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Lifeguard recertification is a process that enables certified lifeguards to renew their credentials by demonstrating that they still possess the necessary skills and knowledge to perform their job effectively, usually through completing continuing education courses and passing a recertification exam.
When Anna and I started our Wild Swimming and lifeguard project, we were told two things. One was that there were a lot of people swimming in open water as a kind of self-healing from depression or anxiety. We inquired about this with a doctor, who told us that they might benefit from the social aspect or that it was something about the cold water.
Benefits of swimming and lifeguard
The other was round table talk about the vagus. This is a large nerve that starts at the base of the skull and runs throughout your body. It regulates your heart, lungs and stomach, the bodily functions we think of when we think of relaxation.
During breakfasts after swimming and lifeguard, there was quite a bit of speculation about the functioning of this nerve. It was said that one of the swimmers tried to keep her head submerged to stimulate the vagus and relieve her depression. Soon we all went under.
Many wild swimmers see swimming as a kind of lifeline for their mental health.
Research on the effects of immersion or swimming and lifeguard in cold water on mental health is still in its infancy. Yet there is increasing attention to its potential. One of the main proponents of the idea that swimming and lifeguard can relieve depression is former general practitioner and TV presenter Chris van Tulleken.
For an episode of his TV show, he tested it as a treatment for a 24-year-old young woman who had suffered from severe depression and an anxiety disorder since she was 17. The results were convincing. Her treatment, which included six weekly swimming and lifeguard sessions, became a much-cited case study.
Feel the buzz
Mark Harper is the physician whose research formed the basis for that study. Harper, an anesthetist and experienced wild swimmer, studied perioperative hyperthermia. In doing so, he saw how a cold water immersion program could prepare the body for the stress of surgery.
From that perspective, he set out to see how stimulating the stress response through cold-water swimming could help us deal with stress in other areas of our lives.
As a swimmer, Mark knew that a dip in cold water would do him good. He had known this since the first time he went into the sea in Brighton because the local swimming pool was closed. 'A friend told me to go for a swim in the sea.
When he told me that some people swim in the sea all year round, I thought they must be crazy. But still I went and swam around the pier. It was 18°C, the hottest time of the year, but I remember walking onto the beach afterwards and thinking, oh, how good this feels.
So even when the pool reopened, I kept swimming and lifeguard in the sea. For fifteen years now. And no matter how bad I feel when I go in the water, every time I go for a swim I feel better when I get out. I feel in a daze.'
Less stressed
Part of the problem, according to Mark, these days is that almost everyone experiences low-level chronic stress, rather than occasional high stress. “Once we had to run to avoid saber-toothed tigers, now to catch the train. You can reduce that chronic stress. You can do that by adapting to cold water, a skill that you can then apply to other types of stress.'
Mark explains that we only have one system for dealing with stress instead of a separate response for each stress. That system is controlled by our autonomic nervous system, the control network for our unconscious bodily functions. As a result, a tight deadline triggers the same reaction in that system as the sight of a saber-toothed tiger.
The best kick
But training our stress response isn't the only way swimming and lifeguard in cold water benefits our mental health. That vagus nerve that our swimming friends talked about is also crucial to some of the positive effects, according to Mark. "If you dip your face in cold water, you get a huge parasympathetic stimulus that reduces inflammatory responses, and that process goes through the vagus nerve.