chlorine sensitivity

[rawsurfer]

the past 2 times that i have swam 2000 meters, i have gotten out feeling quite dizzy for about 20 minutes or so after. have any of you experienced heightened sensitivity to chlorine, or do you think it could be the food i ate before? both times i had fruit before. this time i juiced 3 grapefruits. help!

[eatyourbroccoli]

i have terrible chlorine sensitivity. its gotten worse the longer ive been raw. to the point where i cant even shower in a shower unless it has a chlorine filter on it..because of how much they put into our tap water here.

are you drinkin enough water too?

[domestic goddess]

Horrible chlorine sensitivity here. I get seriously sick if I go in a chlorinated pool. Forget it if its indoors...congestion, itchy eyes, nausea, headache...yuck.

[RawVee]

Chlorine makes my skin red and itchy, and my eyes burn for days. Feels like swimming in bleach. :(

I'd rather do a fresh mountain lake any day!!

[rawsurfer]

man i had a bad headache after it, and today i just feel like im detoxing hard. thats pretty heavy. and yeah i drink so much water that if i dont watch it i will be peeing all night

[about time]

hey there

well, to my mind it sounds like you don't have the energy for it....

that kind of distance on the juice of 3 grapefruits (what's that like....150 calories ???)...sounds dangerous, my friend...

someone swimming that kind of distance regularly should probably 'up' their calories

i'm no expert (not even close), though for a period of time a few years back, i swam that distance daily (those times will return)...and i'm currently trying to transition to 100% raw and have ambitions to become athletic in a way that i never imagined...

someone you may like to read is dr. doug graham and his 80/10/10 system...it may help to redesign your diet to fuel your workouts/exercise

just consider this....the figures are approximations and from memory

a sedantary male uses somewhere in the region of 1900 to 2500 calories per day

someone swimming that distance would need more fuel on top

i think you can find out on various sites what the calorie expenditure for various forms of exercise is

there are also sites that you can enter food logs and thereby work out the calories and nutrient ratios present in the foods that you eat on a daily basis

it's just maths, a whole lotta healthy, juicy intake and some good old fashioned expenditure

good luck

p.s i don't particularly want to enter into a which diet guru/phlosophy is best debate...i just feel that this avenue would be a good place to start

thanks

[juliebove]

For me it's the combination of chlorine and heat that does me in. I didn't realize this until my mom made the connection. She has the same problem. I knew that I would get sick whenever my dad cleaned the sink. He uses some kind of gritty cleanser with chlorine in it. I would immediately get sick to my stomach and feel like I was going to throw up, but never did. Then for a good 24 hours or so I'd smell a burning odor, like a wood fire somewhere in my nose and my throat would also feel a burning sensation.

My mom made the discovery one day after my dad was doing something with bleach and hot water. Suddenly she couldn't breathe and wound up in the hospital. Now she knows she has asthma. :eek:

I generally don't use bleach at all. I am supposed to use a small amount of it to clean my sprouters. And I do. I just make sure not to put any hot water in them until after I've rinsed the bleach out really well. I've found if I open the doors and windows while I am doing it, use only a few drops and mix with cold water I can handle it.

I have trouble with some indoor pools. Not all of them use chlorine and some have better ventilation than others. But I've found that some that are very much enclosed and warm with no ventilation make me really ill. We stayed at one place where we had to walk through the pool room to get to the breakfast room or any other place we needed to get to. Like the ice machine, front desk, etc., due to the placement of our room. It was miserable for me. Each time I had to make that trek, I'd take a deep breath then run from one side to the other and try to make it before I ran out of air. They actually had an ice machine and snack machines in that room but I couldn't use them because standing there was killing me.

[rawsurfer]

julie did you have these reactions before going raw?

[about time]

i'll shut up then

[juliebove]

julie did you have these reactions before going raw?


Yes. But I should add that my diet has always been high raw.

[Lunar*Fey]

If you were dizzy it probably had more to do with lack of calories, i would presume...
no need to shut up About time!

I do have horrible chlorine sensitivity though. My skin dries up and I get rashy and itchy and such!

[Lay-Lay]

If I get around a large dose of chlorine or bleach I will pass out.

[rawsurfer]

about time i definitely took everything with a grain of salt, including what you said, and i agree that i probably didnt have enough energy food beforehand, as well as the negative reaction to chlorine. what you said made sense so i didnt question you. i actually checked out that book you mentioned, and put it on my "to get" list.

i believe that it wasnt only the nutrition side though. the next day i felt really toxic as well, and both days my skin wasnt lookin too good.

i appreciate all the help

[about time]

enjoy the book.....to my mind, the best raw read of all that i've looked at

very simple, no-nonsence and down-to-earth take on the raw food lifestyle

if you google his name, you should find a link to a forum that he frequents and regularly answers questions for people following this specific system and also health questions in general (i don't know if i am allowed to mention the site on this forum...so i wont)

i have learnt to develop a healthy amount of cynicism when it comes to people offering the holy grail of health, however so far i find this mans attitude, approach and ideas appeal to me.....

in a couple of months i will know....

regarding your initial post...i do believe that chlorine ( a highly toxic substance) will affect you and probably moreso if you are a lot cleaner internally, however i just looked to what struck me as a more obvious cause.....

if you are able and indeed bothered maybe you could approach it 'scientifically' (s@%t, what do i sound like???)

1)drink the same amount of grapefruit juice and swim a much lesser distance (100 metres for example).....do you feel the same????

2)drink a smoothie approx 45 minutes to an hour beforehand consisting of 4 or 5 bananas mixed with water and some lettuce if you wish......dizzy????

o.k....not the most exhaustive of tests...including another trial of the same distance on the same calories may prove a bit more conclusive, though i would be worried about that much exertion on that little fuel

anyhoo, whatever you decide i hope it all goes well

in a couple of weeks when i restart my pool training i hope that i don't find a similar heightened sensitivity to the chemicals as freshwater swimming here in england is not for the feint-hearted

good luck and peace to you and yours

[luckitri]

Here in Arizona we have lots of swimming pools and this last year I learned that they use something other than chlorine now to keep the water safe. No more itchy skin, burning eyes, throat and lungs swelling up. But we find that we need to use the bleach around the house for mold problems that the landlord will not fix and my husband really needs to start warning me in advance. My sensitivity to it HAS heightened since raw.

I also have to use it to keep my sons white T's white. So I get gassed by it on a regular basis.

[misslinda]

Sounds like a combination of things....

Grapefruit juice is VERY cleansing with diurectic qualities to the tissues and alkalizing to the colon so energies are pulled to carryout this job. If you had it prior to swimming, I can see where you would experience an "overwhelming" sensation of detox--especially the fact that the skin is the largest detox organ and first line of defense. Dizziness,increased tiredness etc would not be uncommon.

The smell of a public pool sickens me......:rolleyes: How bout pools with GSE instead!!!! ;)