Having spent a number of years as a councilor at a BSA
summer-camp in Kansas, I'm sorry to say that your
common-sense approach will not work.
Thirst has very little to do with the actual level of
body fluids in your system.
At camp drinking water is the prescribed treatment for
all ailments (except missing limbs) and it works very
well 95% of the time.
The easiest way to prevent hyponatremia is not to
drink water but rather an electrolyte cocktail such as
a sports drink. Seasoning your water with a pinch of
salt also works pretty well.
Also of note, caffeine withdrawl can also mimic
dehydration.
--- Jed Rothwell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Stephen A. Lawrence wrote:
>
> >I have one small nit to pick, which is that a
> soaring bird is not at all
> >equivalent to a bicycle "traveling downhill the
> whole way".
> >
> >A soaring bird is taking advantage of wind shear to
> obtain ("free") energy
> >from the atmosphere, which can be used to travel in
> pretty much whatever
> >direction the bird wants. By soaring, birds (and
> sail planes, and, in
> >similar fashion, sailboats) . . .
>
> That's true. I did not mean it quite so literally. I
> just meant that the
> energy comes from outside the system, so this is not
> a fair comparison.
>
> For that matter, the Olympic runners must run faster
> downhill than up. I do
> not know how much faster. But the difference is
> nowhere near as large as it
> is with a bicycle. In other words, most of the
> energy expended while
> running is for "overhead" or mechanical friction in
> the body.
>
> Bicycles have two giant advantages:
>
> 1. Low friction. Only a small amount of rubber meets
> the road, and the
> friction from the chain and wheel bearings is very
> low. Automobile engines
> produce far more friction.
>
> 2. Air cooling. Because he goes so much faster than
> a runner, a bicyclist
> is cooled down by the headwind. This advantage was
> demonstrated
> accidentally when researchers tried to test the
> athletic ability of the
> famous bicyclist Eddy "Iron Man" Merckx in the
> 1960s. They hooked up probes
> and had him ride a stationary bicycle in a clinic.
> He pooped out hours
> earlier than normal, and he was covered with sweat.
> He was upset and the
> researchers were baffled. It wasn't until later that
> everyone realized it
> was because he was not being cooled by the usual 20
> mph headwind.
>
> A few experimental enclosed bicycles and pedaled
> aircraft have shields to
> reduce air resistance, and eliminate this headwind.
> An athlete can go
> faster on one of these, but over a long distance he
> will soon be covered
> with sweat and weakened by an elevated body
> temperature. Sweat is an
> inefficient, last-stage method of cooling the body.
> I believe the cooling
> effect of sweat is enhanced when you wear a light
> cotton shirt, which
> catches and holds the water near the skin rather
> than shedding it. Better
> still to dump a liter of water over the shirt.
>
> Contrary to the advice that has been often been
> published in recent years,
> you should not drink a lot of water while running or
> bicycling intensely.
> Apparently several people who died during marathons
> lately were killed by
> drinking too much water (hyponatremia) rather than
> heatstroke or
> dehydration as originally thought. The symptoms of
> hyponatremia and
> dehydration are similar: "apathy, confusion, nausea,
> and fatigue." The
> cause & treatment are exactly opposite but the
> symptoms look the same! I
> think a little common sense would help: if you are
> not thirsty, do not drink.
>
> - Jed
>
>
>
Merlyn
Magickal Engineer and Technical Metaphysicist
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