BIKE: Re: Hydration can be fatal

[Michael Zakes]

damn, sounds like coach's admonition to take salt tablets wasn't too far off
the mark
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Patrick Goetz" <pgoetz>
To: "Austin Bikes" <forum>; "Jen Duthie"
<jduthie>; "Adam Rogoyski" <rogoyski>
Sent: Thursday, April 14, 2005 11:08 AM
Subject: BIKE: Hydration can be fatal


> http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/14/opinion/14thu2.html?th&emc=th
>
>
> Brain-Dead From Sports Drinks
> Published: April 14, 2005
>
> For years now, we've been hearing about the importance of hydration to
> avoid heat stroke during prolonged exercise in hot weather. Now, it
> turns out, too much hydration can kill you.
>
> A study published today in The New England Journal of Medicine should
> give weekend warriors reason to rethink the wisdom of quaffing vast
> amounts of water or sports drinks while exercising vigorously - at least
> if they are engaging in such endurance tests as a marathon. The study
> found that a marathon runner could dangerously dilute the blood with an
> overdose of liquids, risking a coma and even death. The problem has also
> been detected during long military maneuvers, extended bike rides and
> blistering hikes through the desert.
>
> An article by Gina Kolata in The Times today describes the slow and
> belated recognition of the problem. A South African expert who has been
> warning of the dangers for more than two decades told Ms. Kolata that he
> had not found a single case when an athlete had died from dehydration in
> a competitive race, but that some people had sickened and died from
> drinking too much. Typically, an overdose of water dilutes their blood
> and reduces the concentration of sodium. Water enters the cells, causing
> them to swell, and engorged brain cells press into the skull; such
> pressure can lead to confusion, seizures and a loss of vital functions.
>
> All too often, friends, coaches or emergency personnel assume that the
> problem is dehydration and administer yet more liquid, making the
> problem worse. The best treatment is a small volume of a concentrated
> salt solution, given intravenously, to increase blood sodium
> concentrations. Sports drinks containing electrolytes may not help much
> as they are mostly liquid themselves.
>
> In the 2002 Boston Marathon, for example, a 28-year-old woman found
> herself exhausted after running for five hours and gulping sports drinks
> along the way. Wrongly assuming that she was dehydrated, she chugged
> down 16 more ounces of a sports drink. She promptly collapsed and was
> later declared brain-dead. The concentration of salt in her blood was
> found to be lethally low.
>
> In the study published today, researchers at various Harvard-affiliated
> institutions tested 488 of the nearly 15,000 runners who completed the
> 2002 Boston Marathon. They found that 13 percent had blood with
> abnormally low sodium levels, and that three runners were in danger of
> dying. It was not the elite runners who were at risk - it was those who
> had taken four hours or more to finish the race, allowing plenty of time
> to imbibe excess fluid.
>
> Sports authorities have already issued warnings and tips to avoid
> excessive drinking, and rescue workers in the Grand Canyon now carry
> devices to test collapsed hikers for low blood sodium. But the solution
> is for overly eager endurance runners and hikers to forget the old
> mantra that they should drink-drink-drink. Too much liquid can be lethal.
>
>
>
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