Interesting Research on Sodium Supplementation
I listened to the Trail Runner Nation podcast "Is Supplementary Salt Needed in a Race? with Coach Andy DuBois" on my commute this morning. It presents the current research on sodium supplementation, and it completely challenged my thinking.
Here are the key take aways:
- Sodium supplementation during a race is unnecessary. We consume about 10X the amount of sodium we need as part of our normal diet. It is not needed even for multi-day endurance events, unless you're on an extremely low sodium diet.
- There is no evidence that sodium prevents cramping. Research has shown no correlation between sodium levels in the blood and cramping.
- Cramping is caused primarily by:
- Improper tapering leading to lingering fatigue. The last long run should be 3-4 weeks out, which aligns with the EN guidance.
- Starting too fast. The EN guidance of starting stoopid slow basically.
- Not training on similar terrain. For example, running a downhill marathon but not training for downhill running. As the brain gets fatigued, it has a more difficult time sending signals for situations it is not accustomed to.
- Cramping can be relieved by passing sodium across the back of the mouth. You don't need to actually swallow it. Just swish it around your mouth and spit. The example is pickle juice. The mechanism is unclear. It may be the placebo effect, but it works.
- The importance of plyometric training for running. This maintains elasticity in the Achilles and related. The plyo I've done in the past was pretty extreme with box jumps etc. But the podcast talks about just doing something like jumping rope. I've jumped rope in the past, and found it fun and a good workout. It might be interesting to work in some 15-20 minute sessions.
TRN has some really excellent podcasts for not only runners but any endurance athlete. They're definitely worth checking out.
The evidence on sodium really blew my mind. Have any ENers experimented with racing without sodium supplementation? It seems like it would be pretty hard with all the sports drinks loaded with sodium.
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Like all good pendulum's I think the sodium intake pendulum has swung way too far and most HIM/IM athletes are consuming too much... What started out as we need sodium/electrolytes , turned into I better get more for insurance , to hey if a little is good then more must be better...
The good thing is we do so much training that its up to each and everyone of us to figure out what works best for us. Just like nutrition there is no one size fits all formula and it must be practiced.
@David and Derrek, yeah, part of what I found provocative about the agreement was that I had taken it as gospel that sodium helps with cramps. According to the podcast, it's just sodium on the palette. The podcast says just rinse your mouth with a salty solution and spit when you feel cramps coming on.
@Tom, the podacst references Noakes' book [I]Water Logged[/I]. He even did a podcast on TRN a few years back. I'll have to add it to my podcast queue.@Tim, yeah, its surprising how much sports science isn't really a science. Agreed, each person has to experiment to find out what works best for them -- humans have the most varied diet of any creature. I personally like sodium in my sports drink as I prefer salty snacks to sweet ones. Regular Gatorade is just too sweet for me. But I've never been able to handle the EN recommendation of 1000mg sodium per hour. It sounds like the only danger is sodium may cause you to retain more water and elevate your risk of hyponatremia. But as long as you're sensible, I think it's okay.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, fellas!
Cramping is "in the muscles" but whenever we talk about muscle contractility, we have to include the neural stimulation component. The brain speaks to the muscles via nerve stimulation. And the world, both inner and outer, speaks thru the brain. So *anything* could cause excessive stimulation of muscle contractility i.e., cramping. And the best way to relieve it might be to ease that neural stimulation somehow. There's a new product coming to market based on that theory.
Back to the salt issue...I dont worry about sodium intake during training or races. The only time I cramp is after I finish, and I make the mistake of trying to extend or flex my ankles too much ...calf cramp!
@Al. I have also been following that new product and waiting for more info. Others can look them up at itsthenerve.com
The only races I took one was during the Chicago Marathon where I was having big cramps, took one and it stopped within 5 mins (placebo ? don't know but at least it went away!!)
I give an example from my own family: when she was 12, my daughter (now 15) started developing really bad stomach cramps that would come up 1-2 hours after her long swim races (1000-1650 yds). The cramps were reproducible and bad. They stopped when we started pumping her with a ~24 ounce sports drink immediately after the race. We continue to follow this recipe and she's never had a cramp again when she got her drink. We don't know whether it's the water, the sugar, or the salt (or, potentially, coincidence). Nor do we really know what the cramps were. We know that if she takes the drink right before the races, it's uncomfortable. Now, where I think we have been smart is that at least we admit we don't know whether it's the sugar, salt or water. It seems hard to imagine a kid losing that much of any of these things in a sub-20 minute race...but there we are...no known cause, and a solution that seems unethical to test very closely.
