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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AnthonyJ" data-source="post: 1164317" data-attributes="member: 13807">Fish explosively decompress for reasons other than the bends; they have a gas-filled gland used for altitude maintenance.  If a human breathing pressurized air were to gain altitude rapidly without exhaling, his lungs would rupture for the same reason.  The sinuses are also an issue, but that's about it for sections of the body that contain gas.  If you flood all of them with water, going up and down won't have severe effects; anything which isn't gas-filled is largely incompressible.I suppose oxygen bubbling out could cause the bends, but you don't normally want partial pressures of oxygen much higher than surface level anyway, so I doubt that water breathing results in ultra-compressed oxygen in the body.</blockquote>