? on dietary metals

Without boring y'all with the full story, I spent 4 hours at a fire yesterday in 90F heat and full gear. I drank *LOTS* of water, passing on the Gatorade because of the sugar. I also spent the evening in the ER with muscle cramps that  had me in knots; the culprit was a lack of magnesium and to a lesser extent, potassium. Sodium was fine. What I want to know is, does malabsorbsion affect electrolytes? Or, is this another case of an old guy overdoing things? Any advice? My instinct right now is to get hold of some electrolyte tabs and keep them in my turnout gear. The last thing I want to do is swill Gatorade on an empty stomach and dump at a scene.

Sweating loses electrolytes fast.  I don't think it was so much your WLS as you weren't doing what the other guys were doing, getting more electrolytes and adding some carb fuel for your muscles. I would definitely look for alternative ways to add some electrolytes, and probably also some carbs for long jobs.  I'd consider experimenting during your down time with mixing water and gatoraid in different ratios, you might find you can tolerate it find dilluted say 2 to 1.  I think there are also low-calorie alternatives out their that have electrolytes; check the section with the Crystal Light in your grocery store or Wal-Mart and see if one of the other brands (Propel, Vita-whatever) has an electrolyte powder.  Didn't their used to be a gatoraid light?  Mineral pills are an option, but they often contain very little material compared to natural or liquid sources. How do you handle fruit? A quick banana with your water could give you potassium and some carbs to keep you going.

You could also premix your own low-calorie stuff by mixing water, Crystal Light (to cover the bad flavor of...) table salt, and NoSalt (a salt substitute made from potassium chloride).

You can get a potassium supplement.  As far as the electrolytes are concerned, you can look it up on www.WebMD.com .  Another source of info and products is www.netrition.com .  It has supplements and info on what it sells.

Hi Bob,

Sorry, don't have any documentation, but since we do get dehydrated a lot more easily post RNY, I'm sure all of the other electrolytes are more easily depleted. And, since we have about half of the intestinal length of non-op, we are more prone to having out electrolytes "washed away" with plain water. This is a really really dangerous condition called hypernatremia. Might want to check: (ok, said I had not documentation, but googled it anyway)

 http://www.hhp.ufl.edu/faculty/pbird/keepingfit/ARTICLE/too muchwater.htm 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_intoxication

http://heartspring.net/thirst_electrolytes_elderly.html

Good Luck,

Dave 

 

Thanks for all of the replies so far. I've looked to the electrolyte tablets, available from health, fitness, and outdoors stores/web sites. 500 tabs are typically $15-20, and at that price, I'll donate 3 boxes to the resue squad out of my pocket to have on hand at the next fire. We go through a lot of Gatorade at  a fire, but since I can't control what they bring, I won't touch it.