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This great article from Cloud9Fitness will give you information about sports drinks and how to keep yourself hydrated during the hot summer.
Sports Drinks Sitting on the cusp of summer, many people become increasingly involved in outdoor activities. Longer days coupled with a greater use of vacation time often lead weekend warriors and athletes in training to increase their exposure to potentially punishing heat and humidity. Sports coaches and trainers know this danger all too well and do their best to prevent dehydration by providing their athletes with ample fluids to replenish losses. The efforts to rehydrate are aimed at preventing heat stroke; a condition which has made many high profile appearances including the cause of death of a Minnesota Vikings Offensive Tackle Korey Stringer. After depletion of body fluids, the body's failure to thermoregulate by sweating and vasodilation may lead to heat stroke. Surprisingly this can occur after only a 1% of fluid loss or approximately one liter of sweat in a 150 pound athlete. As a result, hydration has been and will continue to be an issue that athletes and their coaches must overcome in order to prevent medical complications resulting from dehydration. Using professional sport endorsement and marketing, products like Gatorade and PowerAde have made water a seemingly obsolete form of re-hydration. Sports products do have specific formulations of flavor, carbohydrates, and electrolytes with the athlete’s performance in mind, but what components are the most beneficial or harmful? Carbohydrates Regardless of its fitness or activity level the human body uses circulating glucose from diet and liver stores. Muscles are professionals in converting available carbohydrates into motion. Muscle fatigue, however, sets in as its energy source is depleted. Unlike water, sports drinks do contain extra carbohydrates for muscle fuel in the forms of glucose, sucrose, and fructose. After an hour of exercise, consuming carbohydrates within 5-6 hours allows for the muscle energy stores to be replenished at a quicker rate. Specific suggestions include 1 gm for every 1 kg or 2.2 pounds the athlete weighs. A past concern about beverages with carbohydrates was the rate of re-hydration. Pure water is emptied quickly from the stomach allowing re-absorption by the body. Physiologically, caloric content in the stomach activates gastric digestion and closure of the stomach’s outflow valve. Studies initially performed by the Gatorade Sport Science Institute found that in a solution with up to 6% carbohydrate content the rate of gastric emptying was not impaired when compared to water. These findings have led to the industry's use of 6% solutions to rush fuel back into the system for sustained activity or muscle recovery while re-hydrating the body. Electrolytes Electrolytes are the salts and ions found in human circulation (i.e. sodium, potassium, and chloride). The composition of electrolytes in sports drinks helps distinguish them from other juice beverages. The presence of a low sodium concentration in the blood, hyponatremia, can have horrible effects. This can lead to confusion, nausea, vomiting, seizures, and possibly death. This syndrome can be seen in extreme distance athletes and triathlon competitors. The first theory of the cause was the loss of sodium in sweat. As a result, the sports drink industry has focused on the replenishment of such minerals through the use of sports drinks that contain electrolytes in concentrations similar to those lost by sweating. Ideally, the beverages can now combat dehydration and hyponatremia simultaneously. Unfortunately the body during exercise undergoes many changes. The kidneys of an active athlete begin to retain fluids during prolonged exercise, presumably to retain circulation volume. This mechanism, along with the increased intake of sports drinks, can over compensate for fluid losses. Although sports drinks can mimic the sodium concentration lost in sweat, this sodium concentration is less than the sodium concentration in the blood. The result is that with over compensation during exercise the ingestion of sports drinks can dilute the circulatory electrolytes. Inadvertently this can lead to hyponatremia, the very problem sports drinks were designed to avoid. Because sport drinks have higher electrolyte content than water the hope is that the induced hyponatremia would occur no more often or severely than if the substance had never been introduced. However, the public belief is that constant hydration is necessary during all physical activities. As the Gatorade Sport Science Institute’s own research shows, elements as simple as flavor are correlated with higher amounts of intake of sports drinks compared to water. This is very concerning in triathletes and distance performers who can become hyponatremic in 10 to 41% of athletic competition. To meet the actual sodium and hydration needs of athletes, Gatorade TM has pioneered the Endurance TM brand, a soft drink that contains 800mg/L of sodium and a more physiologic amount of total electrolytes. Although this beverage has not been specifically tested for any effect in exercise induced hyponatremia, studies performed on other sources of up to 700mg of sodium per hour still did not report a reduction in the risk of hyponatremia. Despite the ability of sports beverages to hydrate and optimally deliver carbohydrates, their content of electrolytes, nevertheless, has no proven effect on performance of any given athlete. In fact, consumption of sports drinks may increase the potential for complication if used during prolonged physical activity.
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