[pct-l] Re: Water, chills and salt

[brick@fastpack.com (Brick Robbins)]

 >At 02:20 PM 3/4/01 , Navigator wrote:
 >Oddly enough, I was using Conquest (potassium
 >salts) and that still didn't help.

If you read the Noaks reference and do "the numbers", I think you will find 
that the "Conquest" sport drink (or any other sport drink) does not have 
enough salt.

There is a tradeoff between increasing fluid absorption rate, which 
requires a lower percentage of salt, and electrolyte replacement, which 
requires a higher percentage of salt.

Since DEHYDRATION is the main concern for most athletic endeavours, (which 
are relatively short term, 3-4 hours at most) fluid absorption is the main 
focus, so sport drinks have been designed with this in mind.

However, for a long distance hike, day after day, electrolyte replacement 
becomes a significant problem.

Probably the best way around this is to drink a "sport drink" during the 
day to keep hydrated (you will absorb the fluid in a sport drink much 
faster than plain water) , and pile on the salt at mealtime to keep the 
electrolyte balance up.

YMMV.

-Brick