The heart of skydiving

[chuteless 1]

Back in the 1970s, I was making my living jumping air shows and special events, and dropping a few students when there was no demos.
My recent health problems, which may be heart related brought a topic to mind, and I'd like to share it withyou for whatever interest there may be in it.

I had a nice relationship with the late Dr David Turner of the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children, who was a consultant for NASA and the space flights. Itwas Dr Turner who concluded that John Glenn was VitaminE deficient after his orbital flight, and made the necessary corrections for future flights.

Dr Turner had a hospital technician build me a small cassette recorder which had electrodes to be installed on the body of a student jump to record his/her heart rate during exit and canopy decent and landing.

I dont have any of the papers on our study nowm, but will try to relate (from memory) what we found.

On exiting an aircraft, I would activatev the tape recorder attached to the student (full of apprehensions) and we found their heart rate jumped to about 240 beats per minute. This would be over a relatively short time, and once the canopy was opened, and they were aware they werent having a problem (malfunction) their heart rate would drop off to about200 BPM. This would remain the rate until the student realized he/she was approching the ground, and a landing impact was imminent. The heart rate would then jump again to a level of about 225 BPM.

I managed to also record several examples of normal heart rate at a time when the student was relaxed and not under jump stress (around 90 BPM).

Nothing that I know of ever became of the study, but many doctors and hospital staff were interested in it.

As a person accumulated a larger number of jumps, it is supposed their stress level at exit and landing is reduced, in accordance with their ability and confidence.


I hope this is of interest to some of you, and it would be nice to see a more extensive study done sometime.

Bill Cole D-41

[ChileRelleno 0]

Interesting, I wish you had more to share, such as info on experienced jumpers.
It would be really neat to study a couple of discipline groups, say RW and Swoop.

Thank you,

ChileRelleno-Rodriguez Bro#414
Hellfish#511,MuffBro#3532,AnvilBro#9, D24868

[gus 1]

Bill,

It's not exactly a scientific study but have you seen this thread?

Get well soon
Gus

OutpatientsOnline.com

[falxori 0]

maybe i'm missing something (after all its hard reading posts and listenning in class...)

but did you find anything unexpected?
i mean, it seems logical that you'll be more excited during exit, while openning, and before landing.
what was the purpose of the study?

O

"Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero."

[chuteless 1]

no...didnt find too much unexpected...but since no one had ever checked out the heart rate it was a start. Maybe you can pick up from there and develop it further.

Bill Cole



more than double the normal rate was a surprise

[Adriandavies 0]

In the UK there is a BBC TV programme called Tomorrow's World which is about science and inventions. A couple of years ago they did a feature about adrenalin sports which featured base jumpers. Basically they did similar research to you using heart monitors, and I think found similar results. Bare in mind that these were experienced jumpers but the results still showed big spikes in heart beat just as they jumped.

[chuteless 1]

GUS: That is very interesting. Too bad you didnt get the BPM at exit, but I imagine it was higher than 200.

Its goood to see others are interested in finding out what happens when a jump is made. That way, everyone is a bit wiser. Imagine the impact of more than double the rate for someone with a heart problems when he/she jumps

Bill Cole

Thanks for showing me that thread.

[gus 1]

Quote

In the UK there is a BBC TV programme called Tomorrow's World which is about science and inventions. A couple of years ago they did a feature about adrenalin sports which featured base jumpers.

Skydivingmovies.com seems to be down at the moment but I'm sure that the episode you're talking about is on there.

Quote

GUS: That is very interesting. Too bad you didnt get the BPM at exit, but I imagine it was higher than 200.

I can't take any credit for the research I'm afraid, I just remembered that thread from a while back.

Gus

OutpatientsOnline.com

[Adriandavies 0]

Gus, I think skydiving movies has been down for the past week.

[velo90 0]

Quote

As a person accumulated a larger number of jumps, it is supposed their stress level at exit and landing is reduced, in accordance with their ability and confidence.

I am afraid I can't give any links to back this up but I have heard there was a "Danish?" study into the physiological effects of skydiving. This study showed that there was little difference between new skydivers and experienced skydivers.

Dave

[mailin 0]

Disclaimer: I have a heart condition that can cause me to go into ventrical fibrillation (VF). Its genetic and I have an internal defibrillator/pacemaker (ICD) for it. I have never shown any signs of it, but got my ICD becuase I had a family member die of the same thing. So this may/may not be of use to you.

I went on a tandem in September, without telling my doctor to see how I would do. I did fine. Contingent on him allowing me to continue to skydive he had me wear a holter monitor (24 hour monitor) on my third tandem. Had he done this for my second tandem the results I'm sure would have been disasterous, as I was very nervous and scared - but felt fine physically. The results came back unremarkable. I work out most every day, so my resting rate is about 70 bpm.

But the results were as follows:

For 7 minutes my hr was between 180 - 190 bpm (device is set to fire at 210 - which would be hard, physically, for me to get to. So it would only get thre if there was something wrong), which is the rate I normally get to on the treadmill/eliptical trainer. During that time frame only twice did it get above 184, which is very high for me, and lasted for only a few seconds (becuase this is constantly recording I don't know at what point during the dive these were).

