Claudia has a severe form of asthma and post-covid. Her lung problems greatly hinder her in daily life: she is easily short of breath and breathless, suffers from asthma attacks and is in a wheelchair, with which she can only move over short distances without assistance. Her immune system is also weak, making her very susceptible to flu and pneumonia.
Less pressure on the chest
Every weekend she tries to go to sea for two hours, and every now and then for a whole weekend or a week. Because getting to the beach with a wheelchair is complicated, she often sits at the top of the beach entrance to breathe in the sea air. But that’s enough: “When I’m by the sea, I quickly notice that I can breathe easier and feel less pressure on my chest. After a day or two I also cough less,” she says.
To the sea: it is a method that was used for lung diseases long before Christ, says Jana Asselman. As a professor, she heads the Blue Growth Research Lab at Ghent University, and conducts research into the effects of sea air on our health.
Ocean Therapy
“There are reports from about 400 BC that a link was made between the sea and health. And the ancient Egyptians even had a word for it: ocean therapy. And in the 18th and 19th centuries sanatoria were built along the Belgian coast for children with serious lung diseases such as tuberculosis. The children were placed there on beds on the beach during the day to recover.”
Asselman and her team conduct research into the effect of the sea on human cells, among other things. In an earlier phase, the team exposed human cells in a laboratory to substances contained in sea air.
“We saw that certain genes that play a role in lung cancer and elevated cholesterol are inhibited by these substances from sea air, in the same way that they happen with certain drugs. Those cells are an extreme simplification of our body, so we can’t say that sea air really works against cancer – otherwise there would be no cancer at sea and unfortunately that is not the case – but it does show how special sea air is.”
Good against skin diseases?
Another health benefit of the sea that is often mentioned is the (temporary) disappearance of skin diseases. Eveline, for example, tells about her son, who had eczema on his ankles since birth. “My parents-in-law had brought seawater from Bloemendaal and put it on the spots. Within a few days the eczema had disappeared like snow in the sun. I was skeptical at first, but I saw it happen with my own eyes.”
Others talk about the temporary reduction or disappearance of psoriasis or skin rashes.
Fewer negative feelings
Asselman also mentions a study that was done during the lockdown in Belgium in 2020. The measures were very restrictive at the time and researchers from the Flanders Marine Institute asked people how they felt. Those living by the sea indicated that they were clearly less stressed and less worried and bored than those living inland. “So the sea also has a positive effect on our mental health.” It also explains why people like to walk on the beach during or after a busy period, ‘to clear their heads’.
Lung diseases, eczema and mental problems; According to Asselman, there are ‘very strong suspicions’ that the sea has a positive effect on our health. But what makes sea air so special? “That’s the sad thing,” says Asselman: “We don’t know yet.” There are, however, several theories that need to be explored.
‘Blue gym’
“There is the blue gym hypothesis, which means that people who live by the sea walk more and are outside more often. We know that it has a positive effect on our health. Another hypothesis is that bacteria from nature stimulate our immune system. That not only happens by the sea, but also, for example, in the forest.”
What is also being looked at is the presence of micro-organisms in the sea. “The sea is a very large source of biodiversity,” says Asselman. “A huge number of species live in it. Some of them produce substances that are used to make medicines. Due to the force of the waves, such substances end up above land. In very low concentrations, but it does happen.”
Placebo-effect
And another theory: “That the sea has a very strong placebo effect.” In other words, people think that the sea has a positive effect on their health, and maybe that’s why it is.
Asselman’s team hopes to unravel within ten years which theory is correct, or whether it is a combination of several theories. This is done, among other things, by looking at which substances are present in sea air that are lacking in other air.
“We know of course that sea air is very salty, after a walk on the beach the salt sticks to our faces and arms. We also know that it contains iodine, but the concentration is not high enough to have an effect on our health. The question now is: what other substances are in it, how do they end up in the sea air and what is the effect on people?”
Moving people to sea
The studies have even gone so far as to temporarily send people to sea to see how their bodies react. “The rest of the circumstances must be the same as much as possible, so that we can exclude the effect of this: from a village in the countryside to a village by the sea, or from a large city to a large city by the sea. Or from under the smoke from a factory inland to under the smoke of a factory by the sea.”
According to Asselman, it is easy to explain that so much effort is being made. “It is very complex, but also very important. We have already done a lot in Europe to improve people’s health: the most polluting factories are closed, there are strict rules for chemicals, we know that we have to eat healthy. “
“And yet we still have a very high disease balance of non-communicable diseases, such as cancer, allergies and immune diseases. It is the challenge of the coming decades in Europe. The question is: why are so many people sick, and what can we do about it? Maybe the sea or sea air can help us with that.”
Hurry to unravel the mystery
“In addition, as humans, we are increasingly changing to the sea. Think of the wind farms that are being built at sea, do they have an effect on the organisms in the sea, and therefore on our health? And what about all the plastics that are collected through pollution? end up in the sea?”
According to Asselman, the last point also makes it clear why there is a rush to unravel the mystery of the health benefits we experience at sea. “We must prevent the special power of the sea from disappearing due to human interventions. We are convinced that the sea is good for our health.”