Bacteria at the beach

If you’re getting your vitamin D by soaking up the sun at the beach, think twice before you jump into the water.

It might not be as clean as you think.

Sure, everyone knows to avoid swimming in polluted waters– but a new study finds that even beaches widely believed to be sparkly clean could be swimming with sickening bacteria.

Researchers sent 1,303 adults to Miami’s Hobie Beach. Half were told to enjoy a good swim… and half were told to enjoy the beach–but that the water was off limits.

They probably thought they got the short end of the stick, especially if they had to watch their fellow research subjects splashing and playing in the water on a hot Florida day.

But they had the last laugh–because a week later, the swimmers were drowning in their own illnesses. They were 1.76 times more likely to have stomach problems, 4.46 times more likely to have fever, sniffles and sore throat, and 5.91 times more likely to suffer from itching, rashes and other skin problems than those who stayed dry.

The researchers say you shouldn’t panic, because the overall risk is still pretty low. But it’s not as low as you might like, since roughly 9 percent of the swimmers suffered one of the illnesses.

For the record, Hobie Beach is no swimming sump–it’s actually one of the nicest beaches in an area that’s known for its great beaches, and it has no history of contamination.

But the researchers say their study shows how even clean beaches may have high levels of enterococcus bacteria, which are generally found in human and animal waste.

In other words, these people were floating with feces.

So if you do decide to take a risk and jump in the water… keep your mouth closed!