Why you should never sit around in a wet swimming costume
[Photo: Pexels]
Whether doing laps at a pool or chilling at the beach, after a good swim we tend to sit down and have a lounge afterwards wearing the same swimming costume.
But unfortunately, although we all do it, it isn’t very good for our health.
“Yeast and bacteria really thrive in moist, dark places, like a wet bathing suit or wet workout clothes,” Alyssa Dweck, assistant clinical professor and gynaecologist at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, told The Huffington Post.
If you suffer regularly from yeast infections, you’ll probably know the lingo already. But for the uninitiated, yeast are little organisms that grow inside your vagina, but are totally fine for you as long as its an acidic enough environment to stop it from overpopulating.
So if your vagina becomes less acidic, that yeast grows in numbers, and voila - you have an itching, burning yeast infection - AKA, thrush.
[Photo: Pexels]
This balance can be infected by a number of things - stopping or starting taking hormonal contraceptives, medication, your monthly cycle, etc. etc.
But a far more basic cause is excess irritation or moisture, which is where wet swimming costumes and sweaty gym clothes come in. These keep your vagina damp, and can so cause a yeast infection.
And for avid swimmers out there, chlorine can kill some of the good bacteria that fights yeast if you’re in the pool for long, too - meaning the yeast will win again.
So when you leave the pool, take off that swimming costume, rinse off and wear some dry underwear (ideally cotton, which breathes).
Better safe that sorry.
Do yeast infections get in the way or your active routine? Tweet us at @YahooStyleUK.
