Healthy Trails

Eric Herman

It’s great when people start talking about important issues – and satisfying to have a hand in provoking those discussions.

In the past 18 months or so, you may have noticed that we at WaterShapes have published occasional articles about swimming, aquatic activity and hydrotherapy as they relate to health and fitness. One of them appeared in our January issue: “Swimming to Wellness” by Barbara Goldstein (click here), which described one woman’s use of her pool to combat multiple conditions including asthma and multiple sclerosis.

Our goal in publishing her story – and with others we’ve printed along similar lines – has been to make the case to the watershaping community that benefits so profound need to be points of common discussion within the industry and with the public at large. We are in the business of providing products that, according to recent research and in point of scientific fact, are capable of providing people with the healthiest known set of physical activities, bar none.

At a time when the U.S. population is aging and people everywhere are becoming more and more concerned with staying healthy and vital, that’s undeniably significant.

And check this out: Wanting to spread the word to people who live with similar ailments, Goldstein posted her article on a few Internet sites that serve people with multiple sclerosis. Within days, there were more than 300 postings about her story, with some saying that the article had convinced them, finally, to take the plunge and buy a pool. Talk about a powerful message!

It’s indicative of what’s happening in the wide world that the National Swimming Pool Foundation (NSPF), which has truly taken the lead in spearheading the pursuit of information about the health benefits of aquatic activity, recently donated $1 million to Washington State University to help establish the National Aquatic & Sports Medicine Institute. That effort is being driven by Dr. Bruce Becker, one of the leading researchers into the benefits of aquatic exercise (and someone who was interviewed extensively for an article in our December 2006 issue, page 44). His ambition is to create the world’s premiere facility for such studies.

It’s clear that the scientific and medical communities are beginning to embrace aquatic activity as a means of dealing with a range of physical conditions – and of promoting better health among those without physical ailments. It only makes sense that watershapers should become engaged by these efforts, even if it means little more than keeping up with the news. NSPF deserves a great deal of credit for leading the way; we’ll do our part at WaterShapes by continuing to report, support and promote any progress.

For my part, I’ve long believed that our industry has never taken full advantage of all the information that exists on these important health-related topics and that this is a subject matter we should all explore (and promote) with much more energy than we tend to do. Bottom line: Knowing more about the relationship between aquatic activity and health benefits everyone, and it’s high time for watershapers to get up to speed – and stay that way.