There are places in other social media where a particular brand of salt tabs have become some sort of mythical miracle cure-all for us endurance athletes. I "got in trouble" for suggesting that if salt helped people, great, but that this salt was pretty much the same as all of them. People are just not rational on this whole salt thing, in part (I think) because we can go to extremes on dehydration, rehydration, and hyponatremia in our sport, and in part because the science isn't entirely worked out. We're in a sport where you really CAN do damage to yourself if you aren't at least semi-intelligent about getting water, nutrition, etc. Who among us hasn't felt a hundred times better eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich after a long ride... but fortunately none of us (I assume) has extrapolated this to thinking we need to eat lots of sandwiches while riding.
I think Tim's got it right, though..."some seems good" has gone way over to "the more the better."
Finally, I just want to quibble a little on the use of the word "theory". When using it in a medical/science context, please use "theory" to mean something a lot closer to "the proposed underlying explanation", rather then "the untested idea". No one argues that there is gravity, but there were different "theories" to explain it. Tim..not picking on you but we should stay away from "So much of this science is just theory" because it really clouds OTHER discussions. I think better wordings might be "So much of this remains speculative." or "None of the theories explaining this have a lot of evidence to back them up" , or even "It seems that there are competing theories to explain cramping, and no one knows which it right."
Being a new comer to endurance sports. Trying to answer the ," to salt or not to salt" " to eat or not to eat" question is very confusing. I have started this OS completely scraping my prior nutrition plan and I am starting over. Currently, I am only drinking GE and carrying an emergency GU and a tube of base salt just in case. I can always sit down and chill for awhile if I bonk. I used to ride 70-100 miles with plain water, a PB&J and a granola bar and felt fine.
Last year I had a terrible time,on long run/rides, with hand swelling and dizziness. The general advice was " MORE SALT" . So I did it. Didn't go so well. Felt terrible, decreasing power etc... In my medical experience (critical care nurse) swelling usually means too much sodium and not enough liquid. So I am re looking at the less is more theory.
My point is, be prepared for cramping but do what makes you feel good and strong. Not what the "scientists" think is good.
stay away from "So much of this science is just theory" because it really clouds OTHER discussions. I think better wordings might be "So much of this remains speculative." or "None of the theories explaining this have a lot of evidence to back them up" , or even "It seems that there are competing theories to explain cramping, and no one knows which it right."
As a very sweaty Irish guy - this topic really hits home. 4 years ago i got really serious about running, hired a coach and really tried to see how fast i could do a marathon. Very long story short - i completely bonked at mile 20 and after being on a solid 3:45 pace - finished at 4:03. The coach i had been using was super anti any Gatorade or anything like that. She sent me videos that broke down how with eating right and training right i would be fine.
Well sometimes you need to listen to your body closer. I finally realized that as someone who can really go crazy with sweating - i needed to get some sodium back into my system and in fact be proactive about it.
This last March i used a combination of UCAN pre workout shakes and salt stick pills during the race and i finished my marathon in 3:47 feeling great. I used to get dizzy at the beginning of some runs and workouts but once i started removing sugar from my diet and drinking UCAN before a workout i stopped having issues.
I noticed that the first post here said that the research stated that we dont need sodium replacement or something to that effect. That seems like a super general statement and borderline dangerous. At least from my experience - a little salt can go a long way.
Now I carry salt tabs, drink sports drinks, etc., etc., etc., and I'm constantly tinkering with it. I don't normally take in 1 g of salt per hour but I do supplement as needed and I'm usually salt encrusted when I finish a long workout unlike when I was not taking extra salt. So I'm not sure what it all means except that you have to find out what works for you.
On the swishing method, I'm not a doctor but I've heard that your mouth absorbs things very readily and quickly. Perhaps swishing pickle juice or Gatorade in your mouth is a very efficient way of getting salt and sugar into the blood stream quickly and that tricks the central governor.