here's the problem with articles like this, THEY LACK SPECIFICS.......now you're going to have a bunch of people out there exercising and afraid to drink anything based on how this study is being presented.
Runners, hikers, bikers, even soldiers on long maneuvers should think twice before reaching for that water bottle: A study confirms that drinking too much can be dangerous, even deadly, for endurance athletes.
Researchers who studied 488 runners in the 2002 Boston Marathon found that 62, or more than one in eight, had a serious fluid and salt imbalance from drinking too much water or sports drinks. Three of them had extreme imbalances.
One 28-year-old woman died after the race from the condition, called hyponatremia, in which the excess water dilutes the salt level in the body too much.
"More is definitely not better when it comes to fluids, but it's a hard message to get across," said Leslie Bonci, director of sports nutrition at Pittsburgh Medical Center.
Endurance athletes have long been warned about getting dehydrated, and many tend to drink more on race day than they do during training.
The study was reported in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.
The researchers, led by Dr. Christopher Almond, a cardiologist at Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital Boston, tested Boston Marathon runners' blood after the race and collected information on their condition, race time and liquid intake.
They found hyponatremia was most serious in runners who gained substantial weight — 4 1/2 pounds to 11 pounds — from drinking lots of water along the route. Extremely thin runners also were at high risk. Runners who drank sports drinks, which contain very little salt, were not less likely to develop hyponatremia.
Bonci and Almond said a good way to prevent problems is for athletes to weigh themselves before and after training sessions. If they gain significant weight, they should cut back on water intake until they find the right balance — long before race day.
The goal is simply to replace water lost to sweating.
Hyponatremia can begin with confusion and lethargy and progress rapidly to twitching, seizures, stupor, coma and death.
Severe cases are believed to have become more common with the growing popularity of endurance sports. In recent years, hyponatremia has killed several amateur marathon runners, as well as competitors in the Marine Corps Marathon.
How do you gain 4 1/2 to 11 pounds by drinking water while running a marathon??
This doesn't make any sense to me. I don't think I could gain 11 pounds if I drank water continuously for 5 straight hours while sitting on a couch, let alone running a marathon.
Originally posted by jruck37: One thing really jumped out at me:
How do you gain 4 1/2 to 11 pounds by drinking water while running a marathon??
This doesn't make any sense to me. I don't think I could gain 11 pounds if I drank water continuously for 5 straight hours while sitting on a couch, let alone running a marathon.
If you didn't get up to pee you would.
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Originally posted by jruck37: One thing really jumped out at me:
How do you gain 4 1/2 to 11 pounds by drinking water while running a marathon??
This doesn't make any sense to me. I don't think I could gain 11 pounds if I drank water continuously for 5 straight hours while sitting on a couch, let alone running a marathon.
Absolutely not a problem. I've dropped 10lbs of water before by not drinking it so I don't see any reason why it couldn't go the other way, especially if I was just sitting on the couch. Besides, how much does your weight fluctuate during the day normally?
Imagine the carnage! Shut down the water stations! Of course you wouldn't have this problem if you drank beer instead of water, you just wouldn't make it to the finish line but hey, who cares, don't look, I've got to pee.
I take electrolyte tabs on long races and eat stuff too. Pringles are great and get a good bit of salt in you. (I'm not joiking about that part!)
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Originally posted by Tony Soprano: 1 gallon of water weighs 8.3 pounds
But if water has zero calories, and the average person burns 3,000+ calories during the course of a marathon, I don't see how you could gain that much weight while running. I'm not saying that it can't be done. It's just hard to comprehend.
Also, if you held it in during the whole race, wouldn't you want to pee immediately after crossing the finish line? Would you threaten the record for longest pee of alltime, and in the process lose all of the water weight you just gained? [img]tongue.gif[/img]
It's water weight. I gain 5-7 lbs each day and sometimes even more if I hit the carbs hard. It's all water. Check your weight in the morning and then at night and you'll see it. It doesn't matter if you're eating solid food or not.
that's really the kicker for me, vs the gaining weight.
I'm sweating right now...sitting in a chilled room, without an overshirt, haven't moved short of eating and going to the bathroom in 7 hours. When I un-ass myself an excersise it's a constant battle to stay hydrated.
If I wasn't overweight then I would be concerned about my thyroid condition if I could sweat in a cool room like that. I've had that problem before but it involved lots of caffeine and ephedra.
SACRAMENTO, California (AP) -- A woman who competed in a radio station's contest to see how much water she could drink without going to the bathroom died of water intoxication, the coroner's office said Saturday.
Jennifer Strange, 28, was found dead Friday in her suburban Rancho Cordova home hours after taking part in the "Hold Your Wee for a Wii" contest in which KDND 107.9 promised a Nintendo Wii video game system for the winner.
"She said to one of our supervisors that she was on her way home and her head was hurting her real bad," said Laura Rios, one of Strange's co-workers at Radiological Associates of Sacramento. "She was crying, and that was the last that anyone had heard from her."
It was not immediately known how much water Strange consumed.
A preliminary investigation found evidence "consistent with a water intoxication death," said assistant Coroner Ed Smith.
John Geary, vice president and marketing manager for Entercom Sacramento, the station's owner, said station personnel were stunned when they heard of Strange's death.
"We are awaiting information that will help explain how this tragic event occurred," he said.
Initially, contestants were handed 8-ounce bottles of water to drink every 15 minutes.
"They were small little half-pint bottles, so we thought it was going to be easy," said fellow contestant James Ybarra of Woodland. "They told us if you don't feel like you can do this, don't put your health at risk."
Ybarra said he quit after drinking five bottles. "My bladder couldn't handle it anymore," he added.
After he quit, he said, the remaining contestants, including Strange, were given even bigger bottles to drink.
"I was talking to her and she was a nice lady," Ybarra said. "She was telling me about her family and her three kids and how she was doing it for her kids."
That article also lacks specifics. ie How much water did she drink, any pre-exisiting conditions? How did the biggest loser make out (2nd place)
I smell a CSI epsiode!
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I read that it's a possible cause that when you're using fuel you create water as a biproduct so when you're losing water during steady state exercise you might not actually be losing as much fluids as you think.
Assuming that the person was super hydrated to begin with and then drank more and more...sure, why not.
I still don't think it's something to freak out about.
That article also lacks specifics. ie How much water did she drink, any pre-exisiting conditions? How did the biggest loser make out (2nd place)
I smell a CSI epsiode!
Yeah, it's a pretty vague article. I wouldn't be surprised if she'd taken some sort of substance with intention to beat the contest. Maybe she didn't read the "Do not eat" labels on the silica gel.
CSI episode, indeed!
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I don't see how someone could gain even close to 11 lbs running a marathon or doing some other type of long-endurance sport. You'd have to drink about a gallon and a half of water which would be difficult, but maybe possible, to do while exercising. But you'd also be losing some fluid. I could see the 4.5 lb part but anywhere around 10 lbs seems like a stretch.
One of the joys of the metric system ... at 4 degrees celsius, 1 litre of water = 1 kilogram = 1000 cc. Beautifully simple.
So, at 2.2 pounds to the kilogram, 11 pounds of water would equate to 5kgs; or in other words, 5 litres.
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