Swimming-induced congestion

Jim, Your experience is normal for many swimmers. If I take a break for a few days (or longer) from swimming, the first few times back I have the same type of congestion. I usually hear the next couple days everyone asking "do you have a cold?". For me it clears once I'm in a regular swimming routine again. I do have pollen/ragweed allergies for which I take Allegra. I do believe I've heard several comments in this forum that some people do have allergic reactions to pool water (I guess chlorine). Not sure I've helped you unless it clears after a few days like it usually does for me. I do remember someone commenting in this forum who uses the inhaler allergy stuff before swimming as a cure to being cleared for a swim. Welcome to swimming! Dan

This is pretty common, and as you suspect is caused by pool water in your sinuses. There are several solutions, only one or two of which (I think) really works. The best is to swim in another pool. An outdoor pool is usually better, but a well-maintained pool with good chemistry (and perhaps not too much use) is what you should be looking for. The next best is to get some nose clips. You can get these at a store that has a fairly good collection of stuff for competitive swimmers. I believe there are two types, one with an elastic rubber band that goes around your neck, another that sits on your nose all by itself, and is often used by synchronized swimmers. From previous postings I gather most swimmers prefer the latter. For some reason (I can't imagine why) these do not stay on my own particular nose very well, while the one with the strap does (or at least I don't worry about losing it.) You will get used to nose clips pretty quick, especially if you are really suffering the rest of the day. I remember when I was a lot worse than "very stuffy." I will spare you the gross details. Another recommended solution is a sinus wash with a saline solution. I haven't worked up the nerve or the organization for this, especially since the clips work pretty well. Other people like various drugs, such as anti-histamines (sp?) while others say that it is not an allergy, but instead an irritation of the nasal passages, so these drugs are ineffective. I'm agnostic about whether or not it is an allergy - it feels and acts like one - but what do I know? Anyway, this seems like an expensive solution, and violates my own principle of drugs as a last resort. A couple of other regular posters have had lots of experience with this problem. I hope my notes help, and good luck.

I sometimes experience this problem. My guess is that it's because of irritation from chlorine. What usually works for me is a simple unmedicated saline spray right after swimming. (Since it's unmedicated you can use it as often as need to, without concern over the rebound effects from medicated sprays.)

If I breathe out a lot through my nose, this occurs (more frequently than normal). When you do this, you irritate your membranes in the nose, and this can easily cause sinus congestion. Don't do the Vicks Sinex thing though. It works WONDERS to clear up the problem, but it is highly addictive. Hence... I'm ready for another trip to the doctor to get rid of the problem caused by what I treated the original problem with. :)

Thanks to the repliers. It looks like I'll have to try the nose clips, and get over the self-consciousness. I've tried the saline, and it didn't work. I also tried a spray decongestant once, and it didn't seem to help anway, never mind the problem of over-using it. Worst case, I walk around breathing through my mouth and sounding like I have a cold. I'm enjoying swimming enough to put up with that if I have to. Jim

Jim - Do you have any allergies? I get stuffy and sneezy occassionally while swimming. I've noticed that my symptoms occur when certain people fail to rinse off their aftershave and perfume. The oil based perfumes cause a slick on the surface which plays havoc with my allergies. Unfortunately, many "non-swimmers" don't realize that perfumes, hairsprays and the like will float on the pool surface. Talk to your pool manager and ask them to enforce the shower policy. It may help. Michael

I have sinus prblems all the time whether I swim or not. I take the over the counter stuff like bendrayl(misspelling again) and use ear medicine all the time.

The allergy angle could be applicable - I do have some sensitivies, including seasonal hay fever. Perhaps a trip to an allergist would be helpful - I've never been to one. Jim

I too have bad allergies (actually took shots for them for about 10 years), and it got so bad a year or so ago that I was coming home from the really long practice on Sundays and sneezing to the point that my nose was sore. I would take a couple of a Benadryl (you were close on the spelling, Cynthia!), which of course would render me unconscious the rest of the afternoon (but at least I wasn't sneezing). This only happened on Sundays, when the workouts are about an hour and a half long; during the week, I only get to swim about 45 minutes. I'm sure part of the problem was the chlorine drying out my sinuses, but I think part of it was also the mold in the facility. I don't mean to say that my pool is a moldy old pool. It's actually a nice, new facility. But in the South it's pretty hard to get away from mold. Even if you can't see it or smell it, it's there. And I know from allergy testing that I'm more allergic to it than just about anything else. All of this is to say that if your problem is mold, about your only choices are avoidance (i.e., find another pool) or antihistamines. Or I guess you could talk to the pool management and find out if there's anything they can do to control the mold growth. UK (where I swim) must have done something since last summer, because it's not happening to me anymore. Maybe a trip to an allergist would be helpful.

HI there, it took me a long time to figure out what was going on with me... so I sympathize with your experience! I swam in college for hours every day, and eventually developed a chlorine allergy. It got worse and worse and I continued swimming - thinking I just had a cold. But the cold turned into constant coughing and sinus congestion. I started going to the student health facility, and was there literally every week trying to figure out what was going on. I was diagnosed with bronchitis, pneumonia, exercise-induced asthma, you name it. I was prescribed everything under the sun. The only thing that got me through the night without coughing was codeine! It got so bad that I remember skipping an organic chem test because I couldn't get out of bed! This went on for about a year. I remember my mother suggesting that maybe I was allergic to chlorine. I laughed that off. That summer, I lifeguarded at small, outdoor hotel pools where I couldn't lap swim. So I wasn't submerged every day and my symptoms cleared up. That's when I noticed the difference. I had to stop swimming every day in order to be able to figure out the association - that when I *swam* (compared to frolicking in water just to cool off), the symptoms returned for the next day or so. I finally realized that my mother had probably been right. I later talked about this problem to a college buddy of mine who used to be on the school swim team. He had stopped swimming, and I discovered that the reason was because the same thing had happened to him. Lost his athletic scholarship - so tragic. Anyway - it's about 8 years later now. I stopped lap-swimming regularly and have always looked for other ways to work out. But I never liked anything else like swimming. So recently, I started up again. I find that if I don't overdo it - (too many days in a row), I can swim regularly. I swim Saturdays and Sundays and maybe once during the week, and the symptoms don't return. Whenever your immune system is challenged by an environmental allergen over and over again, with increasing duration and frequency - your body may develop an allergy... it doesn't matter how weird or how benign the allergen may seem - even chlorine. Allergies don't have to last forever- they may just be a temporary attempt of your immune system to fend off a "threat" that's intense at the moment. Unlike antibody-related immune responses, your immune system doesn't program itself to always remember that allergen and freak out every time it encounters it again. That happens with certain viruses and bacteria, but not typically with environmental challenges like chlorine. My recommendation is, sadly, to modify your schedule so as to swim less frequently, or fewer days in a row. So if you currently swim 3 days in a row - try going down to two days in a row, or skipping a day between each swim. You don't want it to get so bad that you have to stop swimming altogether. Good luck.