Ironically, I went in for a download recently (they download info off the ICD for the previous 6 months) and I had a new technician do it. This is my second ICD, and this device is fairly new (got it in June of last year), and this was my first download. It recorded 72 events!! I was floored. I told him there had to be something wrong with the ICD! There was no way I had even had one event as I never had any problems! I was getting seriously pissed off, becuase I don't want to give my dr. any reason to not allow me to skydive. As it turns out the device starts to record after 172, which I routinely get to with exercise. But just to be sure the tech had to call my dr. and ask him if it was ok to change the settings on the device (so it only records when it gets to 183). Anyway, he was gone for a little while, and came back into the room and said "ya, dr. kirk said its ok to change the setting.... he wants to know if you've been doing too much skydiving lately."

Ya, I got a good hearty laugh out of that one.

I'd be interested in studies that look further into this though.

Jennifer

Arianna Frances

[chuteless 1]

Maillin: I am glad your able to still be skydiving with all you've had to cope with. Good luck.

The only reason I posted this topic was my recent health problems reminded me of when I did a bit of research about jumping and heart rates. I found it interesting, and took every opportunity to combine jumping with anything that would be enlightening, i.e. speeds in freefall and heart rates etc.


I tried not to waste a jump without accomplishing something...no matter how small


Bill Cole

[airtwardo 6]

Bill-

Glad to see you're home,
hope things are going better.

Your story reminds me of a story often told by
a skydiving Doctor I jumped with in the 70's...

Who was well renowned for his generous use of
an 18 inch forceps during post jump "Safety Meetings"
out by the mockup....

During the inevitable "Wonder if it will hurt going in"
debates, sparked by the intellectual reflection often
resulting from said Safety Meetings...

He would go into detailed explanation regarding
that misnomer that airline pilots die from heart attack
just prior to impact...
What actually happens, he would explain...

Is that a massive dose of fear induced
adrenaline hits the heart,
causing the four muscle groups that make up
that organ to instantly contract...
all in different directions at once,
literally tearing the heart apart...
termed for compassion sake a 'Heart Attack"

BUT! Skydivers get a considerable jolt of adrenaline
every time they jump,
the body develops not only, the commonly referred
to addiction for it...
but it also develops a tolerance for it...

If you are an active, healthy and current skydiver,
he would say...
Your body cannot produce enough adrenaline to
manifest a "Heart Attack" from the fear associated
with impending impact.

"In other words, you will be awake and aware until
your nose hits the numbers on the runway...
It's DEFINITELY gonna hurt...

Won't hurt LONG, but trust me...It's gonna hurt!"

I loved to see the looks on the faces of 'newbies'
that had never heard his tale!

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[ypelchat 0]

It's good to see you're back Bill!


Yves.

[Dumpster 0]

I wonder what it would take to conduct a broad-range study of this and physiological parameters of the skydiving community? Perhaps of new students and one-time tandem passengers all the way to veterans with thousands of jumps, and everyone in between. What kind of group, organization or company would conduct this?

Maybe couple it with a psychological (sp?) profile? What REALLY makes us tick, (physically and mentally) and separates us from the rest of the "extreme" (how I loathe that word) sports community, and the rest of the world, for that matter?

[chuteless 1]

I would imagine a scientific institute of some kind, interested in physiology and its application in high risk sports. It might have to be coupled with several other risky sports, and I am sure the outcome would be a study worth reading.

When I started jumping in 62, one of the guys who organized the "club" told me that skydivers are the kind of people that would go further than anyonme else in a crunch situation. I feel there may be something to it, but at the time I recorded the heartrate, was interested in the dramatic changes exiting an aircraft woukd have as compared to normal activity. ( You realize we're not normal).

Who would fund such a study///I dont know,

Bill Cole D-41

[thermosnight 0]

Hey Mailin,

So glad you are in the sport, despite your heart problems. I have a pacemaker, too. I got into skydiving last year and my consultant endorses my passion for the sport. Yet, I doubt we are good candidates for stats. gathering(!), as we are both genetically pre-disposed to 'unusual' readings. However, I do notice a significant increase in my own heart rate when I kit up and subsequently when I get in the door of the plane to leave. When I come under canopy, my whole body tingles for about 15 seconds and I then feel a lot of adrenaline, especially in my legs and feet. If I take a few deep breaths, I notice what feels like a decrease in my heart rate (but I cannot be sure without a device to measure this).

I describe myself as a 'safe and cautious' jumper and wonder if my own psychology is as much to do with heart rate as my genetic defects. I very much doubt someone with 1000s of jumps feels the same as me with less experience and expectation. I am seriously thinking about conducting some light-hearted (no pun intended) research of my own into the mind of skydivers, since I know most people experience fast heart rates and adrenaline rush, even if they don't admit it!! (have u seen all the 'smiles' as everyone gets ready to exit???). I would also like to know the effect all this has on the physiology of my body...I'm eating like a horse just lately and if skydiving burns up more fat, I'll keep on eating those delicious burgers at SkyDive DeLand!!

Regards,
Dave.

My favourite saying is under construction...