Is there a way I could get back into swimming without the harmful effects of chlorine further damaging my thyroid?

[Rakaia]

I don’t have very much energy but I need to exercise. Walking on the grass is not an option for me, but I need to be doing something. I have always loved the water from a small child growing up in New Zealand. I would be so grateful if someone knows of a way I could get back into a pool would be so grateful 🌸

[jimh111]

Why would chlorine damage your thyroid? Or any other part of your body. I would take up swimming and not worry about it.

[Rakaia in reply to jimh111]

I think Jim because it’s a chlorine is chemical, but I think your right I should just go back to it because it brings me a lot of joy. Thanks for your time 🌸

[jimh111 in reply to Rakaia]

Chlorine can be dangerous in high concentrations, I remember making it in science lessons. If you check it out on Google you can see the chorine level in swimming baths is higher than that in drinking water but not that much higher. In public baths the level will be much better controlled than in private pools. Go ahead and enjoy yourself.

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to Rakaia]

chlorine is chemical

Water is a chemical! Formed of two chemicals - hydrogen and oxygen.

And look to the many posts which discuss salt intake. Salt is a chemical. Formed from two chemicals - sodium (as an element it is viciously reactive) and chlorine (as an element it is nastily reactive and poisonous). Yet we need it.

Much of the chlorine in swimming pools is already chemically bound - not free chlorine.

Consider champion swimmers who appear to spend hours every day in the pools. Yet they are fit enough to get medals for their swimming.

[Hypopotamus]

I've been unwell all my life, now diagnosed with ME, as well as the hypothyroidism. I have had the usual sensitivity to chemicals etc, but, I worked as a lifeguard at a swimming pool for two and a half years with no ill effects.

Not only did I swim almost every day, but I cleaned the pool, changing rooms etc with chlorine etc. In fact that spell was one of the best of my life as regards my health. I am not saying that being in close contact with chlorine etc is good for us, but from my own experience, swimming didn't do me any harm at all. And if that is all the exorcise that you can get, the chlorine will probably be less harmful than the inactivity.

Most pools have showers so that you can wash off the pool water after you swim.

[CatsofCatford]

I listened to a podcast some time ago that addressed this issue in a sensible, practical way and have managed to find it again. Here you are : overcast.fm/+EvMlhhis

[arTistapple]

Rakaia thank you for bringing this up. I too used to enjoy swimming. It was one ‘sport’ my husband and I used to enjoy together. It’s often but not quite in the foreground of my mind to try it again. Apart from the usuals (fatigue/what else might I not be able to do etc) I too wondered about the chlorine. Wild swimming I know would be beyond me. AND thank you everyone for the information!

[Guineapiggy]

I think the worry is that chlorine can displace iodine, as fluorine is supposed to do. Some say it does, others that it doesn't.

This was interesting showing that chlorine is more reactive than iodine, so will displace it. But, does this occur in the thyroid gland?

icandochemistry.com/2021/05...

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to Guineapiggy]

Even if it does, the chlorine would have to get from the pool into your thyroid for it to happen!

I can't see bare, reactive chlorine atoms/molecules getting from the pool water, or the air above the pool, anywhere deeper than a few cells without reacting with something. Maybe some biochemist could provide more definitive information?

And we already have lots of chlorine (in the form of chloride ions) whooshing round our bloodstreams.

[Guineapiggy in reply to helvella]

In that case, does the same apply to fluoride, which is bound to another atom, so that toothpaste with sodium flouride presents no risk to the thyroid?

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to Guineapiggy]

We have next to no fluoride (ions) in our bloodstreams. Whereas we have lots of chloride (ions).

Therefore, fluoride toothpaste supplies fluoride ions which can enter our bloodstreams. Thence some of them could enter the thyroid.

But even iodide needs to be "pumped" into the thyroid by the sodium iodide symporter. Perhaps some can get into the thyroid - even by the same mechanism? It needs detailed research - I have not noticed anything to link but there might have been some.

(Although it is unfeasible in practice, logically fluorine atoms/molecules would react with something else before reaching the thyroid. We just do not come across free fluorine anywhere for it to actually happen.)

[Guineapiggy in reply to helvella]

Thanks