From Dr Brighton to Breezy Broadstairs: Social Prescribing and the Myth of Sea Air.

Description

Dr Richard Russell is often credited with the invention of the seaside as a cure for physical illness, in his 1752 treatise on 'Glandular Diseases, or a Dissertation on the Use of Sea Water in the Affections of the Glands.' Belief in the efficacy of a coastal environment in treating a range of conditions including consumption (TB), led to the founding of the Margate Sea Bathing Hospital in 1791. Victorian doctors continued to prescribe sea bathing and air for a range of conditions.
Since then, scientific analysis of the constitution of sea air has revealed increased levels of dozens of compounds. Many of these are not for the faint-hearted, including: marine gases from the life events (sex, defence, and death) of algae and phytoplankton, and mucus-busting salt mist, but also repugnant precursors of sulphate aerosols, and a blend of organic material including funghi and viruses. So if sea air does not have all the medical properties ascribed to it, why do we persist in associating the seaside with health and long life? The answer may come from factors other than the air itself, such as improved nutrition, reduced population for disease transmission, placebo, and even flirtation (the Victorians associated the last, but not necessarily all of these, with seaside holidays).
This paper explores our longstanding love affair with the coast, and asks: “What is it about the seaside that’s so good for you?”

Period	10 Jul 2010
Held at	Thackray Museum of Medicine, United Kingdom
Degree of Recognition	National