Return to the Deep
by Caroline Hellman

Well, dear readers, I wrote last time about how my asthma became worse once I stopped swimming in college. I do feel that there's a direct connection between swimming and the state of asthma, at least for me.

I don't know if it has to do with breath control and healthy lung workouts resulting from the anaerobic sets in which swimmers breathe only a couple of times per lap, or whether the correlation has more to do with being in better general shape as a result of consistent exercise. But either way, it helps a lot.

And so last month, when I felt my asthma becoming much worse--I knew not why--I decided to bite the bullet and begin swimming again. I started swimming with a local women's college team, and it was just what the doctor ordered.

After two practices, amazingly, my asthma seemed to be more under control. I wasn't wheezing as much, and I was getting in exercise without making my lungs burn and chest hurt. Granted, these things can be signs of a good workout, but to the asthmatic, they have different implications. In the meantime, I've started running again, and the cold weather is not killing me any longer.

In a bizarre way my body craved the chlorine. It had just gone too many years without the special scent, eau de chlorine, that was its trademark from 1991-1999. You, too, can wear this scent, and I encourage you to do so!