Can swimming after a meal cause congestion? Is it really necessary to wait some time before diving? Or is it just a widespread belief?
It has probably happened to everyone, at least once in their life, to be told not to do it the bathroom after eating, but to wait a certain amount of time – from half an hour to an hour, up to a couple of hours, depending on the type of meal and the amount of food ingested – before entering the water. The risk that is most often mentioned concerns the so-called congestion, or rather, a block of digestion, a disorder that occurs more frequently in summer (ISS data), due to a sudden temperature change. In other words, a sudden change in temperature during the digestive phase can cause a decrease in the amount of blood that reaches the stomach and intestines, causing digestion to slow down or block, resulting in discomfort. The result is therefore a circulatory decompensation, which in addition to compromising digestion, with symptoms such as chills, paleness, stomach pain, nausea and vomiting, can also induce cramps and fainting which, if they arrive in the water, can lead to drowning. But what is true (and false) about the link between congestion and bathroom after eating? And is it really necessary to wait until you’ve digested before going for a swim?
Bathing after eating, what experts say
In reality, there is no scientific evidence so eating before bathing increases the risk of drowning. According to an analysis of the literature available on the subject, published sull’International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education (IJARE) in 2011, “there have been no recorded cases of eating before swimming that caused or contributed to fatal or non-fatal drowning“Indicate the authors of the study who continue stating that”eat before swimming it does not contribute to the risk of drowning and it can be dismissed as a myth”.
Still, people continue to pay special attention to digestive blockage. “It’s a bit of an urban legend to call it that, because it has little to do with digestion – stated a The country Dr. Jesús Sueiro, spokesperson for the Galician Association of Family and Community Medicine. -. Digestive failure has more to do with thermal shock, that is, with entering cold water very abruptly. It is a circulatory collapse, which produces hypotension or a drop in blood pressure, a type of syncope. It can lead to dizziness and even vomiting, and if you are in the water at that time, it can result in drowning due to loss of consciousness“. The expert’s advice is therefore to enter the water carefully, slowly and progressively, allowing the body to acclimate.
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However, associate the risk of congestion with the meal consumed before bathing it is not entirely unfounded, as Andrés Sánchez Yagüe, head of the communication department of the Spanish Foundation for the digestive system and head of services of the endoscopy unit of the Quiron Salud hospital in Marbella says, according to which, to some extent, the digestive process is disrupted . “What we commonly refer to as digestive insufficiency is medically known as hydrocution [o risposta allo shock da freddo]. What happens with this phenomenon is that, when faced with a sudden change in temperature, through skin contact with cold water, digestion is interrupted to divert blood flow from the digestive tract to the skin. So yes, when we refer to digestive insufficiency, the digestion process has been interruptedo”.
What are the risks of taking a bath after eating
From the Spanish School of Aid and First Aid (RFESS), the director Alberto García Sanz emphasizes that two different phenomena can be distinguished: the first is digestive insufficiency, which is actually poor digestion. “When we eat, the digestive system needs a higher concentration of blood and oxygen, which can cause sleepiness because the brain has less supply. If we are doing physical activity, what we are doing is making sure that the muscle groups involved in that activity also require blood and oxygen, and this will increase the respiratory and cardiovascular rate. At the expense of what? Digestive activity”, Explains García Sanz. In this scenario, however, water is not the culprit: any form of physical activity on a full stomach it can cause gastrointestinal problems, nausea, vomiting and dizziness. If this happens during exercise, it’s not a big deal, but if we’re in the water, it can make us drown.
The second phenomenon is instead linked to the response to cold shock. “If we suddenly immerse ourselves in cold water, without first taking a shower, at the moment of contact with the water there is a change in temperature, a thermo-differential shock. This can cause a loss of consciousness and lead to drowning, even without eating”Observed the expert.
The advice is to dive gradually
In summary, the belief in waiting some time before bathing after eating is based on three factors: temperature, physical activity and food. The first is in itself a risk: if we suddenly immerse ourselves in cold water after being in the sun for a while or after exercising, the thermal shock is greater because the body temperature is elevated, which can lead to to syncope. This can also happen when you take a cold shower after your workout, he notes The country.
The question of food, on the other hand, comes into play when it is related to physical activity. The general recommendation is not to exercise after eating (for this reason sportsmen and athletes eat several hours before a workout or game) or anything that can cause physiological stress, such as sudden entry into cold water (more or less below 24 ºC ). Therefore, if after eating we wait a couple of hours before taking a bath, sitting in the sun to digest, we do not avoid the risks associated with suddenly entering the water, just as we do not avoid them if we have lunch before exercising.
However, if we enter the water progressively, with the sole intention of diving and not doing any kind of physical activity, and without there being much difference in temperature between the water and the body, according to experts there would be no risk. And beyond the normal ones of when you are in the water.
In any case it is always recommended to enter the water progressively. Never suddenly and diving, as pointed out by Juan Jesús Hernández, doctor of the Red Cross and expert in the sector. The same is true in the swimming pool, where the advice is to always take a shower before bathing, because immersing in water the temperature change is more abrupt. “Effectively – concluded the expert -, cases of hydrocution are much more frequent in the pool than on the beach”.