Deans' stroke musings: Mood and well-being of novice open water swimmers and controls during an introductory outdoor swimming programme: A feasibility study

Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.

What this blog is for:

My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.

Sunday, March 7, 2021

Mood and well-being of novice open water swimmers and controls during an introductory outdoor swimming programme: A feasibility study

This does REQUIRE YOUR DOCTOR TO GET YOU 100% RECOVERED. Right now I would drown if I tried to swim. Since a good chunk of survivors have a negative mood this would seem an obvious easy way to improve that. I've seen surfers in Lake Michigan in winter, but they are wearing thick wetsuits, here is a guide. Wetsuits are impossible to get on one-handed, with lots of time and swearing I can get on my drysuit.

Don't want to try that? Then ask your doctor if substituting cold showers works as well.

Adapted cold shower as a potential treatment for depression January 2017

Could cold water hold a clue to a dementia cure? October 2020

Mood and well-being of novice open water swimmers and controls during an introductory outdoor swimming programme: A feasibility study

November 2020
Journal of Lifestyle Medicine 1(12)

DOI: 10.1002/lim2.12

Authors:

Heather Massey

Extreme Environments Laboratory, University of Portsmouth

Ngianga Ii Kandala

University of Portsmouth

Candice Davis

Background

Anecdotal evidence suggests that outdoor swimming can improve mood. This feasibility study examined the mood and well‐being in participants attending an outdoor swimming course.

Methods

Profile of Mood States and Short Warwick–Edinburgh Mental Well‐being Scale questionnaires were completed by participants on a 10‐week introductory outdoor swimming course (61 swimmers) and 22 controls who sat on the beach. Questionnaires were completed before and after three sessions: the first session (pool based), their first outdoor swim (session 4) and their final outdoor swim (session 10). Results

Swimmers reported acute increases in positive subscales (Esteem and Vigour, P < .001) and reductions in negative subscales (Tension, Anger, Depression, and Confusion and Total Mood Disturbance [TMD], P < .001, d = 1.1–1.7). TMD was also reduced between sessions (P < .001, d = 0.08). Well‐being also increased during the course in swimmers (P < .001, d = 3.7) and controls (P = .019, d = 0.2). Greater reductions in TMD (P < .001, d = 0.8–2.5) and increases in well‐being were observed in swimmers than controls (P = .034, r = .23).

>Novice outdoor swimmers participating in a 10‐week introductory outdoor swimming course had acute and chronic reductions in negative mood, increases in well‐being and acute increases in positive mood. Controls mood scores fluctuated and were similar at the start and end of the course, whereas well‐being scores improved by the final session. Tension scores peaked in both swimmers and controls immediately before the first outdoor swim. Nonetheless the swimmers’ improvement in mood and well‐being scores was significantly greater than that of the controls. The nature of the study does not provide mechanistic understanding; there are likely to be a number of explanations (physiological, psychological and sociological) for the changes in mood and well‐being in swimmers and controls that can be investigated further.