Tropical beaches and your health don't mix !

Are you planning on spending your holidays in the tropics? Looking forward to white sandy beaches, sunbathing and swimming in clear blue waters? Be careful: the holidays are bad for your health! A team of American researchers has just demonstrated that swimming in tropical waters can increase your risk of illness.

Researchers from the University of Miami monitored 1300 volunteers on some of Florida's beaches. Half of them were told to go into the water regularly, and the other half were not allowed to swim. The researchers then evaluated these volunteers' health.

Their verdict was that swimming is risky for the health. The volunteers who played in the water were 6 times more likely to develop a skin condition, 4.5 times more at risk for respiratory conditions and 1.7 times more likely to suffer from gastro-intestinal problems.

What explains these differences? "Microbial persistence is probably related to water temperature," suggests Lora Fleming, director of the Center for Oceans and Health and main author of the study. "Holiday-makers, especially those at greater risk such as children and the elderly, should consider these results carefully," she added.

It is worth repeating: tropical beaches are hazardous to the health.

SOURCE

LaNutrition.fr, 29/07/2010

Lora Fleming, International Journal of Epidemiology