eating and swimming/diving

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Illuminati
 
If you go diving right after a big meal, you might be more prone to reflux. Not a big deal but you might be uncomfortable. I personally learned that lesson on a dive after a sardine and onion sandwich.
 
If you go diving right after a big meal, you might be more prone to reflux. Not a big deal but you might be uncomfortable. I personally learned that lesson on a dive after a sardine and onion sandwich.

That sandwich would make me uncomfortable no matter what the environment! Also, I agree with others that the "don't swim after a big meal" has been debunked many times over the years.
 
Do you think it's a possibility it was something in the swimming pool? Chemical fumes? (Too much of a chemical in the water that presented itself as a gas at the surface of the water they were inhaling which caused them to lose consciousness and drown?) Drugs/alcohol involved? Tainted food which was the primary cause but caused a drowning because they happened to be in a pool? What else is a possibility? Do you know if they will be doing an autopsy?
 
I just found an article about it. Emphasis on Greek media reporting that the parents told police the girls could not swim. Is it possible one fell in on accident and the other tried to save? Or, they couldn't swim, but were lounging in the pool anyway, and got to the deep end and both had trouble or just one and the other tried to save? So many unknowns....

French sisters drown in hotel pool on Greek island of Rhodes
 
Hello everybody.

There was a tragic accident yesterday on the island of Rhodes here in Greece. Two teenager (16 and 19yo) tourists from France were fount dead in the swimming pool of a hotel. Can't find any reference in English yet.

No details are know yet but while listening to the radio about it, a possible cause was mentioned to be what we call "swimming with full stomach" i.e. swimming soon after somebody has eaten.

This reminded me of the guidelines given to everybody here in Greece - especially young kids: One should never swim before digesting i.e. sooner than 3 hours after eating.
The reason often given to support this, is that the stomach uses a lot of blood/effort for digestion hence you shouldn't put more stress to your body or you greatly increase the chances of a heart attack. To me this doesn't sound very possible, but anyway.

It is something that everybody here is very aware of and results in constant battles between parents and kids during holidays etc. I have noticed though that I have never seen any similar precautions from foreign sources.

Could that be another social "myth" ? Are there any established guidelines against swimming or similarly against diving after eating?

We are talking about even normal meals (without alcoholic beverages). Not huge feasts like the ones that you are so full that you can't even move out of the dinning table.

Any thoughts? Thanks a lot in advance

(Edit: Just fount an article about the accident: Two teenage sisters drown in Rhodes hotel pool | Kathimerini )
It is a myth. I suspect it is promulgated by mothers who want a little quiet time after lunch....
 
I think there's probably a grain of truth in there somewhere, and it might not be a great idea to go for a long, vigorous ocean swim right after a huge meal.

It's not a good idea because once you turn horizontal and stretch your neck and pull on the esophagus, your swim has a high chance of becoming fairly unpleasant. However for people at risk of cramps or a heart attack when swimming on full stomach, the stomach has nothing to do with the risks.

(My mom's version was "your intestines can twist into a knot" but she asked for half-hour and was not too insistent at that.)
 
It's a myth. Most likely something put out there by a resort trying to convince people the deaths weren't from bad liquor or other drugs that had been slipped into the kids drinks. Sad.

Maybe I'm wrong, but at least that theory is actually possible. Swimming after eating is only dangerous if aliens abduct you for anal probing at the same time. That happened to me. Twice, just last summer.
 
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