After taking up swimming again, I noticed that after being in the pool for even relatively short times I have excess water load (as judged by the color and amount released after leaving the pool).
So I was wondering if it would be possible to take in enough so that I would never have to drink?
There would be problems with skin being wet for so long, plus exposure to other chemicals and constiutents in the water, but if those could be taken care of, could you take in enough water transdermally?
I do not think that humans can absorb water through their skin. The outer layer of skin is a layer of dead skin cells filled with the protein keratin, and is waterproof.
More likely, you’re just inadvertently swallowing pool water. Also, due to the cold temperature of the water in most pools, you don’t sweat much while swimming, so you don’t use up as much water as during a workout on dry land.
I go swimming quite a bit and I must admit that i was skeptical about the idea of whether the skin could absorb water, but having said that, I also notice that after swimming, my urine is always more dilute and sometimes smells of chlorine. (sorry if that’s TMI)
I generally swim leisurely strokes so I don’t end up drinking the pool water at all, even inadvertently, so I’d say that either I’m absorbing chlorinated water through some part of my immersed body, or maybe I’m just absorbing the chlorine by breathing the humid air… dunno.
Sorry, this is not true. I am having a difficult time coming up with good links to support this, though. Lots of links about absorbing of water through skin by frogs.
This link mentions cows, and I would think we would be similar in that aspect to other large mammals.
http://www.valley-radiotherapy.com/about/personnel/nursing/skin.asp
This link describes the layers of the skin. It mentions the natural oils created by the skin (sebum) that helps limit moisture loss through the skin, and conversely helps limit water absorbtion. But if you are immersed in water like a pool, the oil is washed away (that’s why you get wrinkly), and water is thus able to be absorbed.
http://www.telemedicine.org/Anatomy/anatomy.htm
This site reiterates that moisture loss through the skin would be detrimental if not for the fatty oils we secrete. Thus the skin is not a complete barrier to water transfer.
PosterChild, given that you’re not a frog [I’m assuming you’re not a frog ;)], I would say that it would be very difficult to absorb enough water via the skin. The human body needs, what is it, 8 full glasses of water a day? That’s what, a gallon of water intake? I’m not sure what the water absorbtion rate via skin is. Okay, I tried some guess numbers and got some ludicrously small amount of water required to be absorbed per square inch per second, assuming 8 cups of water, 12 hrs submerged, and an approximate human size of 5’5", cylinder of radius=8 in. So maybe it is possible. The downside is your skin would not be happy.
I couldn’t come up with any good numbers for aborption rates, but just staying in the pool does give you enough water that you actually have to excrete the excess, so maybe 30-60 minutes 6-8 times a day should keep you balanced. Just an interesting thought.
PC
P.S.- I’ve been called a dog, but never a frog
Well I’d have to say you’d never be able to absorb enough water soley through your skin to make up for drinking, let alone survive. Though not 100% water tight, your skin is for all intents and purposes waterproof. The wrinkling of your skin is caused when the outer layers suck it up after a while, but it isn’t transmitted through to the bloodstream. And that’s a very good thing; if you actually absorbed more than a few drops of water through your skin you’d run into some serious osmoregulation problems very fast. You’d also but sucking in whatever’s in the water like bacteria and viruses on a huge scale. The skin of some animals (like amphibians) is designed to absorb moisture for the body; human and most other mammal skin isn’t. In us, the skin is designed to keep what’s outside “out there” and what’s inside “in us”. Add to that all the chlorine you’d be sucking into the bloodstream, and it’s not a pretty picture. Not sure here, but doesn’t the vast majority of water in our systems have to go through the kidneys and/or large intestine to get into the system? You’re probably just inadvertantly swallowing a lot of pool water which would account for the, um, noticeable effects afterwords.
It goes through the kidneys on the way out, athough some of the water is reclaimed in the loop of Henle and passed back into the system, but in any case, the kidney isn’t part of the digestive system.
Ahh yes… high school biology was a few years ago - I knew water went through the kidneys somewhere along the way. The idea I was getting at was that the only way to get any substantial amount of water into the system was by drinking it and sucking it out (or in) with some select organs.
I am not a scientist and would hate to link to tons of data that I don’t understand. But there I am doing it anyway. Here is a link that compares the absorption rate of various chemicals through human, pig and rat skin. It discusses the different absorption rates based on the checmicals being dissolved in ethanol and water. I didn’t find any specific data about the rate of absoroption of the water itself, though.
I seem to remember hearing that you lose salts while swimming in pretty large numbers (that is, the salt is lost in large numbers, it doesn’t matter who you swim with :)). If this is the case, the body may drain excessive amounts of fluids to reset the concentration.
Here is a link that compares the absorption rate of various chemicals through human, pig and rat skin. It discusses the different absorption rates based on the checmicals being dissolved in ethanol and water. I didn’t find any specific data about the rate of absoroption of the water itself, though.