NY Times on water overdosing



"rick++" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> The NY Times has an article on water poisoning, called hyponatremia:
> http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-FIT-Water-Intoxication.html
> About half of the rare deaths during recent marathons are attributed
> to
> this.


The good news is this information is starting to ooze into main stream
running rags. Hyponatremia typically gets notice at the extremes, i.e
people die or go into a coma. In fact people are experiencing various
degrees of this and chalking it up to muscle problems, dehydration and
drinking even more water. It's the Race Directors of marathons and
longer that need to insure a sport drink with some salt at EVERY aid
station to go along with water and maybe a reminder on the race form.

-Doug
 
Doug Freese wrote:

> The good news is this information is starting to ooze into main stream
> running rags. Hyponatremia typically gets notice at the extremes, i.e
> people die or go into a coma. In fact people are experiencing various
> degrees of this and chalking it up to muscle problems, dehydration and
> drinking even more water. It's the Race Directors of marathons and
> longer that need to insure a sport drink with some salt at EVERY aid
> station to go along with water and maybe a reminder on the race form.

Amen! This is especially true nowadays when marathons are filled with
people who are less fit and prepared than in days of yore. 20+ years ago
the median finishing times were often 3:30. Now it's way over 4 hours in
many marathons.

I worked the 22 mile aid station in the LA marathon a couple of years ago,
and all they had was water by the time most of the runners came by. Most
had the dazed and glazed look and the mental fog that is a sign of
hyponatremia (and hypoglycemia...). Lots of one word responses, or even
just a wordless nod to questions.

Thousands finished in over 5:00, and it was a warm day. They didn't have a
clue.

-- Dan
 
rick++ wrote in message
<[email protected]>...
>The NY Times has an article on water poisoning, called hyponatremia:
>http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-FIT-Water-Intoxication.html
>About half of the rare deaths during recent marathons are attributed to
>this.

This was in my local paper today also. They talk about the problem, but
they fail to address one of the important solutions, which is electrolyte
balance. As this group well knows by now, when drinking a great deal of
fluid in races, one MUST take salts as well. The idiot author of the article
I read failed to mention this important point.

-Tony
 
This new advice works against convention diet advice.
For about 15 years the diet advisers have been
advocating drinking a gallon of liquid a day to speed
weight loss. I read recently this is no longer
considered a useful diet method (like most
diet fads), but the practice has become highly ingrained
to the point where I see women guzzling their water
in inappropriate places like church services, important
business meetings, and symphony concerts, etc.
 
You will appreciate Lewis Black's comments on this subject of bottled
water. They are on his last album.

We were at the Sugar Bowl Monday nite and I was amazed at the number of
30 somethings who were buying bottled water over fresh tapped beer-at
the same price. Oh the humanity. Thankfully such silliness hadn't
reached the younger generations who were clearly not being sucked in by
such false idols.



rick++ <[email protected]> wrote:

> This new advice works against convention diet advice.
> For about 15 years the diet advisers have been
> advocating drinking a gallon of liquid a day to speed
> weight loss. I read recently this is no longer
> considered a useful diet method (like most
> diet fads), but the practice has become highly ingrained
> to the point where I see women guzzling their water
> in inappropriate places like church services, important
> business meetings, and symphony concerts, etc.
 
rick++ wrote:

> This new advice works against convention diet advice.
> For about 15 years the diet advisers have been
> advocating drinking a gallon of liquid a day to speed
> weight loss. I read recently this is no longer
> considered a useful diet method (like most
> diet fads), but the practice has become highly ingrained
> to the point where I see women guzzling their water
> in inappropriate places like church services, important
> business meetings, and symphony concerts, etc.
>

Rick, I respect your comments, but in this case you might be
misinterpreting something.

Many people drink fluids, esp. water during meetings - male/female,
20s/50s, fat/thin. People get thirsty in hot rooms. It has nothing to do
with diets - at least where I am. Where I work, I will dehydrate (pee
test) if I don't drink. Conferences have water bottles or pitchers of
ice water available. Speakers have a glass of water / water bottle
handy. I was at a public meeting last night, and the assembly people had
several empty water bottles in front of them (4+ hr meeting when I left,
and they were just starting "new business").

