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American Morning
House Call: Take Your Water With a Grain of Salt
Aired July 18, 2003 - 09:50 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Being well-hydrated can help you achieve peak athletic performance. But beware about drinking too much before, during or after exercise. Medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta has more in his "House Call" this morning.
That surprises me. You think hydrate, hydrate, hydrate so that you can exercise better.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. And this is surprisingly controversial. drinking and exercising, you would think it wouldn't be that controversial. In fact, it's actually a widely researched thing.
Back in 1960, people believed you shouldn't drink at all before you exercise because it interferes with your peak athletic performance. About ten years later they said actually go ahead drink a lot of water during exercise because it improves it.
And now they're sort of coming back around a little bit and saying drink but be careful how much you drink because it can actually cause problems.
This is interesting, actually. There's a condition known as hyponatremia. That's were your body has not enough salt in it. And that can occur because the body's getting too much water and not enough salt.
And that's why there's been advent, huge advent as you know now. All these sports drinks that are coming out. There are people trying to hydrate in different ways.
These are tips, incidentally, to avoiding hyponatremia, and taking in salt, basically, is the bottom line. Trying to get in those electrolytes. So the hyponatremia's the bad news, Soledad. The good news is that it's very, very rare. It happened to a Boston marathoner in 2002. You may remember that story. She was a woman runner, she ran a pretty decent race and then she died at the end of this. They said because her salt levels in her body were too low.
O'BRIEN: So is the takeaway out of this if you're going to exercise, skip the water and go for the sports drinks?
GUPTA: Well, for most people, and I dare say over 90 percent of people, water's going to be just fine. Water's going to be enough for most average exercisers.
If you're a superathlete, then you probably should be drinking enough water, certainly. But possibly supplement that as well with salt. As some of the triathletes we talked to for this piece said they at the end of a triathlon were actually eating cups of salt because their body was just craving it. They just wanted that salt.
Four hundred to 800 milliliters of exercising more than an hour. Most of these bottles here, we have a bunch of different products here. About 500 milliliters. So one of these is going to be good enough.
These waters, these mineral waters, vitamin waters, things like that are the fastest growing segments in the beverage industry today. I mean they're widely popular. But again the reality is for most who exercise on average probably don't need anything more than just regular water.
O'BRIEN: Is the advice to -- it's better to hydrate before and don't worry about during? Is it better to hydrate during and don't worry about before? Or should you do it the entire time before, during and after?
GUPTA: Most people say do it the entire time, before, during and after. It probably will help with your peak performance. Most people say you shouldn't really wait until you feel thirsty to start drinking. I think that's probably good advice.
Can anything be overdone? Probably. I think they've seen that. A couple of deaths, very rare, with this low salt syndrome. But again, that's a pretty rare thing.
O'BRIEN: Right, we should emphasize that. Very, very rare.
All right, Sanjay, thanks. It's always -- have nice weekend. Nice to have you today, and nice to have you here in New York.
GUPTA: You too. Take care. I love being here, yes.
O'BRIEN: Well, good.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired July 18, 2003 - 09:50 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Being well-hydrated can help you achieve peak athletic performance. But beware about drinking too much before, during or after exercise. Medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta has more in his "House Call" this morning.
That surprises me. You think hydrate, hydrate, hydrate so that you can exercise better.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. And this is surprisingly controversial. drinking and exercising, you would think it wouldn't be that controversial. In fact, it's actually a widely researched thing.
Back in 1960, people believed you shouldn't drink at all before you exercise because it interferes with your peak athletic performance. About ten years later they said actually go ahead drink a lot of water during exercise because it improves it.
And now they're sort of coming back around a little bit and saying drink but be careful how much you drink because it can actually cause problems.
This is interesting, actually. There's a condition known as hyponatremia. That's were your body has not enough salt in it. And that can occur because the body's getting too much water and not enough salt.
And that's why there's been advent, huge advent as you know now. All these sports drinks that are coming out. There are people trying to hydrate in different ways.
These are tips, incidentally, to avoiding hyponatremia, and taking in salt, basically, is the bottom line. Trying to get in those electrolytes. So the hyponatremia's the bad news, Soledad. The good news is that it's very, very rare. It happened to a Boston marathoner in 2002. You may remember that story. She was a woman runner, she ran a pretty decent race and then she died at the end of this. They said because her salt levels in her body were too low.
O'BRIEN: So is the takeaway out of this if you're going to exercise, skip the water and go for the sports drinks?
GUPTA: Well, for most people, and I dare say over 90 percent of people, water's going to be just fine. Water's going to be enough for most average exercisers.
If you're a superathlete, then you probably should be drinking enough water, certainly. But possibly supplement that as well with salt. As some of the triathletes we talked to for this piece said they at the end of a triathlon were actually eating cups of salt because their body was just craving it. They just wanted that salt.
Four hundred to 800 milliliters of exercising more than an hour. Most of these bottles here, we have a bunch of different products here. About 500 milliliters. So one of these is going to be good enough.
These waters, these mineral waters, vitamin waters, things like that are the fastest growing segments in the beverage industry today. I mean they're widely popular. But again the reality is for most who exercise on average probably don't need anything more than just regular water.
O'BRIEN: Is the advice to -- it's better to hydrate before and don't worry about during? Is it better to hydrate during and don't worry about before? Or should you do it the entire time before, during and after?
GUPTA: Most people say do it the entire time, before, during and after. It probably will help with your peak performance. Most people say you shouldn't really wait until you feel thirsty to start drinking. I think that's probably good advice.
Can anything be overdone? Probably. I think they've seen that. A couple of deaths, very rare, with this low salt syndrome. But again, that's a pretty rare thing.
O'BRIEN: Right, we should emphasize that. Very, very rare.
All right, Sanjay, thanks. It's always -- have nice weekend. Nice to have you today, and nice to have you here in New York.
GUPTA: You too. Take care. I love being here, yes.
O'BRIEN: Well, good.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
