Salt Mouth
Jbetley
UKMember
Would like to get some experienced input on what salt water does to your mouth.
I am aware that salty water can make your mouth inflamed, your tongue swell up and so on.
This is something that I noticed in the summer in a 2.5 hr sea swim, and even last week in a 1.5 hr ocean swim (though only a little bit).
So - some questions:
(1) Is there anything I can do to protect myself from this (aside from greasing up my tongue eeuw!)
(2) Is it something that you can 'acclimatise to', or is it just inevitable?
(3) Can it ever get so bad that it can cause someone to have difficulties breathing or swallowing?
(4) Is this the least of my worries as a channel aspirant, and should I just chill out?
Thanks for the advice!!
Jason
I am aware that salty water can make your mouth inflamed, your tongue swell up and so on.
This is something that I noticed in the summer in a 2.5 hr sea swim, and even last week in a 1.5 hr ocean swim (though only a little bit).
So - some questions:
(1) Is there anything I can do to protect myself from this (aside from greasing up my tongue eeuw!)
(2) Is it something that you can 'acclimatise to', or is it just inevitable?
(3) Can it ever get so bad that it can cause someone to have difficulties breathing or swallowing?
(4) Is this the least of my worries as a channel aspirant, and should I just chill out?
Thanks for the advice!!
Jason
Comments
I found that tinned peaches did the trick on my actual swim and was the only thing I would eat, despite packing loads of treats. Lovely!
Avoid extra strong mints, crisps and putting salt on your chips. They don't half sting!
The second part is as @bobswims says, learn to swim with your mouth closed, which is likely opposite what you do in the pool. Both these reduce but do not eliminate the problem for me.
Another food item that helps cut the salt is Kendall Mint Cake btw. +1 for tinned peaches also.
It took me a couple of years of repeat visits to Dover to tolerate the 5% salinity versus the Atlantic of the Irish coast's 4% (which is obviously a 20% increase). Some people aren't bothered at all. I do know of one very bad case of a friend who said it was the worst part of the EC for him, he was in significant pain for at least a week afterwards (it took me 4 days for my tongue & throat to recover). I tried things like sucky-sweets or chewing gum while swimming, which of course didn't work. But the most important thing I think is just getting your longer swims in this spring & summer, and you'll find it takes longer to affect you.
Forum member @ChloeMcCardeldotcom was utterly unaffected after her two-way EC last year, when I spoke with her the next day (and in fact looked she'd just had a nice day at the beach). I've asked her about this specific item and she has said she'd try to send my something when she has time, which with her training is understandably very very little (which reminds me I owe her a long-overdue email, apologies Chloe). I can only tell you that she has a complex feed plan, utterly unlike the rest of us.
loneswimmer.com
The reason I do this in SF Bay is to keep the painfully cold water out of my mouth. However, this method also applies to preventing (or putting off) salt mouth.
This technique also prevents hypoxia.
We're all just carbon, water, starlight, oxygen and dreams
SF Bay water is definitely not the most pleasant tasting water around either, all the more reason to keep it out of your mouth - especially post rainstorm when we get sewage overflow...
http://notdrowningswimming.com - open water adventures of a very ordinary swimmer
Milko
https://db.marathonswimmers.org/p/milko-van-gool/
Great topic...Did Chloe McArdel ever come back to you about this? I would be very interested in hearing remedies/preventatives....so as to help e and also advise all...
I did an 11 hours sea swim on Saturday, tongue swelled up by the 4th hour - never got any worse and recovered quickly by 4 hours after the swim.
BUT I have sore cheeks and gums still today..and taste buds on my tongue are still not totally recovered..but ok.....
any thoughts / ideas please????
all welcome!
Sal
Molly Nance, Lincoln, Nebraska
I don't wear a wetsuit; it gives the ocean a sporting chance.
Also as stupid as this is going to sound I tuck a small hard sweet (lifesaver) up in my mouth, between the cheek and gum. Then I tell myself if water gets in there at any time I have to spit out the water along with any dissolved sugary goodness. If water does not go in there for 10 strokes then I get to send that sugary saliva down the pipe. It's amazing how a little incentive changed my bad habit. Sometimes I play games with the sweet to see if I can make it last until the next feed (this rarely happens). During longer swims I have lifesavers for the first 4 feeds then a Tumms at the next feed...this ensures all my treats dont come back up!
Bump
We're all just carbon, water, starlight, oxygen and dreams
My favourite is custard, not only in my mouth, but all over my face, the more the better.
What Happens to Your Body on a Long-Distance Swim -Outside Online
One of my swimmers sent this article to me this morning and I thought this was rather interesting: "Edgley later found that rinsing with mouthwash and coating his mouth with a layer of coconut oil protected it from the salt."
I've definitely used mouthwash before (and mint tea is also nice on a salty mouth), but I will have to try the coconut oil.
Excellent article. Thanks for posting.
Coconut oil actually sounds like a good idea. I am not sure the coating would last long but might be worth a try. I don't like the sound of pineapple juice though, I find it too strong already so it might be too much (for me). My longest swim so far is 14.5 hours, and I don't remember anything about my tongue, even though I have had a sore tongue on other swims. I've never tried to do anything about it, and I swim with my mouth open. I think on my longest swim I was more concerned with my other aches and pains.
So here I was naively thinking that I wouldn't feel the effects of salt mouth too terribly, but after this past weekend's 4 and 6 hour swims in the SF Bay the salt water is having the last laugh. I found my taste buds were definitely affected as the swims went on (gummy bears suddenly didn't taste so good, and I think we can all agree that is just unacceptable). And by the end of the weekend, the sides of my tongue felt burned and swollen and speaking was actually kind of tricky.
There are great suggestions above about what to do to help prevent and temper the onset of salt mouth during swims, but what about after? What do you find helpful to eat post-swim to ease the discomfort? (while I wouldn't argue with someone telling me to just drink milkshakes for a week, I'm not so sure that's practical)
I have issues with salt mouth. :-/ Maybe because I don't have oceans to train in regularly it makes it worse for me? I was ok after a 6 hour SF Bay swim last week and purposely didn't bring any mouthwash or do anything to help. The 14 hours I was in the Cook Strait was ok, with mouthwash, but my mouth was definitely sore the next day. I've heard that people like coconut oil, so I'll need to try that. I've thought about putting lanolin directly on my lips. Won't help the tongue and throat, but maybe the lips can be helped? I've also thought about daily gargling with salt water to get my mouth used to it... is that a crazy idea?
For after swims, I've found Lansinoh HPA cream to be very good for sore lips and other chafing. Its lanolin based but not nearly as sticky or smelly as pure lanolin. It's also edible but not sure whether you'd want to put it directly on your tongue or not!
I've also used lidocaine liquid/gel on salt mouth which eases the pain but doesn't really help with the underlying cause.
can you tell we have a baby at home?!
During swim, Coca Cola can be helpful. Afterwards, copious amounts of ice cream, and constantly creeping my wife out by flashing her my peeling tongue seemed to work.😜
I find that it is partly acclimatisation, because it seems to affect me less over the years although I also live far from the sea and can only train a couple of days in saltwater every year. For me the most important change - besides trying to keep my mouth closed - was mixing my feeds (maltodextrin) in pure coconutwater and consuming it 1:1 diluted with warm water. Might be the same effect like the aforementioned coconut oil without being to fatty/greasy (that wouldn't agree with me). I like the taste and it seems to have a soothing effect, especially since I feed every 30 minutes. I still take childrens-cherry-taste-mouthwash and canned peaches with me on every big swim, but I use them less and less.