It’s been a scorcher of a summer! What a great year to own a swimming pool. Taking a dip whenever you want can be refreshing on a hot day, but be mindful of overexposure to chlorine. As I mentioned in a previous post, chlorine can compete with iodine in your body and disrupt thyroid function. If you’re spending long hours in a chlorinated pool, your chlorine exposure will be high.
How Much Chlorine Are You Absorbing?
In the booklet Healthy Water (available here), Dr. Martin Fox shares some eye-opening research:
- An adult absorbs 63% of toxic chemicals through the skin from a 15-minute bath.
- By comparison, drinking 2 liters of the same water results in only 27% absorption.
In other words, you’ll absorb more chlorine from swimming than from drinking pool water!
A Simple Way to Protect Yourself
Today’s tip comes from functional medicine expert Dr. Robert Rakowski:
Next time you swim in a chlorinated pool, take 2 grams of taurine—1 gram before and 1 gram after.
Taurine is a chlorine scavenger, helping to neutralize chlorine exposure and protect your body.
