Aint All Bad
by Phil Stevens
Another of my client's blood results brought this topic up for me again. A topic I seem to face quite often enough I thought I might write something about it.
Write something not to be an end all be all instructional manual on your proper sodium intake (there are others much more qualified than me in that area) but to shed some light, and possibly get people to open an eye to their own possible mistakes when it comes to sodium intake. To possibly get them to do some research of their own possible symptoms of a deficiency and get a simple test done.
Symptoms:
The early warning signs are often subtle and may be similar to dehydration; nausea, muscle cramps, disorientation, slurred speech, confusion, and inappropriate behavior.
At this point, many athletes get into trouble by drinking water because they think they are dehydrated. In fact, water alone will increase the problem of hyponatremia. At the most extreme an athlete may experience seizures, coma, or death.(1) The symptoms can be anywhere from minute to extreme. If you have a case of simple muscle cramping I would suggest a direct look at your sodium first and then other micronutrients.
You here it time and time again, LOW sodium this, no sodium that. Oh man that's a lot of salt your killing yourself. True an excess of salt, a very large over abundance of sodium in the diet, is doing an in service and could lead to real health problems, especially in those (like most of the studies that state it as a hazard) who have pre-existing high blood pressure / hypertension, or renal problems and continue to have a highly processed diet loaded in excess sodium.
Is Sodium Toxic?
Sodium is generally nontoxic in healthy adult individuals because the extra is excreted through the urine. (3)
The problem arises due to the fact these same people lose sight of, or ignore, the fact that sodium is an ESSENTIAL electrolyte in your body needed for proper functions such as:
1. proper distribution of water in the body, as well as blood pressure.
2. maintaining the proper acid-base balance
3. in the transmission of nerve impulses including muscle contraction
4. Maintenance of normal fluid balance on either side of cell walls
5. Sodium helps to keep calcium and other minerals soluble in the blood
6. stimulates the functioning of the adrenal glands.
7. Sodium helps in preventing heat stroke.
8. And more, such as being beneficial for the treatment of diarrhea, muscle cramps, dehydration, and fever, since it has the property of holding water in body tissues.
So you can see this can be problematic when working with not only healthy, but active or even elite individuals. We in fact are not the same as the sick and / or sedentary individuals most studies which are used for their populous of the studies, and we have varied different needs. We are in actuality nearly polar opposite habits.
First and foremost, we sweat more. We work and terrain hard. In this action we both use and expel sodium from the body in large amount. As much as 1-2 grams for each liter of water we expel be it in urine or sweat. Then many make the mistake of adding that liquid back in with a fluid devoid of sodium which then further leads to the dilution of our sodium levels. By making the salt we do have a smaller part of the hydration whole.
Second. We tend to be a LOT more health conscious as it pertains to diet. This means in general unlike our typical overweight sedentary counterparts we pay a lot more attention to what were putting in our pie whole. Were not knocking back sugar and salt laden drinks and foods that top of and spill over our sodium levels despite our escalated need in comparison. Many of us take the "sodium is BAD" thing as far as we have, or do, the "FAT IS BAD" fallacy, which is at the least doing ourselves a disservice as far as it relates to performance and then possible health issues such as, Hyponatremia, a low concentration of sodium in the blood.
Although hyponatremia is not likely to be a major risk factor for the general population, and possibly even many of us hard training iron heads, even those of us who tend to sweat like a whore in church. There is again, a HUGE difference between health risk, and being in an optimal performance state. A performance drop would come well before a genuine health risk, and studies have shown even a small decrease in our optimal levels of sodium can lead to such a decline. I don't know about you but I have no desire to have my muscles tightening up, my fluid retention at the cellular level to decline, and with it my neural efficiency when I am trying to give my all to break a new personal, local, state, national, or even world record. Do you?
NOTE***Ultra-endurance athletes and people with occupational physical activity and heat exposure should however take an even higher attention to sodium reuptake.
I'm sure you don't, so step back take an objective look at your intake. Spend a few dollars and get a Blood pressure and sodium test done. In my opinion every hard training individual who doesn't have an existing blood pressure or health issue should be rather liberal with your intake of salt as well as getting in its much prettier and fancied step sister potassium. 1
After your training when you have worked up a great sweat as well make an effort to replace you lost sodium levels to assure you continue to hydrate, function, and recover at an optimal level.
Studies in this area suggest that if water is consumed, the volume ingested needs to exceed the fluid deficit by approximately 150% to compensate for the urinary losses that will occur with water ingestion. Inclusion of sodium…. in the rehydration beverage reduces urinary water loss, leading to more rapid recovery of the fluid balance. Data are presented…suggest a quantifiable interactive relationship between sodium content and fluid volume in promoting rapid recovery of fluid balance after exercise and thermal-induced dehydration.
Some steps to I would take to assess and avoid sodium deficiency:
• There are no steadfast guidelines for everyone, so learn your individual fluid needs. I suggest getting a simple blood test done at your usual intake.
• Increase salt intake several days prior to competition. The increased sodium concentration will allow additional hydration with water to remain balanced so that the dilution of blood sodium does not occur.
• Use a sodium containing sports drinks during high intensity or long distance events.
• Eat salty foods before, during, and following competition if possible.
• Weigh yourself before and after training and drink enough sodium based fluids to offset any fluid loss during exercise
REFERENCES
1. Sodium - Salt - Needs for Ultra-Endurance Athletes, Elizabeth Quinn; About.com
2. Role of Sodium in Fluid Homeostasis with Exercise, Rick L. Sharp, PhD; Journal of the American College of Nutrition, Vol. 25, No. 90003, 231S-239S (2006)
3. Sodium, Benefits Of Sodium , Sodium Deficiency And Sodium Food Sources, Candy Williams; isnarearticles
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