ravenmore

I've mentioned this twice in recent threads, but considering this can be fatal I thought I'd get on my soapbox and give it it's own thread.

If you hydrate with only water for extended periods of time you can get what's called water intoxication or water poisoning (technical term is hyponatremia). It can be fatal and we had someone recently die from it in a canoe race here. Replacing electrolytes you lose during activity is crucial. Any sports drink should accomplish this.

richfell

I switched from using just plain water given the weather down this way now.

Scorer75

#Fail

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_intoxication

Seattle Forrest

It's true, and this is why your bike has flask holders.

Urban Turkey

I see where this other guy got a s**t load of Cytomax for cheap. No hyponatremia there.

ravenmore

Not sure I understand your post - that link backs up what I was saying?

merlinextraligh

njkayaker

It's rare.

And you aren't clear on when it's really necessary.

therhodeo

Also don't think that just hydrating well is going to keep you safe if you're not adapted.

merlinextraligh

It is fairly rare. However, it's not unheard of in endurance athletes. The 5 hour marathon crowd seems to be particularly susceptible; i.e. people exercising for extended periods, and have been told they have to hydrate, and overdo it. Haven't seen a lot of reports of it, but the 8 hour century riders could also be potential victims.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa043901

It's a good practice to monitor your body weight when you're exercising for extended periods. If you're gaining weight after a long workout, you're likely doing something wrong.

It's also probalby a good idea to consume electrolytes working out more than 2 hours, however, the data's not real good that it makes a difference compared to water, most likely because the relatively ow sodium level (see the link above.)

ravenmore

yeah that's one of the threads I brought it up in. Someone mentioned using maltodextrin instead of cytomax as a sports drink replacement which is fine as long as you add in electrolytes too somehow.

ravenmore

Better safe than sorry dude - and someone here dropped dead from it recently. I suspect we're a little more prone to it here than in NY. And it's much more likely to happen with cyclist especially on long weekend rides.

jfmckenna

You have to drink a ton of water to die but yeah salt is important too.

merlinextraligh

A fairly balanced discussion of hyponatremia

https://www.rrm.com/rrmsamplehyponatremia.htm

therhodeo

Also don't think that just hydrating well is going to keep you safe if you're not adapted.

ravenmore

Definitely - I overdid it myself this past weekend. It hit over 100 degrees before noon with high humidity - we were soaked the entire ride and I was struggling the last 10 miles.

DropDeadFred

beer works, right?

Seattle Forrest

It's a purely theoretical thing here in the Pacific Northwet. But for you people in the desert ... it's amazing where people can live now.

Scorer75

It's Fail because your original post makes no sense.

Water intoxication occurs when you over hydrate, not when you hydrate only with water. While it's important to replace sodium and other minerals, this is not what water intoxication is referring to. Also, water intoxication usually occurs with severe over hydration and there is also usually an underlying pre-existing medical condition.

MattFoley

Eat a snack, problem solved.

njkayaker

People need more information. For example, it would be counter productive for people who are trying to lose weight to think they must drink "sports drinks" on their slow 20 mile rides.

KevinF

I first heard about this (i.e., water poisoning) after somebody died during a brutally hot Boston marathon a few years ago.

I've often wondered -- how much water do you need to drink to cause the imbalance to start reaching "dangerous" levels? I've gone through water bottles at an alarming rate on long rides during hot days and I still felt more dehydrated than anything (i.e., kept drinking after the ride in order to feel "normal"). How fast do you need to be gulping water in order for this to become an issue? It seems like sweat and the need to urinate would do a pretty effective job of eliminating excess water from your system.

njkayaker

+1

The original post was seriously lacking enough detail.

ravenmore

Feel free to expand on what I said. That's what discussion boards are all about.

There are low calorie sports drinks. I use Nuun tablets a lot and I think they are fairly low calorie - although on long rides I usually don't worry too much about taking in too many calories.

MattFoley

It's more about clearing electrolytes out of your system...water essentially has none, so if you drink a sh*t ton of water and nothing else, your brain malfunctions because your body can't send electrical impulses because you need electrolytes to do that. As long as you eat some food or drink some fluid with a modicum of sodium, you'll be fine. I think most cyclists eat while riding, but I imagine runners don't (?), which may partly explain why this isn't really an issue for cyclists.