C02 pain relief question

DeepBlueInnovation

One for the docs - When I started diving for crabs on OC years ago, I started getting intense headaches which I eventually traced back to CO2 caused by breath holding while trying to stuff some poor crab in a catch bag in silty water without losing a finger. Before I discovered the cause and rectified my breathing pattern I found that a hot shower running on my head eased the pain, more so if I kept my eyes closed.

A couple of nights ago I had cause to try this again after a mis-aligned scrubber basket resulted in a nasty C02 hit, and once again found that after two hours of intense pain the relief was quite rapid and that after about 20 minutes I was able to relax and sleep with most of the pain gone.

So my questions is; does anyone know of a medical reason why this would be so.

This is only my observation, and I am not advocating that anyone else do this in a similar situation unless an appropriately qualified doctor has endorsed the practice.