On Thu, 25 Mar 2004 17:29:07 +1100, David Strike
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>On Thursday, March 25, 2004 4:15 PM, Crusty wrote:
>
>> Pill could treat 'the bends'
>>         TRONDHEIM, Norway, March 24 (UPI) -- Norwegian scientists
>> say they believe they can develop a pill that could prevent divers
>> from getting the painful condition known as the bends.
>
>I hadn't heard any more about this until now, but I do remember having to
>share a hotel room with a hyperbaric specialist four or so years ago who -
>at that time - told me that the concept was in the developmental stage and
>perfectly feasible.

Could that be related to this?

http://www.adelaidescuba.com/pigs.htm

>>>>>
Adelaide University Scubadiving Club

  BACTERIA SAVE DIVING PIGS FROM THE BENDS

Reef diving may be relaxing and wreck diving may be exciting but plumbing
the depths is not without its dangers. The most common ailment experienced
by divers both young and old is decompression sickness (DCS), popularly
known as "the bends". DCS occurs when the gases dissolved in a diver's
blood expand too quickly as he surfaces, causing the formation of bubbles
in a range of the body's tissues, everything from bones to brain. Now
scientists at the US Naval Medical Research Centre have come up with a way
to help get rid of some of that excess gas, thus lessening the likelihood
that a diver will get bent. At FASEB's Experimental Biology '99
conference, researchers studying pigs under hyperbaric pressure report
that feeding divers a gas-gobbling gut bacterium may one day help to
prevent "the bends."
>>>>>

The article credited UWMRC with the research and pigs being
the deep divers.

Crusty's article credited the Norwegians with the research and
rats being the deep divers.

Again, present company excepted :-)   I know a few divers who
should be ecstatic about these news, because they fit the
characteristics of BOTH pigs and rats.

-- Bob.