26. Electrolytes: Love ‘Em or Loathe ‘Em?
Love getting hot and bothered but questioning if those expensive electrolyte powders and potions truly speed up recovery?
Your favorite podcasting perspirers review the science of getting sweaty and consider three of the most hyped salty supplements.
Tune in to find out whether sodium’s truly an exerciser’s savior or if potassium’s just pants, and then let us know what you think!
episode resources:
now you know there’s way more to sweating than you ever realized, wanna know even more? Check out this great review of all things sweaty, including why we sweat when we’re not hot!
We talked a little bit about what happens to our blood volume if we don’t match our hydration to our sweating rate. In severe cases, we could end up with a deadly case of heat stroke. everyone needs to know about this so check out this straightforward summary from the Cleveland Clinic – it could save your life!
Heard the word, electrolytes, thrown around a lot but not really sure what it means? Here’s a great overview of the important ones in humans.
How much sodium, potassium etc should we really be aiming for every day? Here’s a guide to the suggested daily intake (and if you eat a typical American diet, then you’re likely to be getting way more than you need, at least when it comes to sodium)!
However, We can lose a huge amount of sodium when we sweat whereas potassium loss is much more modest.
This article is a little intense but if you want to know more about those sweating rates and some other geeky, sweat-related stuff, this will help!
Interested in how becoming fitter also trains our sweat glands? Check out these fascinating pieces of science.
Here’s that Position Statement from the American College of Sports Medicine.
And here are those numbers for LMNT, Water Boy (WB) and Liquid IV (LIV):
Sodium: 1000mg (LMNT); 1120mg (WB); 560mg (LIV)
Potassium: 200mg (LMNT); 350mg (WB); 370(LIV)
magnesium: 60mg (LMNT); 50mg (WB); - (LIV)
glucose/sugar: - (LMNT); - (WB); 11g (LIV)
Drinking according to your degree of thirst seems a good thing – it seems to ensure adequate hydration and actually reduces your chances of potentially fatal behaviour, overhydrating.
Definitely not for the faint hearted but if you’re super keen to understand the role of those sodium, glucose cotransporters in the gut and how they affect water absorption then you need look no further than this article.
here’s What LMNT has to say about the science behind its electrolyte-replacements.
Do you need magnesium and/or glucose/carbohydrate in your sports drinks? Check out these links.
Interested in those elite athletes and their shockingly bad teeth, here’s that research!
There was so much more we could’ve talked about in this episode so if you’re interested, I suggest the following further reading.
Historically, there’s been a huge amount of disagreement about whether/how much dehydration impairs athletic performance. Read this article to find out more about the rather problematic way this issue was first examined and then look at how, more recently, scientists have used much more elegant experiments to really get to the heart of this issue.
and finally, How do we know what’s in sweat? It’s not as easy as you might think and this article shows very nicely how sometimes, what seems a simple question to answer, requires some pretty imaginative experimental design.