If it is what we suspect it is, then potassium and other electrolytes are retained by the body fine, but sodium is not. One of the dangers of the (assumed) disease is that the body can retain too much potassium in an attempt to 'fill the gap' of the sodium, and you end up having heart trauma - which would explain the intense chest pains I had last time. (Didn't get them this time, thankfully.) In such situations, adding more K to the system doesn't help - it gets latched on to by the body and retained too much.
Given a body in working order, drinking salted water will just cause the body to flush the excess by dumping water - that doesn't happen with me until I pass the mark of about 32oz of water with a full teaspoon of table salt dissolved in it. To get that much sodium from Gatorade I'd have to drink a few gallons. I've been experimenting a lot with the amount of salt intake, and between 1 and 1 1/4 tsp of extra salt a day is about right for me to feel 'normal'. Less than that, I start dehydrating. More than that, I start flushing. As long as I that sweet spot, I can switch to plain water and do fine.
The endocrinologist said he didn't see any problem with continuing that, since I didn't have the signs of someone with an *overactive* adrenal, in which case salt is retained too much. He said that my body should take of any excess in exactly the manner I described to him, and it sounded like I had a handle on it.
So to summarize: Sports drinks don't have enough sodium, they have potassium, and doc said it should be fine. *shrug*
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Date: 2006-07-11 04:39 pm (UTC)Given a body in working order, drinking salted water will just cause the body to flush the excess by dumping water - that doesn't happen with me until I pass the mark of about 32oz of water with a full teaspoon of table salt dissolved in it. To get that much sodium from Gatorade I'd have to drink a few gallons. I've been experimenting a lot with the amount of salt intake, and between 1 and 1 1/4 tsp of extra salt a day is about right for me to feel 'normal'. Less than that, I start dehydrating. More than that, I start flushing. As long as I that sweet spot, I can switch to plain water and do fine.
The endocrinologist said he didn't see any problem with continuing that, since I didn't have the signs of someone with an *overactive* adrenal, in which case salt is retained too much. He said that my body should take of any excess in exactly the manner I described to him, and it sounded like I had a handle on it.
So to summarize: Sports drinks don't have enough sodium, they have potassium, and doc said it should be fine. *shrug*