{"id":399,"date":"2015-09-18T16:18:40","date_gmt":"2015-09-18T21:18:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/site.theqiinstitute.com\/blog\/?p=399"},"modified":"2018-06-26T18:55:05","modified_gmt":"2018-06-26T23:55:05","slug":"caution-swim-at-your-own-risk-has-an-entirely-new-meaning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.theqiinstitute.com\/blog\/2015\/09\/18\/caution-swim-at-your-own-risk-has-an-entirely-new-meaning\/","title":{"rendered":"Caution swim at your own risk, has an entirely new meaning"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden collapsible is-collapsed clearfix\">\n<div class=\"field-items\">\n<div class=\"field-item even\">\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: Roboto,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/526508930\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 67.00337% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/526508930?et=UrIf5zTSQStAKsnNp5GcKQ&amp;tld=com&amp;sig=O-TkDySoMZbChyA6ByTJKSXSgc_2q33R9p-n9dUGIKg=&amp;caption=true&amp;ver=1\" width=\"594\" height=\"398\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Headlines like these are sure to grab people&#8217;s attention: \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.orlandosentinel.com\/news\/lake\/os-cason-yeager-water-bacteria-death-20150627-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Unseen killer lurking in Florida waters takes Lake County man&#8217;s life<\/a>\u201d and \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/video\/woman-gets-flesh-eating-bacteria-102925237.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Woman gets flesh-eating bacteria at Dallas mud run, goes blind in one eye<\/a>\u201d. But how many people actually understand the risks, and think that these are just isolated events.<\/p>\n<p>Many people relate to a peaceful walk along the beach, a nice gentle soaking or swim in the ocean-lake-river or pool as a great way to spend a vacation or unwind during the hot summer months. How many people realize the risk they are taking every time they do this? We all know not to jump in head first in shallow water (or if you do not know how deep the water is), never swim alone, don&#8217;t wear jewelry while swimming in the ocean, no yellow bathing suits, don&#8217;t swim if you are menstruating or bleeding, never swim right after eating etc&#8230; Yet, have you ever been told that if you have a cut, go soak in the ocean because the salt water will \u201cclean it\u201d?<\/p>\n<p>For thousands of years Taoists have advised: that life should remain as natural as possible. Fish are designed to swim and live in water, doing so is safe for them, monkeys are designed to swing from trees and doing so is safe for them as well. Problems arise, however, when life, in particular man, begins to do things that we really are not designed to do.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.orlandosentinel.com\/news\/lake\/os-cason-yeager-water-bacteria-death-20150627-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Carson Yeager<\/a> decided to enjoy a few hours on a pontoon boat and swim in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida, within 48 hours he was dead after contracting Vibrio vulnificus. He was only 26 years old.<\/p>\n<p>According to the CDC, Vibrio vulnificus can cause:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cdisease in those who eat contaminated seafood or have an open wound that is exposed to seawater. Among healthy people, ingestion of <em>V. vulnificus<\/em> can cause vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain. In immunocompromised persons, particularly those with chronic liver disease, <em>V. vulnificus<\/em> can infect the bloodstream, causing a severe and life-threatening illness characterized by fever and chills, decreased blood pressure (septic shock), and blistering skin lesions. <em>V. vulnificus<\/em> bloodstream infections are fatal about 50% of the time.<\/p>\n<p><em>V. vulnificus<\/em> can cause an infection of the skin when open wounds are exposed to warm seawater; these infections may lead to skin breakdown and ulceration. Persons who are immunocompromised are at higher risk for invasion of the organism into the bloodstream and potentially fatal complications. (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/vibrio\/vibriov.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">CDC.gov<\/a>)\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This particular bacteria can enter the body through any open wound, including scrapes, cuts and abrasions.<\/p>\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/video\/woman-gets-flesh-eating-bacteria-102925237.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">June 2015 a Texas woman<\/a> participated in a \u201cmud run\u201d and contracted a form of flesh eating bacteria that left her blind in one eye.<\/p>\n<p>In <a href=\"http:\/\/site.theqiinstitute.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/16\/an-ancient-answer-to-brain-eating-amoebas\/\">2013 it was reported<\/a> that since 2001 there were over 400 reported cases of brain eating amoebas worldwide. Since 1962 more than 30 people have died from brain eating amoebas just in Florida. <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Naegleria_fowleri\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Naegleria fowleri<\/a>, can enter the body through any opening (eyes, nose, mouth, ears etc\u2026).<\/p>\n<p>Suggestions were made regarding how to prevent these problems in a prior <a href=\"http:\/\/site.theqiinstitute.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/16\/an-ancient-answer-to-brain-eating-amoebas\/\">article<\/a> on brain eating amoebas. Those tips still apply.<\/p>\n<p>A good general rule, and going back to sound Taoist advice: If you enjoy the water use a boat, if you must swim then bathe before and immediately after, keep your head out of the water, and stay out of the water if you have any type of cut, scrape or abrasion etc\u2026 If you like to swim in pools, keep in mind that a swimming pool is no different than a bathtub, just larger. Would you take a bath with those same people in the pool? If you like to swim in the ocean or lakes, keep in mind that you are swimming in the same water that the animals use for their elimination, and they not only live in the water they also die in there as well. Ever had a fish tank, then you know how difficult it is to keep it clean. Can you ever get it 100% clean? Have you ever seen a large hand with bleach and cleaning agents clean a lake or the ocean?<\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t miss another Taoism article. Receive e-mail alerts when new articles are available. Just click on the &#8220;Subscribe&#8221; button below; also make sure you click all of those social network buttons and share the article with your friends and family as well. You can also follow the <a href=\"http:\/\/site.theqiinstitute.com\/blog\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Qi Institutes Taoism blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Do you have a story, photo or video from your area that would be of interest to Taoists? Feel free to email and they may be included or featured in a Taoism article.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Embed from Getty Images Headlines like these are sure to grab people&#8217;s attention: \u201cUnseen killer lurking in Florida waters takes Lake County man&#8217;s life\u201d and \u201cWoman gets flesh-eating bacteria at Dallas mud run, goes blind in one eye\u201d. But how many people actually understand the risks, and think that these are just isolated events. Many [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[62,61,64,65,63,16],"class_list":["post-399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forgotten-foods","tag-brain-eating-amoeba","tag-flesh-eating-bacteria","tag-health","tag-strange-news","tag-swimming","tag-taoism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.theqiinstitute.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.theqiinstitute.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.theqiinstitute.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.theqiinstitute.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.theqiinstitute.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/site.theqiinstitute.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":491,"href":"https:\/\/site.theqiinstitute.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399\/revisions\/491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/site.theqiinstitute.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.theqiinstitute.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/site.theqiinstitute.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}