. Modification of the functional reach test: analysis of lateral and anterior functional reach in community-dwelling older people. Arch Gerontol Geriatr 2006; 42(2): 167-173.
  28. Duncan PW, Studenski S, Chandler J, Prescott B. Functional reach: predictive validity in a sample of elderly male veterans. J Gerontol 1992; 47(3): M93-8.
  29. Tanaka R, Ishikawa Y, Yamasaki T, Diez A. Accuracy of classifying the movement strategy in the functional reach test using a markerless motion capture system. J Med Eng Technol. 2019; 43(2): 133-138.
  30. Carriot J, Jamali M, Cullen KE. Rapid adaptation of multisensory integration in vestibular pathways. Front Syst Neurosci  2015; 9: 59.
  31. Cohen HS, Kimball KT, Mulavara AP, Bloomberg JJ, et al. Posturography and locomotor tests of dynamic balance after long-duration spaceflight. J Vestib Res. 2012; 22(4): 191-196.
  32. Mulavara AP, Feiveson AH, Fiedler J, Cohen H, et al. Locomotor function after long-duration space flight: effects and motor learning during recovery. Exp Brain Res 2010; 202(3): 649-659.
  33. Buurke TJ, Lamoth CJ, Vervoort D, van der Woude LH, et al. Adaptive control of dynamic balance in human gait on a split-belt treadmill. J Exp Biol. 2018; 221(Pt 13): jeb174896.
  34. Thornton W, Bonato F. The Human Body and Weightlessness: Operational Effects, Problems and Countermeasures: Springer; 2017.
  35. Macaulay TR, Peters BT, Wood SJ, Clément GR, et al. Developing Proprioceptive Countermeasures to Mitigate Postural and Locomotor Control Deficits After Long-Duration Spaceflight. Front Syst Neurosci 2021; 15: 658985.