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| Source: gedlab.com |
An international panel of experts is urging athletes to ditch long-held hydration advice for a safer strategy: only drink water when thirsty during exercise.
The new guidelines, published in the Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine, state that drinking excessive amounts of water or sports drinks during workouts can lead to a life-threatening condition known as exercise-associated hyponatremia.
The condition occurs when too much fluid is ingested, overwhelming the body's ability to rid itself of excess water and flushing the blood of vital sodium stores. Symptoms include lightheadedness, dizziness, nausea, puffiness and weight gain during athletic events, such as marathons. More severe symptoms include vomiting, headache, confusion, agitation, delirium, seizure or coma.
The new guidelines fly in the face of conventional advice encouraging athletes to drink more than they need during exercise to prevent dehydration, fatigue, muscle cramps or heat stroke, often using clear urine as a gauge.
According to the guidelines' authors, most studies don't report the accurate number of deaths associated with the condition. What's more, they report exercise-associated hyponatremia is responsible for the deaths of at least 14 athletes, including marathon runners and football players.
"These are deaths in young healthy people in the 'prime' of their life, and most importantly, they are 100 [percent] preventable," the authors wrote. Of note, two otherwise healthy 17-year-old high school football players died last year from the condition.
"The common denominator was excessive fluid consumption; a peril that has been well described in athletes and had been the subject of [two] previous consensus documents on exercise-associated hyponatremia," the authors wrote.
"Muscle cramps and heatstroke are not related to dehydration," James Winger, lead author of the guidelines and an associate professor in the department of family medicine of Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, said in a press release. "You get heat stroke because you're producing too much heat."
However, research supports the notion that it's OK to lose up to 3 percent of your body weight due to dehydration during endurance sports, the authors wrote.
The bottom line? If you've got a marathon, canoe race or hiking trip planned, only drink when you're thirsty.
By: Samantha Costa
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