Eye floaters after swimming

[worriedsince2308]

Hi Doctor,

I dont know if i had eye floaters before, but recently after two episodes of Swimming, I am seeing eye floaters in both my eyes. They are like threads that move around my field of vision. I am into computers, so you can imagine the stress. I went to an eye doctor and they said that the eyes are normal. My question is can swimming cause floaters in eyes. It is a public swimming pool, so can my eyes be infected by this.

[worriedsince2308]

One more this i want to add is that, everytime i come back from swimming, the floaters tend to increase. Does that mean that I should avoid swimming.

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS]

Swimming does not cause floaters or make them worse. Its great exercise and you should continue to swim if you enjoy it. Use the search feature and archives to read the many discussions of floaters.

I suspect that you are just more aware of the floaters after swimming.

It is very important that the "eye doctor" you saw was a Eye MD ophthalmologist physician. If not, and you saw a non-MD, non-physician ophthalmologist then you really did not have a eye MD exam and you need to see a real eye physician. Find and Eye MD near you at www.aao.org

JCH MD

[worriedsince2308]

Hi Doctor,

But it seems that everytime i go for swimming, my floaters tend to increase. Like last week i had only 3 floaters in each eyes. Yesterday after swimming, i began to see many more in my eyes in the morning. Like large strands moving. My eyes also appear to be red. Could it be because of the chlorine content or purifier that they use in swimming pools that might be causing this.

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS]

I can only repeat that swimming does not increase floaters,  diving face first in the water with no eye protections perhaps, but just swimming espcially with googles no way.

See an Eye MD as I recommended.

JCH MD

[dukey]

Well swimming goggles have recently been shown to raise IOP mildly in most cases but I doubt it is enough to cause these kind of symptoms. Plus it is a very flawed study so I do not pay much attention to it. I swim for hours every day and it actually makes my floaters seemingly disappear but I know this is a psychological effect of the exercise per se. The benefits of exercise are magical and nothing should stop you.  

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS]

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[worriedsince2308]

hi doctor,

One more doubt i have is that, i dont feel any kind of headache or reading problems with my eyes. the floaters on one eye seems to be like a small web and on the other eye, like wires. I am going to get them checked by a EYE MD soon. but can i know since i am not having any pain, there will be no discomfort.

[worriedsince2308]

what i meant to say is, can i stop worrying about this floaters. how long will it take for them to go away.

[walkietalkie]

Floaters are VERY common and will not go away. Come in all shapes and sizes. cobwebs, strings, wires, dots, squiggly lines, etc. Stop worrying. It’s a waste of energy.

[mel07green]

wow. are you retarded?