Follow-up on hydration strategy

Well, the results are in. The medical perspective is: camels can store extra water, humans can’t. There is a remote danger of hyponatremia (water intoxication) if you overdo water and exercise all at once. You can throw off your sodium balance. If the remote danger of water intoxication does strike, the effects can be severe, including death.

The winning logic perspective is: you’ve got to carry it one way or the other; may as well leave it in the bottle until you need it.

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From: Steve Taylor [mailto:spt@thetaylorcompany.net]
Sent: Saturday, July 07, 2007 4:30 PM
To: Bill Taylor (Bill Taylor); David Taylor (David Taylor); Tom Taylor (Tom Taylor)
Subject: what do you think?

What do you think about hydration?

A couple years ago we were at the rim of the Grand Canyon, getting ready to start down. It was early, we had water to carry and a little bit of food, we were ready. Met a young guy also getting ready. He was guzzling a gallon jug of water; said he was hypersaturating so he wouldn’t have to carry water; said he learned to do this in survival school in the military.

I suppose this could be a legitimate strategy, but it just doesn’t sound right. Can you really super-saturate your body tissues? Wouldn’t you just absorb what you could and pee out the rest within the first couple hours? (Not even considering the recent reports about throwing your electrolytes out of balance by over-hydrating for exercise.)

What do you think?