Health Benefits of Going to the Beach
Visiting the beach is a favorite pastime activity of most people due to the fun aspects involving activities, such as swimming and surfing. More importantly, spending time on the beach offers many health benefits.
The most obvious benefit is that you can engage in many physical exercises, such as water activities. Walking and running on the sand use more muscles than doing these activities on pavements and roads. Hence, these activities can improve physical fitness and enhance flexibility and motion range.
Water sports help work out many muscle groups in the body. Water sports also reduce inflammation in the body, which results from conditions such as arthritis or when a person has come from surgery. Water reduces body weight by about 90 percent when you are submerged. It also has little impact on the joints though it offers considerable resistance. These aspects make water sports ideal for people with inflammatory conditions.
Iodine is an essential nutrient that maintains the body’s metabolic rates and aids in healthy hair and nail growth. Mostly, you get your iodine from iodized salt or through supplementation. However, you can get it by swimming in the ocean water at the beach since living organisms in these waters produce iodine. The skin absorbs this mineral as you swim. Iodine aids in thyroid gland functioning, which, in turn, boosts immunity.
The beach is an ideal environment for people with asthma and breathing difficulties. These individuals tend to breathe better than in other environments since the air on the beach is cleaner than in other places. The negatively charged ions in beach air increase the lung’s absorption rate. Besides, the chest muscles relax when you visit the beach making it easy for you to inhale more air.
The skin also benefits when you go to the beach. First, beach sand helps exfoliate the hands, feet, and body by removing dead skin. Second, the sun opens up skin pores allowing salty ocean water to go in and remove toxins. The result is skin with no blemishes or excess oil. Third, the iodine in salty water is antibacterial; hence, it fights bacteria and fungi in the skin.
Additionally, the human body absorbs minimal vitamin D from foods. It is not conditioned to absorb enough amounts, even from vitamin D-enriched foods. However, spending time at the beach can help you absorb the recommended daily dosage.
Research also points to the mental health benefits of going to the beach. Indeed, the beach is an ideal place to visit if you are feeling stressed or overwhelmed. There are several ways this environment impacts mental health. For some people, going to the beach introduces a change of scenery. Routine lifestyles repeatedly expose people to the same things, resulting in tension, anxiety, and stress.
The beach environment brings new sights, sounds, smells, and tastes, increasing relaxation. It also reduces nervous system arousal, the condition which brings anxiety and stress. Lowering stress hormones in the body, this experience also improves other physiological functions such as blood pressure.
Again, when you lower your stress, you tend to have an improved mood. In turn, the enhanced mood boosts self-confidence and self-esteem. Notably, studies report that this effect has positively impacted people with attention deficit disorder and depression.