I've refilled some of those bottles many times over, stuck them in my
pocket, and go to more meetings.

Couldn't vouch for church services or symphony concerts, though. Usually
concert halls have no food / no beverage policies.

Just a different perspective.

Dot

--
"After 26 hours 38 minutes, we accomplished our mission, and the next
day were fortunate to read about our adventure in the sports section of
the local papers rather than the obituaries."
-Dean Karnazes recounting their running of the WS100 trail in winter.
 
rick++ wrote in message
<[email protected]>...
>This new advice works against convention diet advice.
>For about 15 years the diet advisers have been
>advocating drinking a gallon of liquid a day to speed
>weight loss. I read recently this is no longer
>considered a useful diet method (like most
>diet fads), but the practice has become highly ingrained
>to the point where I see women guzzling their water
>in inappropriate places like church services, important
>business meetings, and symphony concerts, etc.

I'm curious as to what your reference is on this. Over-hydrating with water
only during exercise is the main problem addressed in the original article.
From what I've heard, Chronic dehydration is still a much bigger problem in
the general population than people drinking too much water during the day.

-Tony
 
On Tue, 04 Jan 2005 19:27:27 GMT, "Dan Stumpus" <[email protected]> wrote:


>Amen! This is especially true nowadays when marathons are filled with
>people who are less fit and prepared than in days of yore. 20+ years ago
>the median finishing times were often 3:30. Now it's way over 4 hours in
>many marathons.
>
>I worked the 22 mile aid station in the LA marathon a couple of years ago,
>and all they had was water by the time most of the runners came by. Most
>had the dazed and glazed look and the mental fog that is a sign of
>hyponatremia (and hypoglycemia...). Lots of one word responses, or even
>just a wordless nod to questions.
>
>Thousands finished in over 5:00, and it was a warm day. They didn't have a
>clue.
>
>-- Dan
>
Hey, I resemble those remarks. I prolly was one of the wordless nodders.
I take Succeed Tabs now, but I'm still struggling with that 5 hour nemesis...

Malcontent
 
Only joggers could kill themselves on the staff of life. Oh wait, is
the staff of life bread or water? No biggie.........having a point
never seems to be of importance here.
 
Next you'll try to tell me that the air is polluted, and our food laced
with chemicals...
 
"Doug Freese" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> "rick++" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>> The NY Times has an article on water poisoning, called hyponatremia:
>> http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-FIT-Water-Intoxication.html
>> About half of the rare deaths during recent marathons are attributed to
>> this.
>
>
> The good news is this information is starting to ooze into main stream
> running rags. Hyponatremia typically gets notice at the extremes, i.e
> people die or go into a coma. In fact people are experiencing various
> degrees of this and chalking it up to muscle problems, dehydration and
> drinking even more water. It's the Race Directors of marathons and longer
> that need to insure a sport drink with some salt at EVERY aid station to
> go along with water and maybe a reminder on the race form.
>
> -Doug
>
The other thing is that docs at events need to stop putting IVs into people
***** nilly.

I was on a marathon committee. The marathon is held when it can be quite
warm (even hot). We got a doc to volunteer to be the medical director. His
knowledge of hyponatremia was poor. Now I spend a good deal of time looking
at this stuff, but I had to give the doc reams of info and also statements
from the Chicago Marathon MD that dissuades the use of IVs unless a
patient's blood sodium level has been assessed. (This is specific to
marathoning and not what should happen in an ER).
 
Sam wrote:

>
> Well, a woman died at Boston in 2002 (I think) from hyponatremia. Boston
> provides Gatorade (has some sodium) on the course.

Don't a couple of the major marathons (like Boston, iirc) have
capabilities of checking sodium conentration now so that they can
administer proper medical aid, if needed? My understanding is that the
symptoms of dehydration and hyponatremia can be really confusing because
there's so many factors involved. The "obvious"-type symptoms seemed to
read like a flow chart - if this, then go to 1; if that go to 2; and so
on through a couple steps. The tests are supposed to reduce the
likelihood of misdiagnosis.

Dot

--
"After 26 hours 38 minutes, we accomplished our mission, and the next
day were fortunate to read about our adventure in the sports section of
the local papers rather than the obituaries."
-Dean Karnazes recounting their running of the WS100 trail in winter.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom Back