Do you really have to wait three hours after eating before you swim to avoid hydrocution?

With sharks. Meanwhile, jellyfish, hydrocution is one of those great fears of vacationers by the beach once time of swimming has come. However, A very popular idea would also like to wait several hours after eating before stinging a head in the sea. Meanwhile, the swimming pool. Consequently, The goal: to avoid hydrocution.

In recent years, we can also read or hear the reverse discourse. Similarly, There would ultimately be no risk of going to bathe directly after eating. Furthermore, and these precautions would only be an old received idea inherited from the time of our grandparents.

Hydrocution, what are we talking about?

The National Society of Rescuers at sea explains that hydrocution is “a do you really have wait popular term” corresponding to “a syncope due to immersion in water”. Meanwhile, “a loss of knowledge, a discomfort caused by a thermal shock”. Meanwhile, Asked about the subject. Moreover, Pierre Michelet, professor of medical and university hospital specializing in drowning, immediately explains that “hydrocution is not a medical term”. Nor does it correspond to an electric discharge. Consequently, “The discomfort called hydrocution arrive quite frequently but fortunately, everything does not lead to cardiac arrest”.

There are in fact almost no scientific studies on the question of risks linked to digestion. and there is no absolute consensus when we look at the speech of different specialists in the media. The coordinating doctor of the French Swimming Federation went so far as to ensure in 2014 that this precaution was “absurd”. “The digestive tract is shunt [court-circuité] By effort: while we swim, we do not digest. As for hydrocution, it is linked do you really have wait to exposure to the sun and not to digestion. »»

Limit risk factors

Based on his years of experience. Pierre Michelet assures, however, that waiting a few hours before eating is not necessarily an illogical idea. “When you digest, most of your blood is diverted to the digestive tract. When it is hot. a large part of your blood is directed to the tissues to eliminate part of the heat by sweating. ” Problem: the venous system cannot support all needs at the same time. The fact of swimming. especially in cold water and if it is hot, having eaten shortly before, will ask the body of contradictory efforts, even more in the event of physical activity such as swimming. “This incompatibility of blood distribution means that the heart is unwell,” describes Pierre Michelet. The fact of lengthening in a jacuzzi or a bath therefore presents much less risk of hydrocution.

An do you really have wait observation shared by Pascal Lebihain. lecturer at the Faculty of Sports Sciences in Poitiers and specialist in the risk of drowning in a public swimming pool: “In general, I do not think that an absolute ban on swimming within three hours, but there are precautions to take”, recalling the risk factors set out previously. “It also depends on the nature of the meal: if you have eaten a raw vegetable salad. there is not necessarily significant risks to bathe for three hours. »»

It also depends on a potential alcohol consumption, another risk factor “which will uninhibited people, and therefore accentuate risky behavior. “The more we ate heavy. in the heat period, the more alcohol you drank, the more time you have to give the body,” says Pierre Michelet, mentioning as an example the natural desire to take a nap after a meal, which will be used to “put the muscles do you really have wait at the digestion”.

All our verification items

To summarize, there is no certainty as to discomfort in the event of swimming after a meal. “Of course, someone 20 will have less risk,” notes Pierre Michelet. The key word remains prudence, and therefore to avoid the accumulation of risk factors. Another widespread gesture to avoid hydrocution. getting the nape can have an interest, although there is also a lack of scientific studies: “the body will understand that there is a variation of temperature, and will begin to make a redistribution of blood”. The most important principle is above all to smoothly enter the water.