Summer is coming. We have started to hit warmer temperatures for days at a time, and the evenings aren’t getting as cold as they used to. It’s all very exciting, especially when your body craves the sunshine, warmth and boost of Vitamin D, like mine does. Another thing that summer brings for my family is lots of swimming. I love swimming and my kiddos especially love swimming, but since we had our mold exposure, pool swimming brings a new set of worries with it that I never even knew to think about before.
The culprit for those worries: chlorine. Let’s face it; most pools contain chlorine these days. Just as chlorine is excellent at killing bacteria, viruses and microorganisms, it is terrible for those of us susceptible to fungal issues, because it poses a chemical threat to recovering from our mold exposure, and it promotes Candida or fungal growth inside the body. To better explain, l will first talk about chlorine and what kind of chemical threat it can pose to your body:
Chlorine is a naturally-occurring chemical element and is one of the most abundant on Earth. It is the ninth largest chemical produced in the U.S. by volume and is known as the “workhorse chemical.” In the U.S., it is used as a chemical disinfectant in municipal water supplies, to manufacture everything from computer chips to crop-protection chemicals, and as a household cleaning aid in countless products. Chlorine’s highly reactive nature makes it extremely useful, but also, potentially dangerous. In other words, it quite literally reacts with anything it touches, be that bacteria to kill it, or your skin and lungs to irritate and burn them.
