NEWSFLASH: drink when you're thirsty! [insert rolleyes smiley here]

[Quiet Storm]

I guess most of you have heard of the serious health threat overhydration (hyponatremia) can pose. For as long as I can remember, scientists have always stressed the importance of drinking before you become thirsty during physical activity, as thirst was considered evidence that you're already dehydrated.

And now this (source: Runner's World Magazine article):

On May 6, the International Marathon Medical Directors Association (IMMDA) released its long-awaited hydration guidelines, which concluded that runners should, simply, drink when thirsty. "The new scientific evidence says that thirst will actually protect athletes from the hazards of both over- and underdrinking," says the IMMDA announcement.

[my emphasis]

Thanks for figuring that out.

 

[mete]

My thirst mechanism has always worked well. BTW the often made comment about needing 8 glasses of water per day was just a number picked out of the air !! Needs for water like any other nutrient vary from individual to individual !!!

 

[T.K.C.]

I am NEVER not thirsty!! Seriously!! I am not diabetic either.

 

[warrior24]

well lets see its 115 during the summer so I drink a glass every half hour

 

[stevengregory]

God and nature have provided us with the best guidelines on when and how much to drink. My point being that nature trumps science. They try to tell us what to eat, how much to eat, when to drink and how much, but your body simply knows better.

 

[Cougar Allen]

Those guys have to reckon with odds that most of us never think about. If you give people medical advice and one in a million takes it to such an extreme he kills himself ... how many people run in marathons every year? How many people will your advice kill?

For a long time all the people who were found dead or in bad shape during a marathon were dehydrated, so the official advice was always about drink more! Drink more! Then some people took the standard advice to mean they should drink water by the gallon, and three or four of the people found dead with heart attacks during a marathon were found to be overhydrated, so they changed the official advice.

It isn't a change in the way we understand physiology. You could say it's a change in the way we understand mass psychology, but only in a very minor detail. It was well known that you have to be very careful about giving medical advice to large numbers of people because there's always somebody who will take it to extremes....

Now that the official advice has changed there will be fewer found dead with overhydration, but probably more found dead with dehydration. We can only hope the total found dead will be lower.

 

[Quiet Storm]

I see your point Coug, but I guess those who died from dehydration would still be alive if they had been drinking whenever they became thirsty (which is what both common sense and the new "scientific guidelines" suggest), unless they had some kind of medical condition.

God and nature have provided us with the best guidelines on when and how much to drink. My point being that nature trumps science. They try to tell us what to eat, how much to eat, when to drink and how much, but your body simply knows better.

I couldn't have said it better.

 

[orthogonal1]

Yeah, but some people don't "feel" thirst (or hunger, for that matter).

 

[Mongo]

And Cougar, that is why you'll never see Mongo running a Marathon.... I don't want to die while jogging/running. Since this is community, I cannot say HOW I'd like to die...

 

[Quiet Storm]

Yeah, but some people don't "feel" thirst (or hunger, for that matter).

I see your point Coug, but I guess those who died from dehydration would still be alive if they had been drinking whenever they became thirsty (which is what both common sense and the new "scientific guidelines" suggest), unless they had some kind of medical condition.

I don't think every little piece of health advice scientists give takes into account every single one of the countless medical conditions out there.
Is drinking a glass of milk a day generally considered healthy? Sure. Is it healthy if you're lactose intolerant? Not at all.

And if you don't feel thirst, you have probably already figured that one out yourself...

 

[uncle Alan]

God and nature have provided us with the best guidelines on when and how much to drink. My point being that nature trumps science. They try to tell us what to eat, how much to eat, when to drink and how much, but your body simply knows better.

At one time I could not be coaxed or bullied into eating greens b


ut recent years I tried eating them. Not great but okay. In my waning years I craved them. I asked my druggist [ a good one makes doctors look stupid ] about the craving & he looked up my medications. " Uncle Alan,this one here depletes the iron from your system & Ma nature is protecting you ."



Uncle Alan

 

[stevengregory]

At one time I could not be coaxed or bullied into eating greens b

ut recent years I tried eating them. Not great but okay. In my waning years I craved them. I asked my druggist [ a good one makes doctors look stupid ] about the craving & he looked up my medications. " Uncle Alan,this one here depletes the iron from your system & Ma nature is protecting you ."

Uncle Alan

I had a really bad flu maybe eight years ago, or so. Normally, I'm not much of a citrus type of guy, but during that flu I could not get enough grapefruit juice. I had my wife buying it for me by the half gallons and drank it like water and nothing ever tasted so good in my life. I have to think it was my own body telling me what it needed---vitamin C.