Do you have to wait to swim after consuming?

Tegan Taylor: Okay, a query with out discover, as traditional; is there a well being factor that your mother and father instructed you once you had been a child that you just now know is not true, however that you just’re nonetheless a little bit bit superstitious about?

Norman Swan: Oh look, there’s heaps, like Jewish boys do not stroll of their naked ft. 

Tegan Taylor: What?

Norman Swan: I child you not. And then there’s stuff like…I’ve by no means researched this little Glaswegian Jewish phenomenon, though typically there’s a kind of commonality to it once I kind of combine with, say, Jewish pals from London, they received a few of this too. Another one, which I do not assume was significantly Jewish, was once you lower your nails, be certain the clippings go into the nail basket and you recognize the place they go, as a result of the witches can come and get them. I imply, significantly. Even although you did not imagine in witches, you had been very cautious about what you probably did together with your nail cuttings, which now, with adolescents in the home, I’ve a distinct cause for wanting to really take care of your nail cuttings.

Tegan Taylor: I’ll do something to ensure these find yourself within the bin and never within the kitchen sink.

Norman Swan: That’s proper, yeah, the bogey man goes to get you. That simply offers you two examples of the distorted upbringing I had.

Tegan Taylor: I feel in my home it was this kind of extrapolation of issues that had been helpful. So holding palms crossing the highway or sporting a seat belt, I feel that my sisters and I ended up pondering that when you did not maintain palms once you crossed the highway, that you’d be hit by a automobile. Or when you weren’t sporting a seat belt, that you’d have a automobile accident.

Norman Swan: Well, worry can work to get you to do the proper factor.

Tegan Taylor: Anyway, we’re kind of speaking alongside these strains in the present day right here on What’s That Rash?, we’re speaking about, I suppose, well being myths, one well being delusion particularly.

Norman Swan: What’s That Rash?, which is the podcast the place we reply the well being questions that everybody’s asking.

Tegan Taylor: Today’s query comes from Sarah, who’s asking about ready an hour after consuming, earlier than swimming. Sarah really wished to speak about all kinds of issues which might be now not mandatory that had been well being recommendation, however I feel this one is so fascinating…

Norman Swan: Yeah, put your nail cuttings wherever you want, Sarah, you are free to go, whether or not you are Jewish or not, go for it.

Tegan Taylor: But sure, particularly ready an hour after consuming earlier than swimming. Is this one thing that you just had been instructed once you had been a wee boy?

Norman Swan: 100%, yep.

Tegan Taylor: An hour, was that the size of time that you just had been suggested?

Norman Swan: Yes, it was not less than an hour.

Tegan Taylor: I assumed it was 20 minutes in my home, most likely barely extra related for me as a child rising up in Queensland than as a boy rising up in Glasgow.

Norman Swan: Yes, you had been most likely keener on going within the water as a result of it was hotter, that is proper.

Tegan Taylor: We had been determined to get within the pool. So, yeah, let’s speak about what the declare is, after which we will debunk it. Like, spoiler alert, it is a debunking episode. I’ve heard 20 minutes, I’ve heard an hour, I’ve even heard two hours. Would you prefer to know the place it first appeared in writing? 

Norman Swan: Yes, I’d.

Tegan Taylor: Boy Scouts handbook from 1908.

Norman Swan: Oh, it is at all times the Boy Scouts. Really? What did it say? 

Tegan Taylor: It stated…it is really actually cute, prefer it’s a little bit…I can see the web page from the Boy Scouts handbook. It’s received a younger man standing in entrance of the tent that is pitched and speaking about the truth that ‘no scout can think about himself a full-blown Scout till he is ready to swim and to save lots of a life within the water, however there are risks about bathing for which each wise Scout will likely be ready’. And then it talks at size in regards to the hazard of cramp. ‘And when you begin swimming earlier than your meals is digested, you are going to get cramp. It doubles you up in excessive ache so that you just can’t transfer your arms or legs, and down you go.’ It says, ‘You could drown and it will likely be your individual fault.’ And then it says, ‘Many lives are misplaced each summer time by means of foolishness on the a part of boys bathing as a result of they do not consider this stuff. Bathing should solely be permitted in protected locations and underneath strict supervision.’

Norman Swan: And the fascinating factor about that’s that by way of what your mother and father used to let you know, they used to say cramp…you recognize, and simply studying that about cramp, there’s two elements to what they thought occurred. One was muscle cramps, however more often than not the cramps they had been speaking about had been really abdomen cramps, which additionally could possibly be known as a sew, the place you’re feeling this acute kind of muscular ache in your stomach.

