It’s been a scorcher of a summer! What a great year to own a swimming pool. Being able to go for a dip at your leisure can be quite refreshing on a hot day, but be careful about overexposure to chlorine. As you may recall from a previous post, chlorine can compete with iodine in your body and disrupt thyroid function. You can bet that your chlorine exposure will be high if you swim in a chlorinated pool for a long period of time.

In the booklet Healthy Water, Dr. Martin Fox reveals some interesting research: On average, an adult absorbs 63% of toxic chemicals through the skin from a 15-minute bath compared to only 27% if they consume 2 liters of that water orally. In other words, you’ll absorb more chlorine swimming in a pool than drinking from it!

Today’s tip comes from functional medicine expert Dr. Robert Rakowski: Next time you go for a swim in a pool, take 2 grams of taurine – 1 gram before and 1 gram after. Taurine is a chlorine scavenger and will help protect you.