Jock, is that your longest ever post?

The main reason I use sports drinks is for the potassium. It's easy to get most of the other ingredients elsewhere, but try buying monpotassium phosphate in powder form at the health food store (actually, I haven't checked for a while). I experienced some ocassional, temporary heart arrhythmias about ten years ago which the docter said was mostly caused by anxiety, but it was sometimes triggered buying being dehydrated on a hot day, then quickly drinking something very cold. As we know, potassium is important for muscle contractions, but is crucial for cardiac muscle function.


What I've never had a straight answer on is how fast Na, K, Mg, and Ca, in whatever from, are absorbed, relative to the water. Water and alcohol are the only 2 fliuds that can be absorbed directly across the gastric wall, which is why we can feel the effects of booze in only a few minutes if we drink on an empty stomach. So, when we're dehydrated on a hot day, and it's been several hours since we've eaten anything containing sodium or potassium, then we skull a sports drink, the water is getting in there pretty much immediately, but how longs is it until the electrolytes are absorbed? Hmmmmmmmm.....