What I would have liked to have known about before swimming (for the first time in years) in an indoor heated pool today, where there were loud annoying children, people who were ridiculously slow swimmers taking up lap swimming lanes, and the chlorine was so strong that I now actually have a headache, are these wee little darlings- Human pathogenic Acanthamoeba.
Word on the grapevine, is that they can live in the heated water. After reading a swedish article about it, the abstract of which can be found at
I researched a little, and found that these things get into your central nervous system, crossing the blood brain barrier, and begin attacking connective tissue and causing irreversible destruction, which can be fatal within days. While this generally would only occur in people with immunodeficiencies and there have only ever been 400 cases reported, it did get me thinking about all the nasties that would potentially be lurking in such an unhygienic environment. I don't know how many times, I have had a stomach bug, or ear infections that were a result of swimming in tainted waters. I have had fungal infections on my feet from walking on pool decks and I have had green slime in my hair from chlorine build up. The bottom line is, indoor heated pools are not clean. I don't pretend to be a health expert, and i don't pretend to have researched this as properly as I perhaps should at some point in the future, but there is no way, that swimming in those places can be good for you.
Nothing beats a swim at the beach (as long as it isn't one where they are pumping out sewage from the plant next door) or a swim at an ocean water rock pool. It's cooler, its cleaner, it's more refreshing and it only ever leaves you feeling good. It also is not home to potentially human pathogenic acanthamoeba.
Win!
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