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It is estimated that 1,275,000 people in the United States alone live with spinal cord injury, including around 100,000 Veterans with spinal cord injury, making the V.A. the largest integrated health care system in the world for spinal cord injuries injury care. New therapies are needed to prevent the morbidities and mortalities associated with the high prevalence of respiratory disorders in Veterans with spinal cord injury. The current research project and future studies would set the base for developing innovative therapies for this disorder. This proposal addresses a new therapeutic intervention for sleep apnea in spinal cord injury. The investigators hypothesized that daily hypercapnia treatments improve respiratory symptoms and alleviate sleep apnea in patients with chronic spinal cord injury. The investigators will perform a pilot study to examine the impact of daily hypercapnia treatments for-two week durations among Veterans with spinal cord injury. The investigators believe that this novel approach to treating sleep apnea and will yield significant new knowledge that improves the health and quality of life of these patients.
The goal of this clinical trial is to learn about the mechanisms of oxygen toxicity in scuba divers. The main questions it aims to answer are: * How does the training of respiratory muscles affect oxygen toxicity? * How do environmental factors, such as sleep deprivation, the ingestion of commonly utilized medications, and chronic exposure to carbon dioxide, impact the risk of oxygen toxicity? * How does immersion in water affect the development of oxygen toxicity? Participants will be asked to do the following: * Undergo a basic screening exam composed of health history, vital signs, and some respiratory function tests * Train their respiratory muscles at regular intervals * Exercise on a cycle ergometer both in dry conditions and underwater/under pressure in the context of medication, sleep deprivation, or carbon dioxide exposure Researchers will compare the performance of each subject before and after the possible interventions described above to see if there are changes in exercise performance, respiratory function, cerebral blood flow, and levels of gene expression.