May 10, 2018

Electrolytes

Don't neglect the need to replenish electrolytes. Some people like sports drinks, but many of these are just new forms of soda. Gatorade is owned by PepsiCo, whereas Powerade is owned by Coca-Cola. Enough said.

Salt tablets are a step in the right direction, but only supply salt (sodium chloride). You need potassium and other substances as well, so look for a more complete product.

An excellent method is to carry a quality electrolyte replacement product. There are many choices. I like the Endurolyte product by Hammer Nutrition. But if you are going to go with Hammer, you ought to look at their various nutrition fuel products (Heed, Perpetuem, Sustained Energy), which offer balanced electrolytes along with non sugar based fueling.

What I would like to see is some rule of thumb connecting milligrams of sodium per liter of water consumed. I have yet to find anything quite like that. Hammer nutrition provides the closest thing to scientific information. Their "Endurolytes" contain 80mg of sodium and 50 mg of potassium per two tablets. They recommend a "dose" of 1 tablet per 50-60 pounds of body weight. Take a dose before exercise and a dose every hour during exercise. Wow! Their "Endurolyte supreme" contain 300mg of sodium and 75 mg of potassium, and endorses the 4:1 ratio. (but note that the regular endurolytes do not follow this ratio, what should a person believe?). The recommended does of the "extreme" is 1 capsule per hour, but perhaps 2 or 3 per hour! Golly! If all of this is right, no wonder people get electrolyte depleted, have cramping problems, and even get hyponatremia. Both of these products also have proper amounts of magnesium and calcium. They also offer Endurolytes as a powder. And they also have an "Endurolyte Fizz" product. A fizz tablet contains 200 mg of sodium and 100 mg of potassium. The idea is that you drop one or two in a bottle of water (of unspecified size).

Gatorade contains 440 mg sodium, 120 mg of potassium per liter (and 200 calories). You can usually find this for $1.00 per liter on sale. The big negative is the incredible waste of plastic bottles. The option here is to buy some alternative product available as powder. You can buy a bag of Vitalyte powder that will make up 20 liters of mix for about $20, which works out to about $1 per liter.

Vitalyte contains 272 mg sodium, 368 mg potassium per liter (and 160 calories as glucose). I find the idea of having more potassium than sodium surprising, and certainly quite different from the 4:1 ratio endorsed (sorta) by Hammer. Another product with more potassium than sodium justifies it with the logic that we get plenty of sodium in our diet, but are deficient in potassium, or something of the sort - a logic I find pretty much bogus. But a diversity of ratios in what would appear to be quality products just underscores how much I need to learn about this topic.

Hyponatremia

No matter what you have heard, salt is not evil. If you are sedentary and have high blood pressure, you may need to monitor or reduce you salt intake, but that is not the topic here. Here we are talking about maintaining hydration and electrolyte balance during serious and prolonged exertion in hot weather.

Drinking water without replacing salts can lead to hyponatremia. Hyponatremia can be fatal in extreme situations. This is not rare or uncommon, it is estimated that 1/3 of the heat related incidents in the Grand Canyon involve hyponatremia. In the past it was not recognized as a specific issue and lumped together with heat and dehydration.

Have any comments? Questions? Drop me a line!

Tom's hiking pages / tom@mmto.org