Sip of the Day 💦: How to tell if you're consuming enough SODIUM
Sent June 2, 2023. Prices and features may have changed since.
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💦 Sip of the Day
with:
Michelle Howe | MS, RD, CSSD
SPORT DIETITIAN & PRO TRIATHLETE
What are some signs that I don’t have enough sodium during training?
Too many bathroom stops? Swollen fingers? Cardiac drift? Drinking lots, and still can't seem to quench your thirst?
Here are the most common signs of too little sodium.
A) More urination for the same amount of fluid intake during training. If you frequently need to stop your training to urinate, increasing your sodium intake is a really good idea.
OR,
B) Increased heart rate for the same power or pace, with adequate fluid intake. This happens because blood volume is not being retained. Sodium helps keep the water in your blood, where it should be. Without sodium, the water is going into urine and maybe other places due to low sodium in blood (one common place is your hands or feet!)
Why Sodium is the Electrolyte That Matters
OR,
C) Greater cardiac drift upwards for the same power, with reduced fluid intake, because of lower thirst. Sodium is necessary to drive thirst, especially when you feel like you're going to need to urinate soon!
OR, MORE RARELY,
D) If you are doing very high-carb fueling and have insufficient sodium you will have impaired carb absorption because of absence of sodium in the gut. Sodium is needed alongside sugars in the gut for the sugars to be absorbed efficiently. The absence of sodium creates a sugar back-up, and this can lead to gut distress.