Tegan Taylor: I’m interested by this line ‘many lives are misplaced each summer time’, the concept it is like this epidemic of individuals drowning as a result of they received in water straight after consuming meals. I suppose in 1908 you would type of write no matter you wished within the handbook and it was a lot more durable for folks to fact-check you.

Norman Swan: Yeah, long-term epidemiological analysis was simply not a powerful level. But when it has been completed they usually’ve seemed within the information on drownings, this does not characteristic.

Tegan Taylor: So there have been fairly just a few research on this, one in every of which was carried out within the Nineteen Sixties the place they received folks to eat a meal after which go for a swim and see how they went. Would you prefer to know what the meal consisted of? 

Norman Swan: Go on.

Tegan Taylor: Roast beef, gravy, mashed potatoes, peas, salad with French dressing, a roll with butter, a glass of milk and a glass of water. I’m having abdomen cramps simply taking a look at that record, and I’m nowhere close to a pool proper now.

Norman Swan: Well, if you are going to take a look at the speculation, you have to take a look at it full-on, it will probably’t simply be, you recognize, a peanut butter sandwich or a Vegemite sandwich.

Tegan Taylor: No, precisely. Would you prefer to know what the what the findings had been although?

Norman Swan: Yeah, what had been the findings? 

Tegan Taylor: No impact on swimming efficiency, minimal negative effects at totally different time intervals after that meal. So even with the roast beef, gravy, bread roll…a glass of milk! That’s the half that actually undoes me about that meal. But yep, no impact on swimming…

Norman Swan: Well, when you had lactose intolerance you’ll have gotten some reflux as you had been going…however, you recognize, put that apart.

Tegan Taylor: That’s true. So I suppose, to fairly rapidly kind of debunk this, that is the place it is come from. One factor I ought to say by way of that point interval and other people having troubles within the water, there was a report in The New York Times about folks drowning after getting a cramp. There’s a selected story that got here out in 1908, so the identical yr because the Boy Scout guide was revealed. So possibly this sort of fed into it a little bit bit, about seven totally different folks moving into bother swimming within the East River in New York City. This is in The New York Times. One of the issues that is very pleasant about studying this story is that each single man is launched with their full title and their avenue tackle. John Milton of 506 East seventieth Street died, sadly. There was a James Alpha who lives at 1,513th Avenue A who sprang to his support, George Rubin of 436 East seventy fifth Street additionally helped from a rowboat that they had been in. I can’t think about a single information story today the place each single particular person in it’s launched with their house tackle.

Norman Swan: No, you are simply going to Instagram to seek out out the place they reside. 

Tegan Taylor: That’s true. But I’m making a bit mild of it, however this was folks, somebody died, others exhausted in making an attempt to save lots of them. It clearly was a supply of hysteria that folks may get into bother swimming and drown. What about this concept of cramps versus stitches although?

Norman Swan: If you get a sew, for some cause it is extra widespread on the proper aspect of your stomach than on the left, no thought why…

Tegan Taylor: I bear in mind listening to as…okay, that is extra issues that we heard as children that I’ve by no means examined as an grownup…

Norman Swan: Were you strolling in your naked ft?

Tegan Taylor: I lived in Queensland, after all I used to be No, it was about…oh, I went to a college the place, for some horrible, torturous cause, they’d make us run a lap round the entire faculty each morning in winter, and I feel it was like cross nation coaching, and it was my most dreaded time of day, however you’ll usually get a sew. Well, I’d, as a result of I wasn’t used to working, and somebody instructed me it was like your liver jiggling round. Is {that a} factor?

Norman Swan: Well, some folks say there’s a relationship with consuming and a sew, and that your peritoneum, the membrane that is surrounding your intestine, can get irritated in case your abdomen is bloated and there is an excessive amount of stress on the peritoneum, and possibly a number of the metabolites out of your meals go throughout into your peritoneum, that will get irritated, and that irritates the muscle. I imply, that is the speculation, however no person actually is aware of the reply to it. 

There’s additionally the concept when you train and you’re a bit dehydrated otherwise you’ve received an electrolyte imbalance, that your muscle groups can go into cramp extra simply in that scenario. But that is muscle cramps basically, slightly than stitches. You’re speaking about working, you recognize, going for a run and excessive train outdoors the water, they do say that you need to typically not have a big meal instantly earlier than you do extreme train. You needs to be ingesting. You ought to ensure you’re hydrated, however not over-hydrated, and also you simply don’t desire your abdomen to be bloated earlier than you do excessive bodily train or vigorous train. Some folks say you need to keep away from sugary drinks as properly, however the entire thing about carbohydrates and workout routines is the story for one more What’s That Rash?.

