Hydration Facts . . . Like'm or not

[COLONEL KURTZ]

Toolbox: Hydration Advice and Science
Tuesday, July 03, 2007 7:17:11 AM PT

by Dr. Stephen Cheung, Ph.D.

You

 

[jkuhlmann]

for some reason, by your thread title, i thought this was going to be an 'anti hydration' article...

i don't think you need to convince too many of us around here of the importance of water...

thanks for the article though.

 

[MikeMartial]

for some reason, by your thread title, i thought this was going to be an 'anti hydration' article...

i don't think you need to convince too many of us around here of the importance of water...

thanks for the article though.

Me too. Hydration is obviously important, but this article was long-winded in explaining commonly-known key points. One thing worth emphasis, though:

This point also raises the recently popular concept of hyponatremia or water intoxication. This is a condition where you can drink so much water that you end up diluting your body fluids and electrolyte concentration in the blood. This can be just as dangerous, if not more so, than dehydration. I will cover this in much more detail in my next Toolbox. But for now, for prolonged exercise, avoid drinking solely water and mix in some sports drink. In addition, drink sensibly but don

 

[COLONEL KURTZ]

The part I wanted everybody to get was the concept of "Cardiovascular drift". I probably should have edited and took out the more obvious stuff, but who knows what everybody knows.

I was watching the UFC preview on spike when they showed how Forest Griffen came in to Vegas eating nothing but chex mix (or something like that), and drinking nothing but water and had been for sometime. I think he still had to lose something like 7 to 10Lbs a day before the fight. I figured he was going to lose, and he did. You can't compete at a world class level if you show up a day before the fight in that kind of condition. That has never made sense to me. From what I've read it takes about 2 weaks for your body to recover from a starvation diet like that.

 

[COLONEL KURTZ]

Yesterday I must have put back over 8 liters of water, 4 of which were an Accelerade mixture. Between a morning 20km singletrack ride, roofing my shed all afternoon, and 1.5 hrs of training at the dojo later that night, I would have easily been an electrolyte-depleted mess had I not mixed my H2O.

Interesting. You must be experienced. I find that the people that have experience drink 1:1 (bottle of water:sports drink ), while inexperienced seem to just drink sports drink).

This Sunday I was going to go on a 100 mile road ride. I got about 50 miles out where I refill my bottles and found out I forgot my money, so I refilled with plain water, then called my wife to meet me on the road. I ended the day with 70 miles. I didn't want to go another 50 miles without electrolytes.

I could have made the trip back, but at what cost? I had to think about my training the next day. If my body is depleted, then my training the next day won't be nearly as effective. So I had to put pride aside for the bigger picture.

 

[MikeMartial]

The part I wanted everybody to get was the concept of "Cardiovascular drift". I probably should have edited and took out the more obvious stuff, but who knows what everybody knows.

Excellent point; here's a quick abstract I dug up on cardiovascular drift. Considering the recent high temps, it's worth it to note how hyperthermia can exacerbate the effects.

 

[spirez]

Here's another decent article by John Berardi on the use of sports drinks:

http://www.johnberardi.com/articles/nutrition/advanced_workout_nutrition.htm

 

[Deleted member 3729]

Milk:

http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0731/milk.html
http://nqr.farmonline.com.au/news_daily.asp?ag_id=43849
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/health/article2820503.ece
http://journals.cambridge.org/actio...E752F131B.tomcat1?fromPage=online&aid=1057236

 

[Cooz]

Dehydration kills even in this day and age.

http://www.odmp.org/officer.php?oid=18962

Now I'm sure most people aren't chasing drug dealers and/or illegal immigrants in the desert, but with this whacky weather (and with whacky I mean hot) any outdoor activity brings its risks.

 

[Hbs6]

I normally bash the media bandwagon that initially brought this up; if anything, it stops people from drinking enough water, because they think they're going to die because of it. But with weather in the high 30's Celcius, people tend to lose and replace fluids at a greater rate, and hyponatremia is a consideration.
.

Thats such a true statement, hyponatremia is pretty hard to achieve and most people would never have...well i guess the determination lol to drink enough water to fuck up there electrolyte balance, maybe for atheletes like us where we miught over do something but most people would never get enough water in.