Too much water? – Viewpoint of Dr Mercola

When I ran the Half Marathon of July on Sunday July 1st as part of the Bandra-NCPA run all that I consumed was water..just plain water. Even though the following were on offer I DID NOT consume

1. Energy drinks

2. Rasna mix

3. Dates / Oranges etc

After the run I did not have any Gatorade / Electral etc…and believe I was fine and recovered well. And that too as many of you probably know, on a Vegan diet.

I strongly believe that most of the time, such additional dietary inputs are not needed for endurance running, even upto a Full Marathon distance.

With the publication of ‘Waterlogged’ by Prof Tim Noakes, the sports medicine fraternity is taking a serious look at different aspects of hydration for runners.

More specifically :

1. Do you need to drink all that water?

2. Can you be drinking too much?

3. Is that Sports drink really needed?

4. How much of the underlying research is ‘fixed’?

5. Do you need to really replenish those body salts with electral / Gatorade after a Half Marathon?

Here is Dr Mercola‘s review of the situation in perspective of the recently released book.

http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2012/07/13/athletes-drinking-too-much-water.aspx?np=true

And can this happen in India too?

Here is what Arvind Bharati has to say about Hyponatremia in one of their runs