Tegan Taylor: I imply, I ought to say, simply to convey the proof to a little bit of a tidy bow, the International Life Saving Federation really put out a medical place assertion on this in 2014, whether or not there was any proof that we must always wait after consuming earlier than swimming. Basically the assertion that they got here to was no, there isn’t any proof that consuming earlier than swimming will increase the chance of drowning. So aside from one Boy Scout guide from 1908, the place else may this concept have come from?

Norman Swan: Well, I feel that the far more pertinent level is mother and father having a relaxation and never having to oversee children on the seaside. So after lunch after they’re feeling woozy and wanting a little bit nap, they can not have a nap when the youngsters are within the pool.

Tegan Taylor: Well, really, sure, talking of desirous to have a nap after consuming, we have now completed an episode on that. It’s known as, ‘Why do you’re feeling so drained after an enormous meal?’ So I suppose there’s a little bit little bit of that. Maybe it isn’t in regards to the children, it is in regards to the mother and father.

Norman Swan: Indeed. And then the opposite factor is what’s the train you are doing? So if it is excessive train and also you’re doing, you recognize, triathlon, folks do expel meals from their stomachs in the event that they’ve eaten too near it. And so, you recognize, you hear of brown emergencies in swimming swimming pools when toddlers go into the pool, properly, this could possibly be a yellow emergency or a multi-coloured emergency.

Tegan Taylor: Yuk! Yeah, truthful sufficient, please do not vomit in a pool, particularly a public pool really. No, simply do not vomit in a pool when you can in any respect assist it, I feel that is most likely a very good piece of well being recommendation. 

Norman Swan: And when you’ve got had just a few wines for dinner, then keep out of the pool till you sober up.

Tegan Taylor: Right, and I feel that that is one thing that is price us placing a fairly nice level on, is possibly consuming earlier than swimming is not actually one thing that we must always fear an excessive amount of about, however there are positively issues that enhance your threat of moving into bother within the water, and alcohol and drug consumption is an enormous one. 

Norman Swan: It is, significantly in colder water, however in any water your respiratory system would not work as properly, your judgement is not nearly as good, and also you lose warmth, so that you’re extra more likely to change into hypothermic.

Tegan Taylor: Okay. So I suppose it is nearly as good a time as any to kind of recap on what we do know helps folks maintain protected across the water. Our Royal Life Saving service would not point out consuming earlier than swimming as a threat issue, nevertheless it does warn folks about not overestimating your swimming skills or these of your family members, figuring out the situations, supervising kids and, sure, avoiding alcohol across the water, and naturally swimming at patrolled seashores between the flags, and keep away from swimming alone when you can assist it. Because if by some scenario you do find yourself in bother, you have to have somebody there to yank you out when you want it. 

Norman Swan: Yeah, swim between the flags and do not overestimate…actually necessary, and study to select the place the rips are.

Tegan Taylor: Indeed, swim safely people. Don’t fear a lot about what you are consuming, however positively at all times take care across the water. And thanks, Sarah, for the query. You can at all times ship your inquiries to [email protected]. We love answering them.

Norman Swan: Now, this is actually necessary information; we’re going again to Brisbane for the World Science Festival this yr. Tickets are on sale from Thursday the twenty ninth of January. Come in, get in quick, as a result of they bought out quick final yr. The date is Saturday the twenty eighth of March this yr, and it is on from three o’clock to 4 o’clock. What extra necessary factor have you ever received to do on Saturday the twenty eighth of March than come alongside and pay attention or put within the questions which might be going to be answered at that present?

Tegan Taylor: Yeah, we wish your assist selecting what we’ll speak about on the occasion. So you may e-mail [email protected], put ‘World Science Festival Brisbane’ within the topic line, and possibly we are going to reply your query with you within the viewers. What a deal with! 

Norman Swan: But you have to purchase the tickets from the World Science Festival and never us.

Tegan Taylor: You do. Tickets are on sale tomorrow, Thursday, twenty ninth of January, through the World Science Festival web site.

Norman Swan: See you in Brisbane, and we’ll see you subsequent week as properly. 

Tegan Taylor: See you then.