Swimming and running noses.

You don't need to be a bad flipper to have sneezing/running noses. Some pools are worse than others, indoor pools are particularly bad. I only swim in outdoor pools now, and don't have a problem, while when I swam indoors at one particular pool, I did.

Two Oscos, a Walgreens and a Sportmart. No nose plugs. I'll check Keifer today. Another day with the swim-induced cold. I noticed a thread about swimming in the north. You know you're a swimming in the north when stores clear off all their pool stuff on the the same day the town closes all the public pool--Labor Day.

Every january, I buy 12 nose plugs from Keifer. I get so many because of the bulk discont. Everyone that I have talked with about the problem all believe that it is because my flip turns are not fast enough. As I tuck my head, I don't go quickly enough. that cause a difference in pressure & water automatically rushes into my nose. I don't even feel it. The plugs really help. Also, asthmatics tend to have more problems than do nonasmathics. don't know why. Another reason that water might flow into the nose is due to head position. If you hold your head up and not straight forward, water will run into your nose. Try to keep your neck straight & push with the top of your head. Also, I have talked with several allergist. They have all told me that chlorine is not an allergian. It is an irritant, like aspirin. I'm not sure what that means, exactly. It has something to do with the production of IgE(?).

Gang I'm not sure if I'm executing my turns fast enough, but I am exhaling in them. Even if I learned a faster method I'd naturally slow down at turn 10 in my 300s. I learned right away that body type, weight, etc. don't really matter. I've seen heavy guys outswim rails and even I have out swum/swam bulked up guys. So I'll try the plugs and see if there are real differences. So for all those plug wearers: do all the other kids make fun of you because of the nose plugs?

The antiallergy meds probably did not "change" much. what happened is that you stopped producing the mucous but you are still having the reaction. Irratants can't be gotten rid of no matter what. In all likelihood the mdes might relax you a bit and slow you down some. I've never taken Allegra, so I'm not sure.

I also for years suffered from blocked/runny nose after swimming (particularly from indoor pool with high usage) which I attributed to an allergic-like reaction to pool chemicals. It could be misery, interrupting sleep, waking up with dry mouth etc. I used to resort to allergy medication, which worked OK but sometimes had undesirable side effects (eg loss of sleep). I now use a nose clip - it took two weeks to get used to - problem now solved!

About a year after returning to swimming I started suffering severe post swim sinus problems. The sneezing, runny nose and resulting headaches almost drove me away from swimming. I'm a pretty good swimmer and don't usually get the head slamming rush of water up the nose when I flip. I tried a nose plug, but found it distracting and it was hard to keep it to stay on. Suspecting it might be an alergy to the pool chemicals, I took one of my wife's Allegra 180s before I swam. A miracle. I had absolutely no post swim sinus. My choice...either I stop swimming or I continue to swim and take an Allegra. I take an Allegra now before I swim.

I started wearing a nose plug on backstroke so I could underwater dolphin longer and hold my air in longer, it did take a while to get used to it but I immediately noticed the added benefit of not having sinus symptoms after each practice. Now I wear my nose plug pretty much all the time including in competition. Works for me. I see people at meets with the breathing strips across their noses and have to laugh, I guess those people want more water up there! To each his own. And Heydavis/Steve I hope you went and got your own Allegra prescription, if you continue to share she will run out too soon and they won't refill it for her when she needs it. Besides you shouldn't share prescriptions.

craiglll, I'll be the first to admit I don't understand the medical nuance of what Allegra is doing for me. I do know it stopped the sinus complications which improved my overall physical health or "feeling" tremendously. I have no sense of lethargy or malaise when I take this medicine. It has had no impact on my swimming conditioning with respect to times...in fact I would argue that my lack of sinus complications has brought me far more energy. Just my experience.

We should all understand what is happening. The same water that causes our body hair to dissolve, dry our skin, and make itchy skin is getting into contact with sensitive internal skin/nasal structures. The body responds, very reasonably, with sneezing to expel the irritant and mucus to wash it away and further protect the nose/sinuses. You may take medication to reduce the body's natural response to this irritant, but as Craig points out, the irritant is still there, and it is still doing the nasty stuff, now against a body with even less protection than it had before. While the symptoms are gone, the fundamental problem is still there. This water is not some normally harmless pollen that the body has mistakenly decided is an antigenic threat, but a real threat. Is that what you want? A lifetime of experimentation to see what happens to a nose constantly attacked and irritated? While I think Masters Swimming is a great and new experiment in very active senior lifestyle, this is one aspect of the experiment I think we can all do without.