What harm does the body get after swimming in the ocean?

A trillion lives on the surface of human skinvarious bacteria - this collection of microorganisms is called the microbiome, and protects the body from external influences of allergens and other external stimuli. Sometimes this natural layer of protection can break down, making people susceptible to infectious diseases. It turned out that sometimes a destructive effect awaits in the most unexpected places - researchers from the University of California, Irvine found that the human microbiome changes a lot even after swimming in the ocean.

The discovery was made during the monitoringdermal microbiome nine volunteers. Each of them spent 10 minutes in ocean water, and the researchers analyzed their skin immediately after swimming, and after 24 hours in the water. Scientists, led by Professor Marisa Nielsen, found strong changes in the microbiome in all nine people - it was restored to its original state only after a day, and throughout all this time it could miss infections.

Swimming in the ocean leads to infectious diseases

Researchers are especially puzzled by what is on the skinAll volunteers were found vibrios - bacteria from the family Vibrionaceae, which includes about 40 species. Most of them are not pathogenic, but dangerous species are still there, and they may well remain on the human body and cause various diseases.

The most pathogenic for humans speciesVibrio parahaemolyticus and Vibrio vulnificus are considered. The impact of the latter is the most fatal because it easily causes blood poisoning. As a rule, people of Africa often suffer from this species - a case has been described in the literature when people became infected with a bacterium after domestic use of water in which hippos were bathed.


From all that is written above, it follows that swimmingin the ocean it can be potentially more dangerous than being in seawater and even more so in the shower or bath. At the same time, scientists do not urge to completely beware of the oceans - the results of their research are merely a reminder that the water contains potentially dangerous bacteria.

Swimming in the ocean is dangerous not onlyvarious bacteria, but also because of the presence of huge waves. In early 2019, the Japanese satellite Himawari-8 was able to record waves up to 17 meters high in the northern part of the Pacific Ocean. More information about this can be found in our material.

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