Cold-water swimmers do not experience fewer respiratory infections than pool swimmers.
Cold-water swimmers may experience fewer colds than their non-swimming partners, but cold water itself does not appear to provide an advantage over swimming in a heated pool. Researchers followed cold-water swimmers, indoor pool swimmers, and their non-swimming partners for 13 weeks during winter. Of 50 couples recruited, 44 completed the study, including 21 cold-water swimmers and 23 pool swimmers.
Cold-water swimmers reported fewer upper respiratory tract infections than their own partners: mean infection frequency was 3.0 versus 5.5, and 8.2 versus 12.8 percent experienced an infection. However, cold-water swimmers did not differ significantly from heated-pool swimmers on any infection measure. Both groups of swimmers tended to experience fewer infections than their partners.
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The results do not identify a cold-specific protective effect. Exercise, baseline health, social factors, or other differences between swimmers and non-swimmers could explain the pattern. The investigators also observed nonsignificant trends suggesting that longer cold swims might be associated with more frequent or severe symptoms, raising the possibility that more exposure is not necessarily better.
This was a small, nonrandomized, 13-week study published as a meeting abstract. Its findings are preliminary and should not be treated as evidence that winter swimming prevents colds.