“You’ll get sick if you swim before waiting at least an hour after eating”
” Chlorine causes your hair to turn green”
” Chlorine burns your eyes if you open them underwater”
I’ve heard all this and more, as I am sure you have also. The question is…”Is any of this true?” Keep reading to find out.
Wait at least 1 hour before you swim
This at least has a bit of truth to it. I couldn’t tell you how many times my mom said this one to me. As a kid, it was complete torture to wait! It was like dangling an ice cream in my face and saying don’t eat it! The truth of it is that when digesting food, more blood is going to your stomach to aid in the digestion leaving less to go to other muscles (like the ones needed for swimming.) Should those muscles become overworked, you may get a cramp, not overly likely, but possible.
There is too much Chlorine in the pool…I smell it!
VERY VERY FALSE! Time for a quick chemistry lesson. Chlorine actually attaches to bacteria in the pool’s water and creates chloramines. When you shock your pool, the chloramines turn to oxygen and escape into the air, that is when you may smell chlorine.
Chlorine turned my hair green!
HAHAHAHAHAHA SOOOOO FALSE! Poor chlorine, it always gets blamed for everything, but it is actually copper in the pool water. Some algeacides are copper based and the oxidized metals in the water attach to the protein in the hair shaft. Your choices are to make sure your water is properly balanced at all times and condition your hair before you swim…or after the fact use a shampoo that will strip the color. I do not know about you, but my hair appointments are too costly to me to not take proper care of my pool’s water and my hair.
Chlorine burns your eyes if you open them underwater..that is why you should wear goggles
False! Here we go again, poor defenseless chlorine taking the blame. It is actually acidic water causing your eyes to burn with a low PH. PH is effected by unbalanced water and excessive rain. Don’t worry this is easily rectified by proper water balance and adding PH increaser.
Remember what I mentioned in this blog and the next time someone says any of the above statements…you can become a MYTHBUSTER!
LOL, I kind of wish #1 were truer. Now that I am older, after I eat all I want to do is sit poolside and relax to digest my meal, but….NO “come on mom we wanna go in the pool right now” gets me every time. To bad my hammock doesn’t!
