Re: Salt Tablets?

John Dawson wrote:
On Sun, 18 Nov 2007 17:46:46 +0000, Peter Clinch
<p.j.clinch@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

John Dawson wrote:
Occasionally when I go out walking I suffer from cramp in my leg
muscles. On the most recent occasion I had been out for about five
hours had consumed plenty of Go electrolyte drink. A packet of salted
crisps sorted out the problem as it has done many times in the past.
On one previous occasion I tried a rehydration sachet but this did not
resolve the problem. It does appear to be a shortage of NaCl. I'm
going abroad next month on a walking holiday where I won't have access
to packets of crisps and I thought of taking salt tablets with me for
such an emergency, at least as a trial.
First time I came across mention of them was on a visit to the Grand Canyon, with all the notices about the dangers of dehydration saying *not* to use salt tablets, which rather suggests their use is deprecated these days.

There seems to be a wide misconception about why I want to take them
and how much I'm going to consume. In the past year I've suffered
cramp twice. The first time was on the Lakeland fells, resolved within
minutes with a packet of salted crisps, and second in the Pyrenees
where I appeared to solve the problem by adding salt to my main meals,
something I don't normally do. It may be that my salt intake is on the
low side and that this is the cause of the problem but the medics are
constantly warning about excess salt consumption and I don't feel
inclined to add salt I may not need. I'm going to sub-Saharan Africa.
I have no idea what the food will be like, or what the salt content
will be, or whether I'll be able to add salt if I feel I need it. What
I want to avoid is being out in the mountains, suffering cramp,
knowing what the likely solution is, and not having it available when
I need it. If I don't suffer cramp I won't need to take any of the
tablets at all, but I'd like them available.

John D.

John,

I too got severe cramp a few times in the Lakes when I had been using rehydration drinks *during* a walk. I never got cramp before I started using those drinks whilst walking, and never after I switched back to water. This is a purely empirical observation that I can't substantiate with theory but in my case the correlation was fairly convincing.

Stuart
.

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